ur malice disqualify ourselves to receive
it.

413. This dialogue of Valla's is excellent, even though one must take
exception to some points in it: but its chief defect is that it cuts the
knot and that it seems to condemn providence under the name of Jupiter,
making him almost the author of sin. Let us therefore carry the little
fable still further. Sextus, quitting Apollo and Delphi, seeks out Jupiter
at Dodona. He makes sacrifices and then he exhibits his complaints. Why
have you condemned me, O great God, to be wicked and unhappy? Change [370]
my lot and my heart, or acknowledge your error. Jupiter answers him: If you
will renounce Rome, the Parcae shall spin for you different fates, you
shall become wise, you shall be happy. SEXTUS--Why must I renounce the hope
of a crown? Can I not come to be a good king? JUPITER--No, Sextus; I know
better what is needful for you. If you go to Rome, you are lost. Sextus,
not being able to resolve upon so great a sacrifice, went forth from the
temple, and abandoned himself to his fate. Theodorus, the High Priest, who
had been present at the dialogue between God and Sextus, addressed these
words to Jupiter: Your wisdom is to be revered, O great Ruler of the Gods.
You have convinced this man of his error; he must henceforth impute his
unhappiness to his evil will; he has not a word to say. But your faithful
worshippers are astonished; they would fain wonder at your goodness as well
as at your greatness: it rested with you to give him a different will.
JUPITER--Go to my daughter Pallas, she will inform you what I was bound to
do.

414. Theodorus journeyed to Athens: he was bidden to lie down to sleep in
the temple of the Goddess. Dreaming, he found himself transported into an
unknown country. There stood a palace of unimaginable splendour and
prodigious size. The Goddess Pallas appeared at the gate, surrounded by
rays of dazzling majesty.

_Qualisque videri_
_Coelicolis et quanta solet._

She touched the face of Theodorus with an olive-branch, which she was
holding in her hand. And lo! he had become able to confront the divine
radiancy of the daughter of Jupiter, and of all that she should show him.
Jupiter who loves you (she said to him) has commended you to me to be
instructed. You see here the palace of the fates, where I keep watch and
ward. Here are representations not only of that which happens but also of
all that which is possible. Jupiter, having surveyed th