416.  The halls rose in a pyramid, becoming even more beautiful as one mounted towards the apex, and representing more beautiful worlds.  Finally they reached the highest one which completed the pyramid, and which was the most beautiful of all:  for the pyramid had a beginning, but one could not see its end; it had an apex, but no base; it went on increasing to infinity.  That is (as the Goddess explained) because amongst an endless number of possible worlds there is the best of all, else would God not have determined to create any; but there is not any one which has not also less perfect worlds below it:  that is why the pyramid goes on descending to infinity.  Theodorus, entering this highest hall, became entranced in ecstasy; he had to receive succour from the Goddess, a drop of a divine liquid placed on his tongue restored him; he was beside himself for joy.  We are in the real true world (said the Goddess) and you are at the source of happiness.  Behold what Jupiter makes ready for you, if you continue to serve him faithfully.  Here is Sextus as he is, and as he will be in reality.  He issues from the temple in a rage, he scorns the counsel of the Gods.  You see him going to Rome, bringing confusion everywhere, violating the wife of his friend.  There he is driven out with his father, beaten, unhappy.  If Jupiter had placed here a Sextus happy at Corinth or King in Thrace, it would be no longer this world.  And nevertheless he could not have failed to choose this world, which surpasses in perfection all the others, and which forms the apex of the pyramid.  Else would Jupiter have renounced his wisdom, he would have banished me, me his daughter.  You see that my father did not make Sextus wicked; he was so from all [373] eternity, he was so always and freely.  My father only granted him the existence which his wisdom could not refuse to the world where he is included:  he made him pass from the region of the possible to that of the actual beings.  The crime of Sextus serves for great things:  it renders Rome free; thence will arise a great empire, which will show noble examples to mankind.  But that is nothing in comparison with the worth of this whole world, at whose beauty you will marvel, when, after a happy passage from this mortal state to another and better one, the Gods shall have fitted you to know it.

417.  At this moment Theodorus wakes up, he gives thanks to the Goddess, he owns the justice of Jupiter.  His spirit pervaded by what he has seen and heard, he carries on the office of High Priest, with all the zeal of a true servant of his God, and with all the joy whereof a mortal is capable.  It seems to me that this continuation of the tale may elucidate the difficulty which Valla did not wish to treat.  If Apollo has represented aright God’s knowledge of vision (that which concerns beings in existence), I hope that Pallas will have not discreditably filled the role of what is called knowledge of simple intelligence (that which embraces all that is possible), wherein at last the source of things must be sought.