Excerpt from The Historical Library of Diodorus the Sicilian, in Fifteen Books, Vol. 1 of 2: To Which Are Added the Fragments of Diodorus, and Those Published by H. Valesius, I. Rhodomannus, and F. Ursinus What shall I say? In hopes of having the memory of their good acts recorded to posterity by historians, some have built cities, others have applied themselves to the promulgation of good and wholesome laws: many also, upon this account, have set their wits at work to invent arts and sciences for the good of mankind. And whereas complete happiness is made up of all perfections centering in one, history consequently is to bear away the prize, which is the cause of all those commendable and glorious effects; for it is most certain, she is the preserver of the virtues of worthy men in posterity; an eternal witness to the cowardice and impiety of others; and a bene factor to all mankind in general. For if a fine spun story, consisting merely of fictions told of things done among the Spirits below, tends much to the promoting of piety and justice, how much more then' About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.