he event determines what it should be. Shall I
make this more plain to you? Consider upon what frivolous things Camacha
declared our restoration to depend, and that what seems a prophecy to
you is nothing but a fable, or one of those old woman's tales, such as
the headless horse, and the wand of virtues, which are told by the
fireside in the long winter nights; for were it anything else it would
already have been accomplished, unless, indeed, it is to be taken in
what I have heard called an allegorical sense: that is to say, a sense
which is not the same as that which the letter imports, but which,
though differing from it, yet resembles it. Now for your
prophecy:--"They are to recover their true forms when they shall see the
exalted quickly brought low, and the lowly exalted by a hand that is
mighty to do it." If we take this in the sense I have mentioned, it
seems to me to mean that we shall recover our forms when we shall see
those who yesterday were at the top of fortune's wheel, to-day cast down
in the mire, and held of little account by those who most esteemed them;
so, likewise, when we shall see others who, but two hours ago, seemed
sent into the world only to figure as units in the sum of its
population, and now are lifted up to the very summit of prosperity. Now,
if our return, as you say, to human form, were to depend on this, why we
have already seen it, and we see it every hour. I infer, then, that
Camacha's words are to be taken, not in an allegorical, but in a
literal, sense; but this will help us out no better, since we have many
times seen what they say, and we are still dogs, as you see. And so
Carnacha was a cheat, Canizares an artful hag, and Montiela a fool and a
rogue--be it said without offence, if by chance she was the mother of us
both, or yours, for I won't have her for mine. Furthermore, I say that
the true meaning is a game of nine-pins, in which those that stand up
are quickly knocked down, and the fallen are set up again, and that by a
hand that is able to do it. Now think whether or not in the course of
our lives we have ever seen a game of nine-pins, or having seen it, have
therefore been changed into men.

_Berg._ I quite agree with you Scipio, and have a higher opinion of your
judgment than ever. From all you have said, I am come to think and
believe that all that has happened to us hitherto, and that is now
happening, is a dream; but let us not therefore fail to enjoy this
blessing of