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Thrice-Greatest   Hermes 


Thrice-Greatest  Hermes 

Studies  in  Hellenistic  Theosophy 
and  Gnosis 

Being    a     Translation     of    the     Extant    Sermons    and 

Fragments  of  the  Trismegistic  Literature,  with 

Prolegomena,  Commentaries,  and   Notes 


By 

G.   R.  S.    Mead 


Volume  II. — Sermons 


London  and  Benares 

The  Theosophical  Publishing  Society 

1906 


•y\ 


Contents 


/.    CORPUS  HERMETICUM 
CORP.  HERM.  I. 

PAGE 

PCEMANDRES,  THE  SHEPHERD  OF  MEN      .  3-20 

COMMENTARY — 

Of  Vision  and  Apocalypsis 20 

The  Great  and  Little  Man 23 

The  Presence          ...                  ....  24 

The  Vision  of  Creation 25 

The  Descent  of  the  Logos 27 

The  Revelation  of  the  Pleroma      .....  28 

The  Second  Emanation 33 

The  Descent  of  Man 34 

The  First  Men 37 

"  Increase  and  Multiply " 38 

Love ...  39 

The  Way  of  Deathlessneas 39 

The  Ascent  of  the  Soul 41 

The  Eighth  Sphere         ...                  ...  42 

The  Three  "  Bodies  "  of  the  Buddha       ....  44 

The  Preaching  of  the  Gnosis 47 

A  Hymn  of  Praise  and  Prayer  for  the  Gnosis         .         .  49 

The  Name  "  Poimandree  " 50 

The  Good  Shepherd 52 


vi  CONTENTS 

CORP.  HERM.  (II.) 

PAGE 

THE  GENERAL  SERMON              .  58 

CORP.  HERM.  II.  (III.)  • 

TO  ASCLEPIUS         .       .      59-68 
COMMENTARY — 

"An  Introduction  to  the  Gnosis  of  the  Nature  of  All 

Things" 68 

Space  is  a  Plenum 70 

The  Spouse  of  Deity 71 

God  is  Cause  that  Spirit  is 71 

He  who  is  without  a  Wife  is  Half  a  Man       ...  73 

CORP.  HERM.  III.  (IV.) 

THE  SACRED  SERMON        .      75-77 
COMMENTARY— 

Text  and  Title 78 

The  Trinity 78 

From  the  System  of  the  Nicolaitans       ....  79 

The  "Books  of  the  Chaldseans" 81 

The  "  Flood  »  83 


CORP.  HERM.  IV.  (V.) 

THE  CUP  OR  MONAD         .  85-91 

COMMENTARY — 

The  Title 92 

The  Baptism  of  the  Mind       ....  93 

The  Holy  Grail     .......  94 

The  "Hating  of  the  Body"    ......      95 

The  Gnosis  and  its  Blessings 97 

The  Ancient  Path  .  Q« 


CONTENTS  Vll 

CORP.  HERM.  V.  (VI.) 

PAGE 

THOUGH  UNMANIFEST  GOD  IS 

MOST  MANIFEST      .       .    99-106 

COMMENTARY — 

The  Title 106 

Maya .106 

The  Higher  Pantheism  or  Panmonism  ....     108 
Hymn  to  All-God 108 


CORP.  HERM.  VI.  (VII.) 

IN  GOD  ALONE  IS  GOOD  AND 

ELSEWHERE  NOWHERE       .  110-114 

COMMENTARY — 

The  Title       .  .115 

Dualism?       .  115 

God  the  Pleroma  of  Good  117 


CORP.  HERM.  VII.  (VIII.) 

THE  GREATEST  ILL  AMONG  MEN  IS 

IGNORANCE  OF  GOD  .       .  120-121 
COMMENTARY — 

A  Preaching 122 

The  Probable  Completion  of  an  Oxyrhynchus  Logion   .     122 


CORP.  HERM.  VIII.  (IX.) 

THAT    NO    ONE     OF     EXISTING     THINGS 
DOTH   PERISH,   BUT    MEN   IN   ERROR 
SPEAK    OF   THEIR   CHANGES   AS    DE- 
STRUCTIONS AND  AS  DEATHS       .  124-127 
COMMENTARY— 

The  Cosmos  as  "  Second  God  " 127 

The  Law  of  Apokatastasis 128 


CONTENTS 
CORP.  HERM.  XIV.  (XV.) 


PAGE 


A  LETTEK  TO  ASCLEPIUS     .  257-263 
COMMENTARY — 

Asclepius  and  Tat 263 

Compare  with  "  Mind  unto  Hermes "     .         %        .         .     265 
The  Good  Husbandman 265 


CORP.  HERM.  (XVI.) 

THE  DEFINITIONS  OF  ASCLEPIUS  UNTO 

KING  AMMON.       .       .  266-276 
COMMENTARY — 

The  Title 277 

A  Tradition  Concerning  the  Trismegistic  Literature      .  278 

A  Speculation  as  to  Date 281 

The  Delineation  of  the  Sun 282 

Concerning  the  Daimones 282 


CORP.  HERM.  (XVII.) 

OF  ASCLEPIUS  TO  THE  KING    .   285-286 
COMMENTARY — 

On  the  Adoration  of  Images 286 

CORP.  HERM.  (XVIII.) 

THE  ENCOMIUM  OF  KINGS    .   288-298 
COMMENTARY— 

The  Apology  of  a  Poemandrist 298 

Speculation  as  to  Date 299 

The  Story  of  the,  Pythic  Grasshopper    ....  300 

The  True  King 302 

The  Fellow-Rulers  of  the  Height  ....  302 


CONTENTS  XI 

PAGE 

//.  THE  PERFECT  SERMON;  OR 

THE  ASCLEPIUS      .       .  307-390 

COMMENTAET — 

The  Title 390 

The  Old  Latin  Translation  and  the  Greek  Original        .  391 

Of  the  Writer  and  the  Persons  of  the  Dialogue      .         .  393 

The  Doctrine  of  the  Will  of  God 395 

Concerning  Spirit  and  the  All-Sense     ....  396 

The  Prophetic  Utterances 398 

The  Proscription  of  the  Worship  of  the  Gods  399 
The  Last  Hope  of  the  Religion  of  the  Mind  .         .         .401 


I 

Corpus  Hermeticum 


,  J.OL.  II. 


COKPUS  HEKMETICUM  I. 


P(EMANDRES,  THE  SHEPHERD 

OF  MEN 

(Text:  R.  328-338;  P.  1-18;  Pat.  Sb-8.)1 

1.  IT  chanced  once  on  a  time  my  mind  was 
meditating  on  the  things  that  are,2  my  thought 
was  raised  to  a  great  height,  the  senses  of  my 
body  being  held  back — just  as  men  are  who  are 
weighed  down  with  sleep  after  a  fill  of  food,  or 
from  fatigue  of  body. 

Methought  a  Being  more  than  vast,  in  size 
beyond  all  bounds,  called  out  my  name  and 
saith  :  What  wouldst  thou  hear  and  see,  and 
what  hast  thou  in  mind  to  learn  and  know  ? 

2.  And  I  do  say  :  Who  art  thou  ? 

He  saith  :  I  am  Man- Shepherd,3  Mind  of  all- 

1  P.  =  Parthey  (G. ),  Hermetis   Trismegisti   Poemander  (Berlin  ; 
1854).     Pat.  =  Patrizzi  ( F.),  Nova  de  Universis  Philosophia  (Venice ; 
1593). 

2  TTfpl  TWV  &VTUV.  3 

3 


4  THRICE-GREATEST   HERMES 

masterhood l ;    I  know  what  thou  desirest  and 
I'm  with  thee  everywhere. 

3.  [And]  I  reply  :  I  long  to  learn  the  things 
that    are,    and    comprehend   their    nature,    and 
know  God.     This  is,   I  said,  what  I  desire  to 
hear. 

He  answered  back  to  me :  Hold  in  thy  mind 
all  thou  wouldst  know,  and  I  will  teach  thee. 

4.  E'en  with  these  words  His  aspect  changed,2 
and  straightway,  in  the  twinkling  of  an  eye,  all 
things  were  opened  to  me,  and  I  see  a  Vision 
limitless,  all  things  turned  into  Light, — sweet, 
joyous  [Light].     And  I  became  transported  as  I 
gazed. 

But  in  a  little  while  Darkness  came  settling 
down  on  part  [of  it],  awesome  and  gloomy, 
coiling  in  sinuous  folds,3  so  that  methought  it 
like  unto  a  snake.4 

And  then  the  Darkness  changed  into  some 
sort  of  a  Moist  Nature,  tossed  about  beyond  all 
power  of  words,  belching  out  smoke  as  from  a 

1  6  TT)S  avQevrias  vovs.    The  avQfvria  was  the  summa  potestas  of 
all  things ;  see  R.  8,  n.  1  ;  and  §  30  below.     Cf.  also  C.  H.,  xiii. 
(xiv.)  15. 

2  i]\\dyTi  rrj  ttef. 

3  crKo\ius  effirfipa/j.fvov.     The  sense   is  by  no   means   certain. 
Menard  translates  "  de  forme  sinueuse  "  ;  Everard,  "  coming  down 
obliquely " ;  Chambers,  "  sinuously  terminated."    But  c/.  in  the 
Sethiaii  system  "the  sinuous  Water" — that  is,   Darkness    (see 
Hipp.,  Philos.,  v.  19). 

4  Of.  Hipp.,  Pkilos.,  v.  9  (S.  170,  71)  :  "They  say  the  Serpent 
is  the  Moist  Essence." 


PCEMANDRES,    THE   SHEPHERD   OF   MEN  5 

fire,  and   groaning   forth  a  wailing  sound   that 
beggars  all  description. 

[And]  after  that  an  outcry  inarticulate  came 
forth  from  it,  as  though  it  were  a  Voice  of  Fire. 

5.  [Thereon]  out  of  the  Light  .  .  . l  a  Holy 
Word  (Logos) 2  descended  on  that  Nature.     And 
upwards  to  the  height  from  the  Moist  Nature 
leaped  forth  pure  Fire  ;  light  was  it,  swift  and 
active  too. 

The  Air,  too,  being  light,  followed  after  the 
Fire ;  from  out  the  Earth-and- Water  rising  up 
to  Fire  so  that  it  seemed  to  hang  therefrom. 

But  Earth-and- Water  stayed  so  mingled  each 
with  other,  that  Earth  from  Water  no  one  could 
discern.3  Yet  were  they  moved  to  hear  by  reason 
of  the  Spirit- Word  (Logos)  pervading  them. 

6.  Then   saith    to   me  Man-Shepherd :    Didst 
understand  this  Vision  what  it  means  ? 

Nay  ;  that  shall  I  know,  I  said. 

That  Light,  He  said,  am  I,  thy  God,  Mind, 
prior  to  Moist  Nature  which  appeared  from  Dark- 
ness ;  the  Light- Word  (Logos)  [that  appeared] 
from  Mind  is  Son  of  God. 

1  A  lacuna  of  six  letters  in  the  text. 

2  The  idea  of  the  Logos  was  the  central  concept  of  Hellenistic 
theology  ;    it  was  thus  a  word   of  many  meanings,  signifying 
chiefly  Reason  and  Word,  but  also  much  else.     I  have  accordingly 
throughout  added  the  term  Logos  after  the  English  equivalent 
most  suitable  to  the  context. 

3  Of.  II.,  vii.  99,  as  quoted  by  Apion  in  the  chapter  "  Concerning 
the  Mou  "  as  Comment,  on  C.  H.,  xi.  (xii.). 


6  THRICE-GREATEST   HERMES 

What  then  ?— say  I. 

Know  that  what  sees  in  thee  *  and  hears  is  the 
Lord's  Word  (Logos) ;  but  Mind  is  Father-God. 
Not  separate  are  they  the  one  from  other ;  just 
in  their  union  [rather]  is  it  Life  consists. 

Thanks  be  to  Thee,  I  said. 

So,  understand  the  Light  [He  answered],  and 
make  friends  with  it. 

7.  And  speaking  thus  He  gazed  for  long  into 
my  eyes,2  so  that  I  trembled  at  the  look  of  Him. 

But  when  He  raised  His  head,  I  see  in  Mind 
the  Light,  [but]  now  in  Powers  no  man  could 
number,  and  Cosmos 3  grown  beyond  all  bounds, 
and  that  the  Fire  was  compassed  round  about 
by  a  most  mighty  Power,  and  [now]  subdued 
had  come  unto  a  stand. 

And  when  I  saw  these  things  I  understood  by 
reason  of  Man- Shepherd's  Word  (Logos). 

8.  But  as  I  was  in   great   astonishment,  He 
saith  to  me  again  :  Thou  didst  behold  in  Mind 
the   Archetypal   Form   whose   being    is    before 
beginning   without   end.      Thus   spake    to    me 
Man-Shepherd. 

And  I  say:  Whence  then  have  Nature's 
elements  their  being? 

To  this  He  answer  gives  :  From  Will  of  God. 

1  That  is,  in  vision.  2  ^  £  H^  xi>  (xii )  6 

3  it6fffjLov.    The  word  kosmos  (world-order)  means  either  "  order  " 

or  "  world  "  ;  and  in  the  original  there  is  frequently  a  play  upon 

the  two  meanings,  as  in  the  case  of  logos. 


PGBMANDRES,    THE    SHEPHERD    OF    MEN  7 

[Nature *]  received  the  Word  (Logos),  and  gazing 
on  the  Cosmos  Beautiful2  did  copy  it,  making 
herself  into  a  cosmos,  by  means  of  her  own 
elements  and  by  the  births  of  souls. 

9.  And  God-the-Mind,  being  male  and  female 
both,    as   Light   and    Life    subsisting,    brought 
forth   another  Mind  to  give  things  form,   who, 
God  as  he  was  of  Fire  and  Spirit,3  formed  Seven 
Rulers  who  enclose  the  cosmos  that   the    sense 
perceives.4     Men  call  their  ruling  Fate.5 

10.  Straightway     from     out    the     downward 
elements  God's  Reason   (Logos)6   leaped   up   to 
Nature's  pure  formation,  and  was  at-oned  with 
the    Formative    Mind;    for   it    was  co-essential 
with    it.7      And   Nature's    downward    elements 
were  thus  left  reason-less,  so  as  to  be  pure  matter. 

11.  Then  the  Formative  Mind  ([at-oned]  with 
Reason),  he  who  surrounds  the  spheres  and  spins 
them  with  his  whirl,  set  turning  his  formations, 
and  let  them  turn  from  a  beginning  boundless 
unto  an  endless  end.     For  that  the  circulation 

1  Nature  and  God's  Will  are  identical. 

2  That  is,  the  ideal  world-order  in  the  realms  of  reality. 

3  Presumably  the  Pure  Air  of  §  3. 

4  rl>v  cuVflTjT&v  K^IJLOV.     The  sensible  or  manifested  world,  our 
present  universe,  as  distinguished  from  the  ideal  eternal  universe, 
the  type  of  all  universes. 

5  fifj.apiJ.fVTj. 

6  The  Logos  which  had  previously  descended  into  Nature. 

7  6/ioouo-tos,  usually  translated  "  consubstantial "  ;   but  oitala  is 
"  essence  "  and  "  being  "  rather  than  "  substance." 


8  THRICE-GREATEST   HERMES 

of  these  [spheres]  begins  where  it  doth  end,  as 
Mind  doth  will. 

And  from  the  downward  elements  Nature 
brought  forth  lives  reason-less ;  for  He  did  not 
extend  the  Keason  (Logos)  [to  them].  The 
Air  brought  forth  things  winged;  the  Water 
things  that  swim,  and  Earth-and- Water  one 
from  another  parted,  as  Mind  willed.  And 
from  her  bosom  Earth  produced  what  lives  she 
had,  four-footed  things  and  reptiles,  beasts  wild 
and  tame. 

12.  But    All-Father    Mind,    being    Life   and 
Light,  did  bring  forth  Man l  co-equal  to  Himself, 
with  whom  He  fell  in  love,  as  being   His  own 
child ;   for   he  was   beautiful    beyond    compare, 
the  Image  of  his  Sire.     In  very  truth,  God  fell 
in  love  with  His  own  Form 2 ;  and  on  him  did 
bestow  all  of  His  own  formations. 

13.  And    when    he    gazed    upon    what    the 
Enformer  had  created  in  the  Father,  [Man]  too 
wished   to   enform  ;   and  [so]  assent  was  given 
him  by  the  Father.3 

Changing  his  state  to  the  formative  sphere,4 
in  that  he  was  to  have  his  whole  authority,5  he 

1  The  Prototype,  Cosmic,  Ideal  or  Perfect  Man. 
3  Or  Beauty  (pop^s). 

3  Of.  The  Gospel  of  Mary  in  the  Akhmim  Codex  :  "  He  nodded, 
and  when  He  had  thus  nodded  assent  .  .  .  ."  (F.  F.  F.,  586). 

4  The  Eighth  Sphere  bounding  the  Seven. 

6  For  note  on  c|oi,<r/a,  see  R.  in  loc.  and  48,  n.  3. 


PCEMANDRES,    THE   SHEPHERD    OF   MEN  9 

gazed  upon  his  Brother's  creatures.1  They  fell 
in  love  with  him,  and  gave  him  each  a  share 
of  his  own  ordering.2 

And  after  that  he  had  well-learned  their 
essence  and  had  become  a  sharer  in  their  nature, 
he  had  a  mind  to  break  right  through  the 
Boundary  of  their  spheres,  and  to  subdue 3  the 
might  of  that  which  pressed  upon  the  Fire.* 

14.  So  he  who  hath  the  whole  authority  o'er 
[all]  the  mortals  in  the  cosmos  and  o'er  its  lives 
irrational,  bent  his  face  downwards  through 5  the 
Harmony,6  breaking  right  through  its  strength, 
and  showed  to  downward  Nature  God's  fair  Form. 

And  when  she  saw  that  Form  of  beauty  which 
can  never  satiate,  and  him  who  [now]  possessed 
within  himself  each  single  energy  of  [all  seven] 
Rulers  as  well  as  God's  [own]  Form,  she  smiled 
with  love  ;  for  'twas  as  though  she'd  seen  the 
image  of  Man's  fairest  form  upon  her  Water,  his 
shadow  on  her  Earth. 

1  That  is  the  Seven  Spheres  fashioned  by  his  Brother. 

2  T<(£IS,  rank  or  order. 

3  Or   "  wear  down "  (Karairovrjo-cu).      The    reading   Karavoriffai, 
however,   may   be   more  correct  ;   "  he  had  a  mind   to  come  to 
knowledge  of"  this  Boundary  or  Ring  Pass  not.     See  R.  49,  n.  1. 

4  Sc.  the  Mighty  Power  of  §  9. 

5  *apc'fci46y.     Cf.  Cyril,  C.  /.,  i.  33  (Frag,  xiii.)  ;  R.  50  :  "  beugt 
sich  .  .  .  nieder"     But  compare  especially  Plato,  Phcedrus,  249,  c., 
where  he  speaks  of  the  soul  "  raising  up  her  face  (O.VO.K itya<ra)  to  That 
which  is."     Cf.  also  Apion  in  Clement.  Horn.,  vi.  4,  in  Comment. 
C.  #.,  xi.  (xii.) 

6  That  is,  the  harmonious  interplay,  concord  or  system  of  the 
spheres  ruled  by  the  Rulers  ;  in  other  words,  the  cosmos  of  Fate. 


10  THRICE-GREATEST   HERMES 

He  in  his  turn  beholding  the  form  like  to 
himself,  existing  in  her,  in  her  Water,  loved  it 
and  willed  to  live  in  it  ;  and  with  the  will  came 
act,1  and  [so]  he  vivified  the  form  devoid  of 
reason. 

And  Nature  took  the  object  of  her  love  and 
wound  herself  completely  round  him,  and  they 
were  intermingled,  for  they  were  lovers. 

15.  And  this  is  why  beyond  all  creatures  on 
the   earth   man   is  twofold  ;   mortal  because  of 
body,  but  because  of  the  essential  Man  immortal. 

Though  deathless  and  possessed  of  sway  o'er 
all,  yet  doth  he  suffer  as  a  mortal  doth,  subject 
to  Fate. 

Thus  though  above  the  Harmony,  within  the 
Harmony  he  hath  become  a  slave.  Though 
male-female,2  as  from  a  Father  male-female,  and 
though  he's  sleepless  from  a  sleepless  [Sire],  yet 
is  he  overcome  [by  sleep]. 

16.  Thereon  [I  say  :  Teach  on],3  0  Mind  of 
me,  for  I  myself  as  well*  am  amorous  of  the 
Word  (Logos). 

The  Shepherd  said  :  This  is  the  mystery  kept 
hid  until  this  day. 


,  energy,  and  realization. 

2  That  is  "  a-sexual  "  but  having  the  potentiality  of  both  sexes. 

3  For  the  various  suggestions  for  filling  up  this  lacuna,  see  R. 
in  loc.  ;  and  for  that  of  Keil,  see  R.  367. 

4  Sc.  as  well  as  Nature. 


PCEMANDRES,    THE    SHEPHERD   OF    MEN         11 

Nature  embraced  by  Man  brought  forth  a 
wonder,  oh  so  wonderful.  For  as  he  had  the 
nature  of  the  Concord 1  of  the  Seven,  who,  as  I 
said  to  thee,  [were  made]  of  Fire  and  Spirit 2 — 
Nature  delayed  not,  but  immediately  brought 
forth  seven  "  men,"  in  correspondence  with  the 
natures  of  the  Seven,  male-female  and  moving 
in  the  air.3 

Thereon  [I  said]:  0  Shepherd,  .  .  . 4 ;  for 
now  I'm  filled  with  great  desire  and  long  to  hear  ; 
do  not  run  off.6 

The  Shepherd  said :  Keep  silence,  for  not  as  yet 
have  I  unrolled  for  thee  the  first  discourse  (logos). 

Lo !  I  am  still,  I  said. 

17.  In  such  wise  then,  as  I  have  said,  the  J 
generation  of  these  seven  came  to  pass.  Earth 
was  as  woman,  her  Water  filled  with  longing ; 
ripeness  she  took  from  Fire,  spirit  from  Miher. 
Nature  thus  brought  forth  frames  to  suit  the 
form  of  Man. 

And  Man  from  Life  and  Light  changed  into 
soul  and  mind, — from  Life  to  soul,  from  Light 
to  mind. 

And    thus    continued    all    the    sense-world's 


1  Harmony.  2  gee  g  9 

3  fj.(rapfftovs.    A  term  that  must  have  a  more  definite  meaning 
than  the  vague  "sublime"  by  which  it  is  generally  translated. 

4  For  Keil's  completion  of  the  lacuna,  see  R.  368. 

5  /j.^1  enrptxe,  perhaps  meaning  diverge  from  the  subject,  or  go 
too  fast ;  lit.,  it  means  "  do  not  run  away." 


12  THRICE-GREATEST    HERMES 

parts1  until  the  period  of  their  end  and  new 
beginnings. 

18.  Now  listen  to  the  rest   of  the   discourse 
(logos)  which  thou  dost  long  to  hear. 

The  period  being  ended,  the  bond  that  bound 
them  all  was  loosened  by  God's  Will.  For  all 
the  animals  being  male-female,  at  the  same  time 
with  man  were  loosed  apart ;  some  became  partly 
male,  some  in  like  fashion  [partly]  female.  And 
straightway  God  spake  by  His  Holy  Word 
(Logos) : 

"  Increase  ye  in  increasing,  and  multiply  in 
multitude,  ye  creatures  and  creations  all ;  and 
man  that  hath  Mind  in  him,  let  him  learn  to 
know  that  he  himself  is  deathless,  and  that  the 
cause  of  death  is  love,2  though  Love  is  all." 3 

19.  When  He  said  this,  His  Forethought4  did 
by  means   of  Fate   and   Harmony    effect   their 
couplings  and  their  generations  founded.     And 
so  all  things  were  multiplied  according  to  their 
kind. 

And  he  who  thus  hath  learned  to  know  himself, 
hath  reached  that  Good  which  doth  transcend 
abundance;  but  he  who  through  a  love  that 
leads  astray,  expends  his  love  upon  his  body, — 

1  That  is,  the  parts  of  what  Hermes  elsewhere  calls  the  "  cosmic 
man." 

2  Of.  C.  H.,  xvi.  16.  3  Omitting  the  rA  before  fora. 

,  that  is  Nature  as  Sophia  or  Providence  or  Will. 


PCEMANDRES,    THE   SHEPHERD   OF   MEN         13 

he  stays  in  Darkness  wandering,1  and  suffering 
through  his  senses  things  of  Death. 

20.  What  is  the  so  great  fault,   said  I,   the 
ignorant  commit,  that  they  should  be  deprived  of 
deathlessness  ? 

Thou  seem'st,  he  said,  0  thou,  not  to  have 
given  heed  to  what  thou  heardest.  Did  not  I 
bid  thee  think? 

Yea  do  I  think,  and  I  remember,  and  therefore 
give  Thee  thanks. 

If  thou  didst  think  [thereon],  [said  He],  tell 
me  :  Why  do  they  merit  death  who  are  in  Death  ? 

It  is  because  the  gloomy  Darkness  is  the  root 
and  base  of  the  material  frame  ;  from  it  2  came 
the  Moist  Nature  ;  from  this  3  the  body  in  the 
sense-world  was  composed  ;  and  from  this  [body] 
Death  doth  the  Water  drain. 

21.  Eight  was  thy  thought,  0  thou  !     But  how 
doth  "  he  who  knows  himself,  go  unto  Him,"  as 
God's  Word  (Logos)  hath  declared  ? 

And  I  reply  :  the  Father  of  the  universals  doth 
consist  of  Light  and  Life,  and  from  Him  Man 
was  born. 

Thou  sayest  well,  [thus]  speaking.  Light  and 
Life  is  Father-God,  and  from  Him  Man  was 
born. 

If  then  thou  learnest  that  thou  art  thyself  of 


1  There  is  a  word-play  between  irxdvrjs  and 

2  Sc.  Darkness.  3  Sc.  The  Moist  Nature. 


14  THRICE-GREATEST   HERMES 

Life  and  Light,  and  that  them  [only]  happen  st 
to  be  out  of  them,  thou  shalt  return  again  to  Life. 
Thus  did  Man-Shepherd  speak. 

But  tell  me  further,  Mind  of  me,  I  cried,  how 
shall  /  come  to  Life  again  ....  for  God  doth 
say  :  "  The  man  who  hath  Mind  in  him,  let  him 
learn  to  know  that  he  himself  [is  deathless]." 

22.  Have  not  all  men  then  Mind  ? 

Thou  sayest  well,  0  thou,  thus  speaking.  I, 
Mind,  myself  am  present  with  holy  men  and  good, 
the  pure  and  merciful,  men  who  live  piously. 

[To  such]  my  presence  doth  become  an  aid, 
and  straightway  they  gain  gnosis  of  all  things, 
and  win  the  Father's  love  by  their  pure  lives, 
and  give  Him  thanks,  invoking  on  Him  blessings, 
and  chanting  hymns,  intent  on  Him  with  ardent 
love. 

And  ere  they  give  the  body  up  unto  its  proper 
death,  they  turn  them  with  disgust  from  its 
sensations,  from  knowledge  of  what  things  they 
operate.1  Nay,  it  is  I,  the  Mind,  that  will  not 
let  the  operations  which  befall  the  body,  work  to 
their  [natural]  end.  For  being  door-keeper  I'll 
close  up  [all]  the  entrances,  and  cut  the  mental 
actions  off  which  base  and  evil  energies  induce. 

23.  But  to  the  Mind-less  ones,  the  wicked  and 
depraved,  the  envious  and  covetous,  and  those 
who  murder  do  and  love  impiety,  I  am  far  off, 

1  fibres  ctvroav  rk 


PCEMANDRES,    THE    SHEPHERD   OF   MEN         15 

yielding  my  place  to  the  Avenging  Daimon, 
who  sharpening  the  fire,  tormenteth  him  and 
addeth  fire  to  fire  upon  him,  and  rusheth  on  him 
through  his  senses,  thus  rendering  him  the  readier 
for  transgressions  of  the  law,  so  that  he  meets  with 
greater  torment ;  nor  doth  he  ever  cease  to  have 
desire  for  appetites  inordinate,  insatiately  striving 
in  the  dark.1 

24.  Well  hast  thou  taught  me  all,  as  I  desired, 
0  Mind.     And  now,  pray,  tell  me  further  of  the 
nature  of  the  Way  Above  .as  now  it  is  [for  me].2 

To  this  Man-Shepherd  said :  When  thy  material 
body  is  to  be  dissolved,  first  thou  surrenderest 
the  body  by  itself  unto  the  work  of  change,  and 
thus  the  form  thou  hadst  doth  vanish,  and  thou 
surrenderest  thy  way  of  life,3  void  of  its  energy, 
unto  the  Daimon.4  The  body's  senses  next  pass 
back  into  their  sources,  becoming  separate,  and 
resurrect  as  energies ;  and  passion  and  desire 5 
withdraw  unto  that  nature  which  is  void  of 
reason. 

25.  And  thus  it  is  that  man  doth  speed  his 
way  thereafter  upwards  through  the  Harmony. 

1  The  text  of  this  paragraph  is  hopelessly  confused  in  the  MSS. 

2  IT* pi  TT/J  av6$ov  TTJS  yivo/jLfvrjs. 

3  rb  $605,  the  "  habitual "  part  of  man,  presumably  way  of  life 
impressed  by  habit  on  the  body  ;  or  it  may  be  "  class "  of  life 
as  in  the  Vision  of  Er. 

4  Cf.  G.  H.,  x.  (xi.)  16. 

6  6  6vfjit>s  Kal  -ft  tiriOvfjLla, — the  masculine  and  feminine  as  positive 
and  negative  aspects  of  the  "  animal  soul." 


16  THRICE-GREATEST   HERMES 

To  the  first  zone  he  gives  the  Energy  of 
Growth  and  Waning ;  unto  the  second  [zone], 
Device  of  Evils  [now]  de-energized  l ;  unto  the 
third,  the  Guile  of  the  Desires  de-energized; 
unto  the  fourth,  his  Domineering  Arrogance, 
[also]  de-energized ;  unto  the  fifth,  unholy 
Daring  and  the  Kashness  of  Audacity,  de- 
energized  ;  unto  the  sixth,  Striving  for  Wealth 
by  evil  means,  deprived  of  its  aggrandisement ; 
and  to  the  seventh  zone,  Ensnaring  Falsehood, 
de-energized.2 

26.  And  then,  with  all  the  energizings  of  the 
Harmony  stript  from  him,  clothed  in  his  proper 
Power,  he  cometh  to  that  Nature  which  belongs 
unto  the  Eighth,3  and  there  with  those-that-are 
hymneth  the  Father. 

They  who  are  there  welcome  his  coming  there 
with  joy;  and  he,  made  like  to  them  that 
sojourn  there,  doth  further  hear  the  Powers  who 
are  above  the  Nature  that  belongs  unto  the 
Eighth,  singing  their  songs  of  praise  to  God  in 
language  of  their  own. 

And  then  they,  in  a  band,4  go  to  the  Father 
home  ;  of  their  own  selves  they  make  surrender 
of  themselves  to  Powers,  and  [thus]  becoming 
Powers  they  are  in  God.  This  the  good  end  for 

1  luvvtrrnrov.  *  Cf.  G.  H.,  xiii.  (xiv.)  7. 

3  Cf.  G.  #.,  xiii.  (xiv.)  15. 

4  T«££ei,  order,  group,  sc.  of  the  Nine  ; — the  Father  being  the 
Ten,  or  consummation. 


PCEMANDRES,    THE    SHEPHERD   OF   MEN         17 

those  who  have  gained  Gnosis — to  be  made  one 
with  God. 

Why  shouldst  thou  then  delay?  Must  it 
not  be,  since  thou  hast  all  received,  that  thou 
shouldst  to  the  worthy  point  the  way,  in  order 
that  through  thee  the  race  of  mortal  kind  may 
by  [thy]  God  be  saved  ? 

27.  This     when     He'd     said,    Man -Shepherd 
mingled  with  the  Powers.1 

But  I,  with  thanks  and  blessings  unto  the 
Father  of  the  universal  [Powers],  was  freed,  full 
of  the  power  He  had  poured  into  me,  and  full  of 
what  He'd  taught  me  of  the  nature  of  the  All  and 
of  the  loftiest  Vision. 

And  I  began  to  preach  to  men  the  Beauty  of 
Devotion  and  of  Gnosis  : 

0  ye  people,  earth-born  folk,  ye  who  have 
given  yourselves  to  drunkenness  and  sleep  and 
ignorance  of  God,  be  sober  now,  cease  from  your 
surfeit,  cease  to  be  glamoured  by  irrational 
sleep 2 ! 

28.  And    when   they  heard,  they  came   with 
one  accord.     Whereon  I  say  : 

1  Cf.  K.  K.,  25  :   "  Thus  speaking  God  became  Imperishable 
Mind." 

2  Cf.  the  logos,  "  Jesus  saith,  I  stood  in  the  midst  of  the  world, 
and  in  the  flesh  was  I  seen  of  them,  and  I  found  all  men  drunken, 
and  none  found  I  athirst  among  them,  and  my  soul  grieveth  over 
the  sons  of  men,  because  they  are  blind  in  heart."     Sayings  of  Our 
Lord  from  an  Early  Greek  Papyrus,  Qrenfell  &  Hunt  (London  ; 
1897). 

VOL.  II.  2 


18  THRICE-GREATEST    HERMES 

Ye  earth-born  folk,  why  have  ye  given  up 
yourselves  to  Death,  while  yet  ye  have  the  power 
of  sharing  Deathlessness  ?  Repent,  0  ye,  who 
walk  with  Error  arm  in  arm  and  make  of  Ignor- 
ance the  sharer  of  your  board  ;  get  ye  from  out 
the  light  of  Darkness,  and  take  your  part  in 
Deathlessness,  forsake  Destruction ! 

29.  And  some  of  them  with  jests  upon  their 
lips l  departed  [from  me],  abandoning  themselves 
unto  the  Way  of  Death  ;  others  entreated  to  be 
taught,  casting  themselves  before  my  feet. 

But  I  made  them  arise,  and  I  became  a  leader 
of  the  Race 2  towards  home,  teaching  the  words 
(logoi),  how  and  in  what  way  they  shall  be  saved. 
I  sowed  in  them  the  words  (logoi)  of  wisdom 8 ;  of 
Deathless  Water  were  they  given  to  drink.* 

And  when  even  was  come  and  all  sun's  beams 
began  to  set,  I  bade  them  all  give  thanks  to 
God.  And  when  they  had  brought  to  an  end 
the  giving  of  their  thanks,  each  man  returned  to 
his  own  resting  place. 

30.  But  I  recorded  in  my  heart  Man -Shepherd's 
benefaction,  and  with   my  every  hope   fulfilled 
more   than   rejoiced.     For   body's  sleep  became 

1  Of.  P  .s.  A.,  xii.  2. 

2  The  Race  of  the  Logos,  of  all  who  were  conscious  of  the  Logos 
in  their  hearts,  who  had  repented  and  were  thus  logoi. 

3  Cf.  Mark  iv.  4  :  "He  who  soweth  soweth  the  Word  (Logos)" 

4  Cf.  K.  K.y  1— the  drink  given  by  Isis  to  Horus. 


PCEMANDRES,   THE    SHEPHERD    OF   MEN         19 

the  soul's  awakening,1  and  closing  of  the  eyes — 
true  vision,  pregnant  with  Good  my  silence,  and 
the  utterance  of  my  word  (logos)  begetting  of 
good  things. 

All  this  befell  me  from  my  Mind,  that  is  Man- 
Shepherd,  Word  (Logos)  of  all  masterhood,2  by 
whom  being  God-inspired  I  came  unto  the  Plain 
of  Truth.3  Wherefore  with  all  my  soul  and 
strength  thanksgiving4  give  I  unto  Father-God. 

31.  Holy  art  Thou,  0  God,  the  universals' 
Father. 

Holy  art  Thou,  0  God,  whose  Will  perfects 
itself  by  means  of  its  own  Powers. 

Holy  art  Thou,  0  God,  who  willeth  to  be 
known  and  art  known  by  Thine  own. 

Holy  art  Thou,  who  didst  by  Word  (Logos) 
make  to  consist  the  things  that  are. 

Holy  art  Thou,  of  whom  All-nature  hath  been 
made  an  Image. 

Holy  art  Thou,  whose  Form  Nature  hath  never 
made. 

Holy  art  Thou,  more  powerful  than  all  power. 

Holy  art  Thou,  transcending  all  pre-eminence. 

Holy  Thou  art,  Thou  better  than  all  praise. 

1  vrjtyis,  lit.  soberness,  watchfulness,  lucidity. 

2  See  §  2  above. 

3  Of.  K.  K.  (Stob.,  EC.,  i.  49  ;  p.  459,  20,  W.),  and  Damascius, 
in  Phot.,  Bibl,  p.  337b,  23. 

4  eii\oy(av, — a  play  on  \6yos. 


20  THRICE-GREATEST   HERMES 

Accept  my  reason's l  offerings  pure,  from  soul 
and  heart  for  aye  stretched  up  to  Thee,  0  Thou 
unutterable,  unspeakable,  Whose  Name  naught 
but  the  Silence  can  express. 

32.  Give  ear  to  me  who  pray  that  I  may  ne'er 
of  Gnosis  fail,  [Gnosis]  which  is  our  common 
Being's  nature 2 ;  and  fill  me  with  Thy  Power,  and 
with  this  Grace  [of  Thine],  that  I  may  give  the 
Light  to  those  in  ignorance  of  the  Race,  my 
Brethren,  and  Thy  Sons. 

For  this  cause  I  believe,  and  I  bear  witness ;  I 
go  to  Life  and  Light.  Blessed  art  Thou,  0 
Father.  Thy  Man 3  would  holy  be  as  Thou  art 
holy,  e'en  as  Thou  gavesfc  him  Thy  full  authority 4 
[to  be]. 


COMMENTAEY 

OF  VISION  AND  APOCALYPSIS 

The  "  Poemandres "  treatise  not  only  belongs  to  the 
most  important  type  of  the  Trismegistic  literature,  but 
is  also  the  most  important  document  within  that  type. 
It  constitutes,  so  to  speak,  the  Ground-Gospel  of  the 
Poemandres  Communities,  in  the  form  of  a  revelation 
or  apocalypse  received  by  the  founder  of  the  tradition, 

1  \oyitcds. 

2  rris  yvaxrews  TTJS  «OT'  ovtrlav  ^/AWJ/,  "  our  being,"  that  is,  presum- 
ably, the  "  being  "  of  man  and  God,  the  "  being  "  which  man  shares 
with  God. 

3  Cf.  G.  H.,  xiii.  (xiv.)  20.  4 


PCEMANDRES,    THE    SHEPHERD   OF   MEN         21 

that  founder,  however,  being  not  a  historical  personage 
but  the  personification  of  a  teaching-power  or  grade  of 
spiritual  illumination — in  other  words,  of  one  who  had 
reached  the  "  Hermes,"  or  rather  "  Thrice-greatest,"  state 
of  consciousness  or  enlightenment. 

This  stage  of  enlightenment  was  characterized  by  a 
heightening  of  the  spiritual  intuition  which  made  the 
mystic  capable  of  receiving  the  first  touch  of  cosmic 
consciousness,  and  of  retaining  it  in  his  physical 
memory  when  he  returned  to  the  normal  state. 

The  setting  forth  of  the  teaching  is  thus  naturally  in 
the  form  of  apocalyptic,  and  of  apocalyptic  of  an  ordered 
and  logical  nature ;  for  it  purports  to  be  a  setting  forth 
of  the  spiritual  "  Epopteia  "  of  the  Inner  Mysteries,  the 
Vision  revealed  by  the  Great  Initiator  or  Master- 
Hierophant,  Mind  of  all-masterhood. 

This  Vision,  as  we  are  told  by  many  seers  and 
prophets  of  the  time,  was  incapable  of  being  set  forth  by 
"  tongue  of  flesh  "  in  its  own  proper  terms,  seeing  that 
it  transcended  the  consciousness  of  normal  humanity. 
Being  in  itself  a  living,  potent,  intelligible  reality,  apart 
from  all  forms  either  material  or  intellectual  in 
any  way  known  to  man,  it  pervaded  his  very  being 
and  made  his  whole  nature  respond  to  a  new  key  of 
truth,  or  rather,  vibrate  in  a  higher  octave,  so  to  say, 
where  all  things,  while  remaining  the  same,  received  a 
new  interpretation  and  intensity. 

The  interpretation  of  this  Vision,  however,  was 
conditioned  by  the  "  matter "  of  each  seer ;  he  it  was 
who  had  to  clothe  the  naked  beauty  of  the  Truth — 
as  the  Gnostic  Marcus  would  have  phrased  it — with 
the  fairest  garment  he  himself  possessed,  the  highest 
thoughts,  the  best  science,  the  fairest  traditions,  the 
most  grandiose  imagination  known  to  him.  Thus  it  is 
that  we  have  so  many  modes  of  expression  among  the 


22  THRICE-GREATEST   HERMES 

mystics  of  the  time,  so  many  varieties  of  spiritual 
experience  —  not  because  the  experience  itself  was 
"  other,"  the  experience  was  the  "  same  "  for  all,  but  the 
speaking  of  it  forth  was  conditioned  by  the  religious 
and  philosophical  and  scientific  heredity  of  the  seer. 

This  element,  then,  is  the  basic  fact  in  all  such 
apocalyptic.  It  is,  however,  seldom  that  we  meet  with 
a  document  that  has  come  to  us  straight  from  the  hand 
of  a  seer  writing  down  his  own  immediate  experience 
without  admixture ;  for  the  delight  of  the  Vision  was 
/not  that  it  gave  new  facts  or  ideas  of  the  same  nature 
as  those  already  in  circulation,  but  that  it  threw  light 
on  existing  traditions,  and  showed  them  forth  as  being 
parts  of  a  whole.  Once  the  man  had  come  into  touch 
with  the  Great  Synthesis,  there  rushed  into  his  mind 
innumerable  passages  of  scripture,  scraps  of  myths, 
fragments  of  cosmogenesis,  logoi  and  logia,  and  symbols 
of  all  kinds  that  fitted  naturally.  These  were  not  any 
special  writer's  monopoly,  there  was  no  copyright  in 
them,  they  were  all  utterances  of  the  same  Logos,  the 
Great  Instructor  of  humanity. 

Thus  the  literature  that  was  produced  was  anony- 
mous or  pseudepigraphic.  There  was  first  of  all  a 
nucleus  of  personal  vision  and  direct  illumination, 
then  a  grouping  of  similar  matter  from  various 
sources  into  a  whole  for  didactic  purposes.  Nor  was 
there  any  idea  among  these  mystics  and  scripture- 
writers  that  the  form  once  issued  should  become  for 
ever  stereotyped  as  inerrant;  there  were  many  re- 
censions and  additions  and  interpolations.  It  was  left 
to  those  without  the  sense  of  illumination  to  stereotype 
the  forms  and  claim  for  them  the  inerrancy  of  verbal 
dictation  by  the  Deity.  Those  who  wrote  the 
apocalypses  from  personal  knowledge  of  vision  could 
not  make  such  claim  for  their  scriptures,  for  they  knew 


PCEMANDRES,    THE   SHEPHERD   OF   MEN         23 

how  they  were  written,  and  what  was  the  nature  of 
hearing  and  sight. 

We  have  accordingly  to  treat  all  such  documents  as 
natural  human  compositions,  but  while  doing  so,  while 
on  the  one  side  analyzing  them  with  microscopic 
attention  as  literary  compositions,  put  together  from 
other  sources,  over-written,  redacted  and  interpolated, 
we  have  also,  on  the  other,  to  bear  in  mind  that  this 
was  not  done  by  clever  manipulators  and  literary 
charlatans,  but  by  men  who  regarded  such  work  as  a 
holy  and  spiritual  task,  who  endeavoured  to  arrange  all 
under  the  inspiration  of  a  sweet  influence  for  good, 
who  believed  themselves  under  guidance  in  their 
selection  of  matter,  and  in  recombining  the  best  in 
other  scriptures  into  a  new  whole  that  might  prove 
still  better  for  the  purpose  of  further  enlightenment 
suitable  to  their  immediate  environment. 

The  "  Poemandres  "  treatise  is  of  this  nature — that  is 
to  say,  though  we  have  not  the  original  form  before 
us,  we  have  what  was  intended  to  be  read  as  a  single 
document.  We  shall  accordingly  endeavour  in  our 
comments  not  to  allow  the  anomalies  of  its  outer  form 
to  detract  from  our  appreciation  of  its  inner  spirit,  and 
yet,  on  the  other  hand,  not  to  permit  the  beauty  of  much 
that  is  in  it  to  blind  us  to  the  fact  that  the  present 
form  has  evolved  from  simpler  beginnings. 

THE  GREAT  AND  LITTLE  MAN 

1.  In  deep  meditation  the  disciple  reaches  the  con- 
summation of  his  efforts,  and  receives  initiation  from 
the  Master  of  the  masters,  who  is  to  confer  upon  him 
authority  (e£ova-iav — see  §  32)  to  teach,  that  is,  to  be 
a  master  or  a  Hermes. 

2.  That  this  Grand  Master  of  the  Inner  Mysteries 


24  THRICE-GREATEST   HERMES 

was  Man  and  Shepherd  of  men,  the  Very  Self  of  men, 
has  been  amply  shown  in  the  Prolegomena,  but  the 
striking  parallelism  with  the  very  wording  of  our  text, 
the  Great  Man,  the  "  Being  more  than  vast,"  who  tells 
the  little  man,  that  though  for  the  first  time  he  now 
knows  his  Greater  Self,  that  Self  has  ever  been  "  every- 
where with  thee,"  is  best  shown  by  the  beautiful  logos 
from  the  Gospel  of  Eve  (presumably  an  Egyptian  gospel), 
which  we  have  already  quoted  elsewhere l : 

"I  stood  on  a  lofty  mountain,2  and  saw  a  gigantic 
Man  and  another,  a  dwarf;  and  I  heard,  as  it  were, 
a  voice  of  thunder,  and  drew  nigh  for  to  hear ;  and  He 
spake  unto  me  and  said :  I  am  thou,  and  thou  art  I ; 
and  wheresoever  thou  mayest  be,  I  am  there.3  In  all 
am  I  scattered,  and  whencesoever  thou  wiliest,  thou 
gatherest  Me ;  and  gathering  Me,  thou  gatherest 
Thyself." 

THE  PRESENCE 

3.  The  conditions  of  the  seeing  of  the  Holy  Sight 
had  been  fulfilled  by  the  disciple ;  he  had  weaned 
himself  from  all  lower  desires.  No  longer,  like  the 
theurgist  in  the  Hermes-invocations  of  the  popular 
cult,  does  he  pray  for  wealth  and  fame  and  cheerful 
countenance,  and  the  rest;  his  one  desire,  his  only 
will,  is  now  to  "learn  the  things  that  are,  and  com- 
prehend their  nature  and  know  God."  He  craves  for 
Gnosis, — Gnosis  of  Cosmos  and  its  mysteries,  Gnosis 

1  From  Epiphanius,  Hceres.,  xivi.  3 ;  see  note  to  the  first  Hermes- 
Prayer  (i.  11). 

2  Symbolical  of  a  high  state  of  consciousness,  the  Mount  of 
Perfection. 

3  Cf.  the  Oxyrhynchus  logion  5  :    "  Jesus    saith  :    Wherever 
there  are  [two],  they  are  not  without  God,  and  wherever  there 
is  one  alone,  I  say,  I  am  with  him." 


P(EM ANDRES,  THE  SHEPHERD  OF  MEN    25 

of  Nature,  the  Great  Mother,  and,  finally,  Gnosis  of 
God,  the  Father  of  the  worlds.  This  is  the  one 
question  he  "holds  in  his  mind,"  his  whole  nature  is 
concentrated  into  this  one  point  of  interrogation. 

It  is  to  be  noticed  that  we  are  not  told,  as  in  the 
Gospel  of  Eve,  that  the  seer  stood,  as  it  were,  apart 
from  himself,  and  saw  his  little  self  and  Greater  Self 
simultaneously.  He  is  conscious  of  a  Presence,  of  a 
Persona  in  the  highest  theological  meaning  of  the 
word,  who  is  not  seen  so  much  as  felt,  speaking  to 
him  Mind  to  mind;  he  hears  this  Presence  rather 
than  sees  it. 

THE  VISION  OF  CREATION 

4.  The  first  part  of  his  mental  question  is :  How 
came  this  cosmos  into  being?  The  answer  is  the 
changing  of  the  Boundless  Presence  into  "  Light,  sweet 
joyous  Light."  He  loses  all  sight  of  "all  things"  in 
his  mind,  the  mental  image  he  had  formed  of  cosmos, 
and  is  plunged  into  the  infinitude  of  Limitless  Light 
and  Joy,  which  transports  him  out  of  himself  in 
highest  ecstasy. 

But  he  has  craved  for  Gnosis,  not  Joy  and  Light,  but 
Wisdom,  the  understanding  and  reconciliation  of  the 
great  Opposites,  the  Cross  of  all  Manifestation. 

Therefore  must  he  know  the  Mystery  of  Ignorance 
as  well  as  that  of  Knowledge.  Within  the  Infinitude 
of  Light  appears  the  Shadow  of  the  Unknown,  which 
translates  itself  to  his  consciousness  as  Darkness, — 
the  Shadow  of  the  Thrice-unknown  Darkness,  which, 
as  Damascius  tells  us,1  was  the  First  Principle  of  the 
Egyptians,  the  Ineffable  Mystery,  of  which  they  "  said 
nothing,"  and  of  which  our  author  says  nothing. 

1  See  note  to  the  fifth  Hermes-Prayer  (v.  2). 


26  THRICE-GREATEST   HERMES 

V  This  Darkness  comes  forth  from  within  outwards  to 
the  disciple's  consciousness,  it  spreads  "  downwards " 
in  sinuous  folds  like  a  Great  Snake,  symbolizing, 
presumably,  the  unknown,  and  to  him  unknowable, 
mysteries  of  the  differentiation  of  the  root  of  matter  of 
the  cosmos  that  was  to  be;  its  motion  was  spiral, 
sinuous,  unending  vibrations,  not  yet  confined  into 
a  sphere  ;  not  yet  ordered,  but  chaotic,  in  unceasing 
turmoil,  a  terrible  contrast  to  the  sweet  peace  of  the 
Light,  gradually  changing  from  Dark  Space  or  Spirit 
into  a  Fluid  or  Flowing  Matter,  or  Moist  Nature ; 
that  is,  presumably,  what  the  Greek  mystics  would 
have  called  Ehea,  the  Primal  Mother  or  Matter  of 
the  future  universe. 

It  wails  and  groans — that  is,  its  motion  is  as  yet 
unharmonized.  In  the  terminology  of  the  Sophia- 
mythus,  it  is  the  inchoate  birth  from  the  Sophia  Above, 
in  the  Fullness,  brought  forth  by  herself  alone, 
without  her  syzygy  or  consort.  On  account  of  its 
imperfection  she  wails  and  groans  to  the  Father  of 
All  and  His  Perfections,  that  her  Perfection  may  be 
sent  to  fashion  her  child,  who  is  herself  in  manifestation, 
into  a  world  of  order,  and  eventually  into  a  Perfection 
in  its  turn.1 

The  Primal  Undifferentiated  or  Chaotic  Sound,  from 
the  Darkness  of  its  first  state,  gradually  manifests  itself 
under  the  brooding  power  of  the  Boundless  Light,  into 
less  confused  thunderings  and  murmurings,  and  finally 
reaches  a  stage  symbolized  by  a  "  Cry/'  a  "  Voice  of 
Fire,"  of  Fire,  not  Light,  expressing  a  need  and  want, 
longing  for  union  with  the  Articulate  Power  or  Cosmic 
Word. 

The  three  most  primal  stages  thus  seem  to  be 
symbolized  by  Darkness,  Moist  Essence,  Fire.  These 
1  Gf.  F.  F.  F.,  340,  341. 


POEMANDRES,    THE   SHEPHERD   OF   MEN         27 

were  not  our  differentiated  elements,  but  the  Primal 
Pre-cosmic  Elements. 

The  same  idea,  though  in  different  forms,  is  met  with 
in  a  system  of  the  Gnosis  preserved  for  us  by  the  Old 
Latin  translator  of  Irenaeus,1  and  also  by  Theodoret,2 
who  ascribes  it  to  the  Sethians,  whom  he  says  are  also 
called  Ophianae  or  Ophitaa.  Now  Seth  was  Typhon  or 
Darkness,  Dark  Light,  and  this  Seth  may  very  well 
have  been  symbolized  as  the  Great  Serpent  of  Darkness, 
as  it  is  in  our  text;  hence  the  name  "Those  of  the 
Serpent,"  perhaps  given  them  by  their  theological  adver- 
saries (orthodox  Jews  and  Christians).  In  this  system 
the  Primal  Elements  are  given  as  Water,  Darkness, 
Abyss,  and  Chaos.  The  Light  was  the  Child  of  the 
supreme  Trinity — the  First  Man,  the  Second  Man,  and 
the  Holy  Spirit  or  First  Woman.  This  Light  the 
Jewish  and  Christian  over-working  of  the  original 
tradition  called  the  Cosmic  Christ. 

Thus  the  Fire  of  Desire,  or  Cry  of  the  Darkness, 
was  to  be  satisfied  or  checked  or  quenched  by  the 
Light's  fashioning  its  inchoate  substance  into  the 
cosmos ;  and  so  in  another  Vision,  preserved  in  a  treatise 
of  the  same  type,  Hermes  sees,  by  gazing  "  through 
the  Master,"  the  cosmos  in  its  finished  beauty,  when  all 
things  in  it  are  full  of  Light  and  nowhere  is  there  Fire.3 

THE  DESCENT  OF  THE  LOGOS 

/  5.  Upon  this  Cry  for  Light,  into  the  Heart  of  the 
Dark-Moist-Fiery-Nature  is  dropped  a  Holy  Word,  the 
Seed  of  the  future  Cosmos.  This  Word  is  Articulate 
(its  Limbs  are  perfect),  Seasonable  and  Ordering.  The 

1  Hcer.,  I.  xxx.  (Stieren,  i.  363  ff.). 

2  Hcer.,  Fabb.,  i.  14.     See  F.  F.  F.,  pp.  188  ff. 

3  "The  Mind  to  Hermes,"  C.  H.,  xi.  (xii.)  6,  7. 


28  THRICE-GREATEST   HERMES 

Cosmic  Animal  Nature  is  impregnated  with  the  Light 
of  the  Supernal  Eeason,  which  pervades  its  whole 
being. 

This  pervading  immediately  effects  an  ordering  of 
the  Chaotic  Elements  into  Pure  Fire,  Pure  Air,  and 
Pure  Water-Earth.  Moreover,  it  is  to  be  gathered 
from  the  sequel  that  Nature  saw  the  Word  and  all 
his  Beauty  in  her  Fire  and  Air,  but  as  yet  only  heard 
him  in  her  Water-Earth. 

J  6.  The  Shepherd  thus  explains  that  Light *  is  really 
Mind,  and  Mind  is  God, — God  prior  to  Nature,  but 
not  prior  to  Darkness.  The  Unity  of  Light  and 
Darkness  is  a  still  higher  Mystery.  Light  and  Mind 
is  the  highest  concept  the  disciple  can  yet  form  of  God. 
The  Light- Word,  or  emanation  of  Supernal  Keason,  is 
Son  of  God,  Son  of  Great  Mind. 

THE  REVELATION  OF  THE  PLEROMA 

With  the  words  "  What  then  ? "  Reitzenstein  (p.  37) 
perceives  that  the  sequence  of  the  narrative  is  broken 
by  a  second  vision,  and  is  only  resumed  with  §  9. 
This  he  regards  as  an  interpolation  of  another  form  of 
cosmogenesis,  into  the  one  which  is  being  described. 

It  seems  to  me,  however,  that  the  breaking  of  the 
main  narrative  may  be  regarded  as  a  necessary  digres- 
sion rather  than  as  an  interpolation  of  foreign  material — 
necessary  in  order  to  bring  on  to  the  scene  the  hitherto 
invisible  Greatnesses,  "  within  "  the  Veil  of  Light,  which 
constitute  the  Economy  of  the  Pleroma.  More  had  to 
be  seen  by  the  disciple  before  he  was  in  a  position  to 
understand  what  he  had  so  far  seen.  He  must  now 
unite  with  the  Light,  his  previous  seeing  being  that 
of  its  reflection,  the  logos  within  him.  Not  that  this 
1  That  is,  the  condition  "  seeing." 


PCEMANDRES,    THE   SHEPHERD   OF   MEN         29 

logos  and  Light  (or  Mind)  are  separate.  They  are  in 
reality  one,  the  Son  is  one  with  the  Father  in  the  state 
that  transcends  the  opposites.  The  Logos  apparently 
comes  forth,  yet  it  remains  ever  with  the  Father,  and 
this  coming  forth  and  yet  remaining  constitutes  its  Life — 
in  other  words,  it  is  an  emanation.  Thus  Hermes  is 
bidden  to  understand  the  Light  as  Life,  and  so  make 
friends  with  it. 

7.  Hitherto  the  Light  had  been  one  for  him  a  sameness 
which  his  highest  vision  could  not  pierce,  the  Veil  of 
Light  that  shut  the  Beauties,  Perfections   and  Great- 
nesses of  the  Intelligible  from  the  eyes  of  his  mind. 
To  pierce   this  veil  a  still   more   expanded   power   of 
sight  had  to  be  given  him  by  the  Master.     The  little 
word  or  light-spark  within  him  is  intensified  by  the 
Great  Word  of  the  Master,  this  Word  being  an  Intel- 
ligible Utterance   of   the  Mind,   an   intensification  of 
being. 

He  now  sees  and  understands  the  countless  Powers 
within  the  Light,  which  constitute  the  Intelligible 
Archetypal  Form  or  Idea  of  all  worlds.  Between  the 
special  sensible  cosmos  of  his  prior  vision  and  this 
Immensity  was  a  Mighty  Power,  or  Great  Boundary 
(Horos),1  that  encircled  the  elements  of  the  sensible 
cosmos  and  held  its  Fire  in  check. 

8.  In    amazement    he     asks    whence    come    these 
apparently  disorderly   and   untamed   elements   of   the 
new  world  in  process  that  have  to   be  subdued   and 
separated    from    the    Concord    of    the    Perfection    of 
the    Powers  ?     And    the   answer   is    that    Chaos,    too, 
has  its  being  from  God's  Will.     Discord  and  Concord, 
Chaos   and    Cosmos,   are    both   of   God.     The    Primal 
Elements  are,  as  it  were,  the  Passions  of  God's  Will 
desiring  Himself.     It  is  Himself  as  Mother  or  Spouse 

1  Not  Horns. 


30  THRICE-GREATEST   HERMES 

desiring  Himself  as  Father.  In  other  of  the  Tris- 
megistic  tractates1  this  "Feminine  Aspect"  of  Deity 
is  called  Wisdom  and  Nature  and  Generation  and 
Isis.  He  is  Wisdom  as  desiring  Himself, — that  Desire 
being  the  Primal  Cause  as  Mother  of  the  whole  world- 
process,  which  is  consummated  by  His  Fullness  uniting 
with  His  Desire  or  Wisdom,  and  so  perfecting  it. 

This  is  the  whole  burden  of  the  Gnostic  Sophia- 
mythus,  which  I  have  given  very  good  reasons  for 
believing  derived  its  main  element  from  Egypt.2 
Curiously  enough,  Keitzenstein  (pp.  39,  40)  quotes  the 
two  chapters  (liii.  and  liv.)  from  Plutarch  on  which 
I  base  my  conclusions,  but  he  does  not  notice  that  in 
this  respect  the  Christianized  Gnosis  is  distinctly  de- 
pendent on  Egypt. 

And  so  Philo 3  also  tells  us  that  the  Mother  of  All 
is  Gnosis  (e7rt<7T?//x»?)>  the  very  same  name  that  Plutarch 
gives  to  Isis. 

The  Mother,  when  thought  of  as  without  the  Pleroma, 
is  impregnated  by  the  Word,  which  Basilides  would 
have  called  the  All -seed  Potency  of  the  Pleroma, 
endowed  with  all  Powers,  and  sent  forth  as  the  seed 
of  the  sensible  cosmos  that  is  to  be.  The  Mother  in 
her  higher  Nature  contemplates  the  Eternal  Cosmos 
or  Order  of  the  Pleroma,  and  in  her  lower  Nature 
copies  its  Beauties  by  means  of  the  permutations  and 
combinations  of  her  elements  and  the  generations  and 
transformations  of  her  lives  or  souls. 

This  form  of  cosmogenesis  Eeitzenstein  (p.  46) 
regards  as  of  a  pantheistic  nature,  while  the  general 
narrative  he  holds  to  set  forth  a  world-representation 
of  a  dualistic  tendency.  It  is  true,  as  he  himself 

1  For  references,  see  R.  39,  n.  1  ;  also  44. 

2  Cf.  my  note  on  Plut.,  De  Is.  et  Os.,  liv.  6,  in  the  Prolegg. 

3  De  Ebriet.,  §  30. 


P(EM ANDRES,  THE  SHEPHERD  OF  MEN    31 

admits,  that  this  blend  of  contradictory  conceptions 
meets  us  frequently  in  Gnostic  systems  of  a  more  or 
less  contemporary  date ;  nevertheless  he  lays  great 
stress  upon  this  difference,  and  so  insists  upon  an 
interpolation. 

In  this  he  is  confirmed  (p.  39)  by  the  fact  that 
whereas  §  9  speaks  of  God  the  Mind  being  male-female, 
we  are  in  the  second  vision  face  to  face  with  "  eine 
weiUiche  Allyottlieit"  who  stands  next  to  the  Highest 
God. 

I  must,  however,  confess  that  these  contradictions 
do  not  make  so  great  an  impression  upon  my  mind  as 
they  seem  to  have  done  on  the  critical  faculty  of 
Professor  Reitzenstein.  There  is  no  system  known  to 
me,  even  of  the  most  exclusive  monotheism,  into  which 
dualism  does  not  creep  somehow  or  other  at  some 
stage ;  it  cannot  be  avoided,  for  it  is  in  the  nature 
of  things. 

The  dualism  of  our  text  is,  however,  by  no  means 
so  very  marked,  for  though  it  is  not  distinctly  stated 
in  §  4,  it  leaves  it  clearly  to  be  inferred  that  the 
Darkness  comes  from  the  Light  itself,  for  previously 
there  was  nothing  but  Light ;  "  all  things  "  had  become 
Light  to  the  eye  of  the  seer.  It  is  the  mystery  of  the 
sad-eyed  Serpent  of  Darkness  wrapping  itself  round 
the  lower  limbs  of  the  Light. 

It  was,  in  my  opinion,  precisely  for  the  sake  of 
removing  the  thought  of  dualism  that  the  seer  is 
shown  a  still  more  intimate  vision  within  the  Light 
Veil,  where  all  ideas  of  monotheism,  dualism,  tritheism, 
polytheism,  and  pantheism  lose  their  formal  distinctions 
in  a  Formless  State,  or,  at  any  rate,  in  a  State  of  Being 
where  all  are  interblended  with  all.  In  describing  it, 
the  "  tongue  of  flesh  "  has  to  use  the  familiar  language 
of  form,  but  every  word  employed  has  a  new  significance ; 


32  THRICE-GREATEST   HERMES 

for  even  the  "tongue  of  angels"  cannot  describe  it, 
or  any  of  the  "  tongues "  of  heaven ;  He  alone  who 
speaks  forth  the  Words  of  the  One  Tongue  can 
express  it. 

Whence  this  sublime  conception  of  the  Pleroma 
came,  I  do  not  know;  it  seems  to  me  impossible  to 
find  a  geographical  origin  for  such  things,  as,  indeed, 
it  seems  vain  to  seek  a  geographical  origin  for  dualism 
and  the  rest.  For  the  writer  or  writers  of  our  tractate 
these  ideas  came  from  the  nature  of  things,  from  the 
immediate  experience  of  sight. 

The  form  of  expression,  of  course,  may  be  susceptible 
of  a  geographical  treatment,  but  as  yet  I  am  not 
satisfied  that  any  clear  heredity  has  been  made  out 
for  this  supposed  interpolation.  The  Feminine  Divinity, 
next  the  Highest  God,  is  not  set  over  against  that 
God,  but  is  His  own  Will.  He  is  in  the  Pleroma 
Vision  as  much  and  as  little  male  and  female  as  in 
the  general  narrative.  He  transcends  all  opposites 
and  contains  all  opposites  in  Himself. 

What  is  clear,  however,  is  that  in  the  combination 
of  both  visions  we  have  before  us  a  simple  and  early 
form  of  the  Gnosis  which  we  meet  with  later  in 
Christian  over-workings,  and  especially  in  the  very 
elaborate  expositions  of  the  Basilidian  and  Valentinian 
schools,  the  systems  of  which  can,  in  their  main 
elements,  be  paralleled  and  compared  point  by  point 
with  our  treatise ;  but  this  would  be  too  lengthy  a 
proceeding  in  our  present  study,  for  it  would  require 
a  volume  to  itself  in  any  way  adequately  to  treat 
of  it.1 

1  The  reader,  however,  may  be  referred  to  the  chapters  on 
"The  Basilidian  Gnosis,"  "The  Valentinian  Movement,"  "Some 
Outlines  of  ^Eonology,"  and  "  The  Sophia-Mythus,"  in  F.  F.  F., 
pp.  253-357. 


PCEMANDRES,    THE   SHEPHERD   OF   MEN         33 

THE  SECOND  EMANATION 

9.  We  now  return  to  the  main  narrative.  Within 
the  World-Egg,  which  was  encircled  by  the  Mighty 
Power  (the  Gnostic  Horos),  there  had  already  been 
developed  three  Cosmic  Elements  (not  our  mixed 
elements)  —  Fire,  Air,  and  Water-Earth.  This  had 
been  effected  by  the  descent  of  the  Cosmic  Logos 
into  the  Primal  Elements  of  Disorder.  As  the  Logos 
descended,  Fire  and  Air  ascended,  and  the  Logos 
remained  in  Water-Earth.  This  was  the  result  of 
the  First  Outpouring  from  the  Potency  of  the  Pleroma, 
the  First  Word  uttered  by  Mind. 

The  Second  Outpouring  of  Mind  was  of  Mind  no 
longer  regarded  as  Light  only,  but  as  Light  and  Life, 
Male-Female.  This  emanation  appeared  as  Enforming 
Mind — that  is,  the  Fashioner  or  Former,  Artificer  or 
Demiurge  of  lives  or  souls ;  it  was  the  ensouling  of 
the  Ordered  Elements  of  Nature  with  lives,  whereby 
these  Elements  were  drawn  together  into  forms. 

The  Great  Mind,  as  Light  and  Life,  reflected  itself  in 
the  "  pure  formation  "  of  Nature — that  is  to  say,  in  Fire 
and  Spirit  (Air),  Fire  for  Light  and  Spirit  for  Life,  to 
further  enform  things. 

The  Mighty  Power  or  Self-limitation  of  Mind, 
the  Boundary  that  no  mortal  can  pass,  marks  off  the 
formative  area  of  the  whole  cosmos.  This  area,  however, 
was  by  no  means  only  the  mixed  sensible  world 
(cosmos)  which  we  perceive  with  our  present  physical 
senses.  On  the  contrary,  there  are  within  it  various 
orders  (cosmoi)  of  the  main  cosmos.  For  the  Ordering 
Mind,  as  the  Enformer  or  Soul-fashioner,  differentiates 
itself  into  seven  Ruling  Forms  or  Spheres  which 
"  enclose "  the  mixed  sensible  cosmos ;  these  spheres, 
therefore,  must  be  of  a  psychic  nature — that  is  to  say, 

VOL.   II.  3 


34  THRICE- GREATEST   HERMES 

of  a  pure  or  subtle  substance  ;  they  are  Forms  of  subtle 
matter  endowed  with  reason.  They  constitute  the 
Cosmic  Engine  of  the  fashioning  of  souls,  or  psychic 
natures,  and  of  their  perpetual  transforming.  Their 
energies  and  activities  are  those  of  Fate,  or  the  ordered 
sequence  of  cause  and  effect,  symbolized  by  spheres 
perpetually  entering  into  themselves. 

10.  In  all  the  main  phases  there  is  to  be  observed 
the  idea  of  a    downward    tendency   followed    by   an 
upward.     The  Darkness  descends ;  it  then  transmutes 
itself  and  aspires  above  in  a  Cry  or  Yearning  for  Light. 
The   Word  descends ;    immediately   the   Fire  and  Air 
ascend.     The  Formative  Mind  descends;   immediately 
the  Word  ascends  from  the  mixed  Water-Earth — and 
at-ones  itself  with  its  co-essential  emanation  from  the 
Father — to  a  space  about  the  Seven,  and  thus  leaves  the 
still   down-tending  elements  in  the  Element  Water- 
Earth  deprived  of  its  immediate  presence,  after  giving 
physical  matter   the  initial   impulse   to   order.      This 
physical  matter  our  author  calls  "  pure  matter,"  meaning 
thereby  matter  deprived  of  the  immediate  presence  of 
Eeason. 

11.  Hereupon  from   the  impulse  she  has  received 
Nature  begins  her  physical  enformation,  develops  her 
physical    elements    and    bodies    of    irrational    lives. 
Water-Earth   divides  into  water  and  earth,  and  also 
air,  for  this  air  is  clearly  something  different  from  the 
Spirit- Air  that  ascended;  the  lower  air  is  one  of  the 
downward  elements. 

THE  DESCENT  OF  MAN 

12.  When  this  had  been  accomplished,  there  followed 
a  Third  Outpouring — the   descent   of   Man,   the   con- 
summation of  the  whole  Enformation  of  things,  a  still 


PCEMANDRES,    THE   SHEPHERD   OF   MEN          35 

more  transcendent  manifestation  of  Mind,  the  One 
Form  that  contains  all  forms,  His  Very  Image  co- 
equal with  Himself.  He  finally  comes  Himself  to 
consummate  and  save  the  cosmos  in  the  Form  of  Man — 
that  is,  to  gather  it  to  Himself  and  take  it  back  into 
the  Pleroma. 

Nevertheless  the  Word  and  the  Formative  Mind  and 
Man  are  not  three  different  Persons ;  they  are  all 
co-essential  with  each  other  and  one  with  the  Father. 
For  the  Word  is  co-essential  with  the  Demiurgic  Mind 
(§  10),  and  the  latter  is  Brother  of  Man  (§  13),  and 
Man  is  co-equal  with  God  (§  12). 

13.  And  so  Man,  the  Beloved,  descends ;  and  in  his 
descent  he  is  clothed  with  all  the  powers  of  his  Brother's 
creative  energy,  the  creative  energy  of  Life  conjoined 
with  rational  Light. 

Having  learned  the  lesson  of  the  conformations  and 
of  the  limitations  of  the  Spheres,  he  desires  to  break 
right  through  the  Great  Boundary  itself ;  but  to  do  this 
he  must  descend  still  further  into  matter.  Before  he 
can  burst  through  upwards  he  must  break  through 
downwards. 

14.  Accordingly  he  breaks  through  the  Spheres  down- 
wards, seeking  his  consort  Nature  below,  and  shows  her 
his  Divine  Form  radiant  with  all  the  energies  bestowed 
on  him  by  all  the  Powers  above. 

And  she  in  her  great  love  wound  herself  round  the 
image  of  this  Form  mirrored  upon  her  water,  and  the 
shadow  of  it  thrown  upon  her  earth;  just  as  the 
Darkness  wound  itself,  like  a  Great  Serpent,  round  the 
lower  parts  of  the  Light,  so  does  Nature  coil  herself 
round  the  shadow  and  reflection  of  Man.  Man  is 
above,  yet  is  he  below  ;  man  is  free,  yet  is  he  bound — 
bound  willingly  in  love  for  her  who  is  himself. 

Reitzenstein  (pp.  47-49)  is  greatly  puzzled  with  all 


36  THRICE-GREATEST   HERMES 

this,  and  seeks  to  distinguish  several  contradictory 
elements,  presumably  supposing  that  these  elements 
are  woven  together  into  a  literary  patchwork  from 
distinct  traditions.  I  cannot  myself  follow  him  here 
with  any  clearness.  Of  course  the  writer  or  writers  of 
our  treatise  did  not  discover  new  ideas  or  invent  new 
terms;  they  used  what  was  in  their  minds  and  the 
minds  of  their  circle.  It  was,  however,  the  weaving  of 
it  into  a  whole,  not  as  a  literary  exercise,  but  as  a 
setting  forth  in  the  most  understandable  terms  with 
which  they  were  acquainted  of  the  "  things  seen/'  that 
was  their  main  interest.  Those  who  had  the  "  sight  " 
would  understand  and  appreciate  their  labours,  those 
who  had  not  would  never  understand,  no  matter  what 
terms  or  what  language  were  used. 

When,  then,  Eeitzenstein  (p.  47)  says  that  in  §  11,  in 
the  bringing  forth  by  Nature  of  irrational  lives,  there 
is  a  confusion  of  contradictory  conceptions,  he  fails  to 
see  that  Nature  is  ever  the  World-Soul,  the  spouse  of 
Mind ;  though  Darkness  she  is  spouse  of  Light.  Un- 
aided she  brings  forth  things  irrational,  a  phase  of  that 
birth  of  Nature  by  herself  that  is  incomplete. 

So  also  in  §  13,  Keitzenstein  detects  contradictory 
elements,  which  he  ascribes  to  two  different  regions  of 
ideas.  He  does  not,  however,  perceive  that  though  in 
one  sentence  the  "  formations "  are  said  to  be  those  of 
the  Father,  and  in  the  next  those  of  the  Brother,  this  is 
no  real  confusion,  because  the  Formative  Mind  is  the 
Father,  enforming  Himself  in  Himself;  this  self- 
energizing,  when  regarded  by  itself,  may  be  spoken  of  as 
other  than  the  Father,  but  is  not  really  so. 

Nor  can  I  see  that  there  is  any  real  contradiction  in 
the  breaking  through  of  the  Spheres  as  though  they 
were  the  product  of  an  opposing  Power  to  that  of  the 
Son.  The  Fate  was  certainly  so  regarded  by  men  who 


PCEMANDRES,    THE    SHEPHERD    OF   MEN         37 

were  under  its  sway ;  but  our  treatise  is  endeavouring 
precisely  to  give  an  insight  into  the  state  of  things 
beyond  the  Fate.  The  burden  of  its  teaching  is  that  all 
these  oppositions  are  really  illusory  ;  man  can  transcend 
these  limitations  and  corne  into  the  freedom  of  the 
Sons  of  God.  Even  the  most  terrible  and  fundamental 
oppositions  are  not  really  so,  but  all  are  Self-limitations 
of  God's  Will ;  and  man  is  Son  of  God  co-equal  with 
Him. 

THE  FIRST  MEN 

16.  Our  treatise  then  describes  the  first  appearance 
of  man  on  earth,  which  it  regards  as  a  great  mystery 
never  before  revealed,  "  the  mystery  kept  hid  until  this 
day."  This  I  take  to  mean  that  it  had  hitherto  never 
been  written  about,  but  had  been  kept  as  a  great 
secret. 

This  secret  was  the  doctrine  that  the  first  men,  of 
which  there  were  seven  types,  were  hermaphrodites, 
and  not  only  so,  but  lived  in  the  air ;  their  frames  were 
of  fire  and  spirit,  and  not  of  the  earth-water  elements. 
The  Celestial  Man,  or  type  of  humanity,  was  gradually 
differentiating  himself  from  his  proper  nature  of  Light 
and  Life,  and  taking  on  bodies  of  fire  and  air,  was 
changing  into  mind  (Light-fire)  and  soul  (Life-spirit). 

This  presumably  lasted  for  long  periods  of  time,  the 
lower  animal  forms  gradually  evolving  to  greater  com- 
plexity as  Nature  strove  to  copy  the  "  Form  "  of  Man, 
and  Man  devolving  gradually  until  there  was  a  union, 
and  the  human  subtle  form  could  find  vehicles  among 
the  highest  animal  shapes. 

The  first  incarnate  men  appear  to  have  been  at  first 
also  hermaphrodite;  and  it  must  have  been  a  time 
when  everything  was  in  a  far  greater  state  of  flux  than 
things  are  now. 


38  THRICE-GREATEST   HERMES 

"INCREASE  AND   MULTIPLY" 

18.  This  period  of  pre-sexual  or  bi-sexual  develop- 
ment having  come  to  an  end,  the  separation  of  the 
sexes  took  place.  The  commandment  is  given  by 
the  Word:  "Increase  ye  in  increasing  and  multiply 
in  multitude"  (av^dvecrOe  ev  av£rj(T€t  KOI  TrXrjOui/ecrOe 
ev  7rXri0«). 

It  is  true  that  this  is  reminiscent  of  the  oft-re- 
peated formula  in  the  Greek  Targum  of  Genesis, — 
avgdveofie  KOI  TrXrjOuveo-Oe,1— but  it  is  only  slightly 
reminiscent,  the  main  injunction  being  strengthened, 
and  the  rest  of  the  logos  being  quite  different  from  any- 
thing found  in  Genesis.  As  nothing  else  in  the  whole 
treatise  can  be  referred  to  direct  Hebrew  influence,  we 
must  conclude  that  the  formula  was,  so  to  speak,  in  the 
air,  and  has  so  crept  into  our  treatise.2 

It  has,  however,  given  rise  to  a  diatribe  copied  on  to 
the  margin  of  one  MS.— B.  (Par.  1220)— by  a  later 
hand,  and  incorporated  into  the  text  of  M.  (Vat.  951). 
It  is  in  B.  ascribed  to  Psellus,3  who  goes  out  of  his  way 
to  stigmatize  Hermes  as  a  sorcerer  and  a  plagiarist 
throughout  of  Moses ;  in  brief,  the  Devil  is  a  thief  of 
the  Truth  to  lead  men  astray.  In  this  we  learn  more 
about  the  limitation  of  the  so-called  "Prince  of 
Philosophers  "  4  than  of  aught  else. 

1  Cf.  Gen.  i.  22  and  28,  viii.  17,  ix.  7,  and  xxxv.  11  (in  the 
singular). 

2  See,  however,  Frag.  XX.,  and  R.   126,  n.  1.     Cf.  the  same 
formula  in  C.  #.,  iii.  (iv.)  3  (P.  32,  11),  and  R.  116,  n.  2. 

3  And  is  printed  in  Boissonade's  (V.  C.)  edition  of  Michael 
Psellus,  Zte  Operatione  Dcemonum  (Niirnberg,  1838),  pp.  153,  154. 

4  If,  indeed,  the  Psellus  of  our  scholion  is  the  Younger  Psellus 
(eleventh  century);  the  De  Op.  Deem.,  however,  is  ascribed  by 
many  to  the  Elder  Psellus  (ninth  century).     See,  however,  the 
section   "The  Original  MS.   of  our  Corpus"  in  ch.  i.  of  the 
"  Prolegomena." 


PCEMANDRES,    THE    SHEPHERD   OF    MEN         39 

19.  This  increasing  and  multiplying,  the  perpetual 
coupling  of  bodies,  and  the  birth  of  new  ones,  is  effected 
by  the  Fate,  or  Harmony  of  the  Formative  Spheres,  the 
Engine  of  Birth,  set  under  Forethought  or  Providence 
(Trpovoia).     This  Pronoia  can  be  none  else  than  Nature 
herself  as  the  Wisdom  or  Knowledge  of  God — in  other 
words,  His  Will. 

LOVE 

The  motive  power  of  all  is  Love.  If  this  Love 
manifests  itself  as  Desire  for  things  of  Matter,  the 
Lover  stays  in  Darkness  wandering ;  if  it  becomes  the 
Will  to  know  Light,  the  Lover  becomes  the  Knower  of 
himself,  and  so  eventually  at-one  with  Good. 

20.  But  why  should  love  of  body  merit  Death — that 
is  to  say,  make  man  mortal  ?     The  disciple  attempts 
an  explanation  from  what  he  has  seen.      Although  his 
answer  is  approved,  the  meaning  is  by  no  means  clear. 

The  physical  body,  or  body  in  the  sense-world,  is 
composed  of  the  Moist  Nature,  which  in  a  subsequent 
phase  remains  as  Water-Earth,  and  in  a  still  subsequent 
phase  divides  itself  into  the  elements  of  physical  earth, 
water,  and  air.  The  dissolution  of  the  combination  of 
these  elements  is  effected  by  Death — that  is,  Dark- 
ness, the  Drainer  of  the  Water,  the  Typhonean  Power. 
Water  must  thus  here  symbolize  the  Osirian  Power  of 
fructification  and  holding  together.  The  Moist  Nature 
then  seems  to  be  differentiated  from  the  Darkness  by 
the  energizing  of  Light  in  its  most  primitive  brooding. 
But  seeing  that  the  Light  is  also  Life,  the  Darkness, 
which  is  posited  as  the  ultimate  opposite,  is  Death. 

THE  WAY  OF  DEATHLESSNESS 

21.  The  Way  of  Deathlessness  is   then  considered. 
The  disciple  repeats  his  lesson,  and  the  Master  com- 


40  THRICE-GREATEST    HERMES 

inends   him;    the    Way    Up    is    the    Path    of    Self- 
knowledge. 

Still  the  disciple  cannot  believe  that  this  is  for  him ; 
he  cannot  understand  that  Mind  is  in  him,  or  rather  is 
himself,  in  so  much  as  Mind  as  Teacher  seems  to  be 
without  him.  The  play  is  on  Mind  and  mind ;  the  one 
gives  the  certitude  of  Immortality,  the  other  is  still 
bound  by  the  illusion  of  Death.  The  disciple  has  not 
this  certitude ;  Mind,  then,  is  not  his. 

22.  The  Master  then  further  explains  the  mystery. 
Gnosis  must  be  preceded  by  moral  purification ;  there 
must  be  a  turning-away  before   the   Ee-turn  can  be 
accomplished.     The   whole   nature  must  be   changed. 
Yet  every  effort  that  the  little  man  seems  to  make  of 
his  own  striving  is  really  the  energizing  of  the  Great 
Man. 

23.  Those,  however,  who  yield  themselves  to  lower 
desires,  drive  the  Mind  away,  and  their  appetites  are 
only  the  more  strengthened  by  the  mind. 

The  text  of  this  paragraph  is  very  corrupt,  so  that 
the  exact  sense  of  the  original  is  not  recoverable ;  and 
this  makes  it  all  the  more  difficult  to  understand  what 
is  meant  by  the  Avenging  Daimon,  the  Counterpart  of 
the  Mind.  This  difficulty  is  increased  by  §  24,  where 
we  are  told  that  the  "  way  of  life "  (TO  ?#o?)  is  at 
death  surrendered  to  the  Daimon. 

If,  however,  the  reader  will  refer  to  the  section  on 
"  The  Vision  of  Er "  (in  the  Miscellanea  of  the  "  Pro- 
legomena"), which  in  my  original  MS.  followed  as  a 
Digression  on  this  passage,  he  will  be  put  in  contact 
with  the  Platonic  view  of  the  Daimon  and  "  way  of 
life";  in  our  treatise,  however,  the  teaching  is  of  a 
more  intimate  character,  and  must  be  taken  in  con- 
junction with  C.  H.y  x.  (xi.)  16  and  21,  where  we  shall 
comment  on  it  at  further  length. 


PCEMANDRES,    THE   SHEPHERD    OF   MEN         41 

THE  ASCENT  OF  THE  SOUL 

24.  The  subject  of  instruction  is  now  the  Way 
Above  (avoSos),  or  ascent  of  the  soul  out  of  the  body 
at  death. 

The  physical  body  is  left  to  the  work  of  change  and 
dissolution.  The  life  of  integration  and  conservation 
ceases,  and  the  life  of  disintegration  begins. 

The  form  (elSoi)  thus  vanishes,  apparently  from  the 
man's  consciousness ;  that  is  to  say,  presumably,  he  is 
no  longer  clothed  in  the  form  of  his  physical  body,  but 
is  apparently  in  some  other  vehicle ;  the  particular  fixed 
form,  or  "  way  of  life,"  or  "  habit,"  he  wore  on  earth 
being  handed  over  to  the  Daimon  deprived  of  all  energy, 
so  that  apparently  it  becomes  an  empty  shell. 

The  next  sentence  is  a  great  puzzle,  and  I  can  only 
guess  at  the  meaning.  The  senses  which  had  previously 
been  united  by  the  mind  become  separate — that  is, 
instead  of  a  whole  they  become  parts  (/ae/o^),  they  return 
to  the  natural  animal  state  of  sensation,  and  the  animal 
part  of  man,  or  his  vehicle  of  passion  and  desire,  begins 
in  its  turn  to  disintegrate,  the  mind  or  reason  (logos) 
being  gradually  separated  from  it,  or,  rather,  its  true 
nature  showing  forth  in  the  man  as  he  gradually  strips 
off  the  irrational  tendencies  of  the  energies. 

25.  Those  irrational  tendencies  have  their  sources  in 
the  Harmony  of  the  Fate-Sphere  of  seven  subordinate 
spheres  or  zones;  and  in  these  zones  he  leaves  his 
inharmonious  propensities,  deprived  of  their  energy. 
For  the  Harmony  is  only  evil  apparently ;  it  is  really 
the  Engine  of  Justice  and  Necessity  to  readjust  the 
foolish  choice  of  the  soul — that  is,  to  purify  its  irra- 
tional desires,  or  those  propensities  in  it  that  are  not 
under  the  sway  of  right  reason  and  philosophy.  For  a 
better  understanding  of  the  characteristics  ascribed  to 


42  THRICE-GREATEST   HERMES 

the  "seven  spheres,"  we  must  "run  off"  into  another 
Digression,  which  the  reader  will  find  relegated  to 
ch.  xii.  of  the  "  Prolegomena,"  under  the  title  "  Con- 
cerning the  Seven  Zones  and  their  Characteristics." 
This,  then,  having  been  taken  as  a  direct  commentary 
on  §  25,  we  continue  with  the  text  of  our  treatise. 

THE  EIGHTH  SPHERE 

26.  The  soul  of  the  initiated  strips  itself  naked  of  the 
"  garment  of  shame,"  the  selfish  energizings,  and  stands 
"clothed  in  its  own  power."  This  refers  probably  to 
the  stripping  off  of  the  "carapace  of  selfhood,"  the 
garments  woven  by  its  vices,  and  the  putting  on  of 
the  "  wedding  garment "  of  its  virtues. 

This  state  of  existence  is  called  the  Eighth,1  a  state 
of  comparative  "  sameness "  as  transcending  the  zones 
of  "  difference."  It  is  the  Ogdoad  of  the  Gnostics,  the 
Jerusalem  Above,  the  plane  of  the  Ego  in  its  own  form, 
the  natural  state  of  "  those-that-are." 

In  another  sense  it  may  perhaps  mean  that  the  man, 
after  passing  through  the  phases  of  the  lower  mind, 
now  enters  within  into  the  region  of  the  pure  mind,  the 
Higher  Ego,  and  there  is  at-oned  with  all  the  experi- 
ences of  his  past  lives  that  are  worthy  of  immortality, 
his  virtuous  energizings,  —  the  "those-that-are,"  that 
perhaps  constitute  the  "crown  of  mighty  lives"  sung 
of  by  the  Pythian  Oracle  when  celebrating  the  death 
of  Plotinus.2 

In  this  state  the  man,  who  has  freed  himself  from  the 
necessity  of  reincarnation,  hears  the  Song  of  the  Powers 
above  the  Ogdoad — that  is  to  say,  in  Gnostic  terms,  the 

1  Cf.  Com.  on  G.  #.,.xiii.  (xiv.)  14. 

a  Cf.  Porphyry,  Plotini  Vita,  xxii.,  ed.  Creuzer  (Oxford,  1835) ; 
also  Theosoph.  Rev.  (July  1898),  p.  403. 


POEM  ANDRES,   THE   SHEPHERD   OF   MEN         43 

Hymn  of  the  ^Eons  of  the  Pleroma.  Such  a  man 
would  have  reached  the  consummation  of  his  earthly 
pilgrimage,  and  be  ready  to  pass  on  into  the  Christ- 
state,  or,  at  any  rate,  the  state  of  super-man.  He  would 
be  the  Victor  who  had  won  the  right  of  investiture 
with  the  Eobe  of  Glory,  and  the  dignity  of  the  crown- 
ing with  the  Kingship  of  the  Heavens.  This  Final 
Initiation  is  most  beautifully  set  forth  in  the  opening 
pages  of  the  Pistis  Sophia,  and  especially  in  the  Song 
of  the  Powers  (pp.  17  ff.)>  beginning  with  the  words : 
"  Come  unto  us,  for  we  are  thy  fellow-members.  We 
are  all  one  with  thee." 

The  consummation  of  the  mystery  is  that  the 
alter-egos  of  the  Individual  Ego,  or  the  sum  total  of 
purified  personalities  which  in  that  state  constitute 
its  membership,  or  taxis,  of  their  own  selves  surrender 
themselves  to  a  fullness  of  union  or  a  transcendency 
of  separation,  in  which  they  become  the  powers  or 
energies  of  a  New  Man,  the  true  Son  of  Man ;  they 
pass  into  a  state  where  they  each  blend  with  all, 
and  yet  lose  nothing  of  themselves,  but  rather  find 
in  this  new  union  the  consummation  of  all  their 
powers.  In  this  state  of  Sonship  of  the  Divine  they 
are  no  longer  limited  by  bodies,  nor  even  by  partial 
souls  or  individual  minds ;  but,  becoming  Powers,  they 
are  not  only  in  God,  but  one  with  the  Divine  Will — 
nay,  in  final  consummation,  God  Himself. 

27.  Of  such  a  nature  was  the  Shepherd ;  He,  too,  was 
the  Christ  of  God,  the  Son  of  the  Father,  who  could  take 
all  forms  to  carry  out  the  Divine  Will.  When  the 
form, — even  though  that  form  might  for  the  disciple 
take  on  the  appearance  of  the  cosmos  itself,  as  he  con- 
ceived it, — had  served  its  purpose,  the  Shepherd  once 
more  "  mingled  with  the  Powers." 


44  THRICE-GREATEST  HERMES 

THE  THREE  "BODIES"  OF  THE  BUDDHA 

The  Shepherd  was  a  Christ  for  those  who  prefer  the 
name  of  Christian  Tradition,  a  Buddha  for  those  who 
are  more  familiar  with  Eastern  terms.  And  that  this 
is  so  may  be  clearly  seen  by  considering  the  so-called 
"three  bodies"  (trikayam)  of  a  or  the  Buddha,  for 
Buddhahood  is  a  state  beyond  individuality  in  the 
separated  sense  in  which  we  understand  the  term. 

In  the  Chinese  Version  of  Ashvaghosha's  now  lost 
Sanskrit  treatise,  Mahayana-shraddhotpada-shastra^  we 
read: 

"It  is  characteristic  of  all  the  Buddhas  that  they 
consider  all  sentient  beings  as  their  own  self,  and  do  not 
cling  to  their  individual  forms.  How  is  this  ?  Because 
they  know  truthfully  that  all  sentient  beings  as  well 
as  their  own  self  come  from  one  and  the  same  Suchness, 
and  no  distinction  can  be  established  among  them." 

"  All  Tathagatas  are  the  Dharinakaya 2  itself,  are 
the  highest  truth  (paramarthasatya)  itself,  and  have 
nothing  to  do  with  conditionality  (samvrittisatya)  and 
compulsory  actions  ;  whereas  the  seeing,  hearing,  etc.,  of 
the  sentient  being  diversify  the  Activity z  of  Tathagatas. 

"  Now  this  Activity  has  a  twofold  aspect. 

"  The  first  depends  on  the  phenomena-particularizing 
consciousness  by  means  of  which  the  Activity  is  conceived 
by  the  minds  of  all  who  fall  short  of  the  state  of  a 
Bodhisattva  in  their  various  degrees.  This  aspect  is 
called  the  Body  of  Transformation  (Nirmanakaya). 

"  But  as  the  beings  of  this  class  do  not  know  that  the 

1  Ashvaghosha's  Discourse  on  the  Awakening  of  Faith  in   the 
Mahdydna.     Translated    for    the    first  time    from  the  Chinese 
Version  by  Teitaro  Suzuki  (Chicago,    1900).     Mahay  ana  means 
the  "  Great  Vehicle"  of  Buddhism. 

2  Lit.  Body  of  the  Law. 

3  The  italics  are  mine  throughout. 


PCEMANDRES,    THE    SHEPHERD   OF   MEN         45 

Body  of  Transformation  is  merely  the  shadow  [or  reflec- 
tion] of  their  own  evolving  consciousness,  they  imagine  it 
comes  from  some  external  sources,  and  so  they  give  it  a 
corporeal  limitation.  But  the  Body  of  Transformation 
[or  what  amounts  to  the  same  thing,  the  Dharmakaya] 
has  nothing  to  do  with  Limitation  or  measurement." 

That  is  to  say,  a  Buddha  can  only  communicate  with 
such  minds  hy  means  of  a  form,  that  form  being  really 
that  of  their  own  most  highly  evolved  consciousness. 
There  are,  however,  others  who  have  the  consciousness 
of  the  "  formless "  state,  but  have  not  yet  reached  the 
Nirvanic  Consciousness.  These  in  this  system  are 
called  Bodhisattvas. 

"  The  second  aspect  [of  the  Dharmakaya]  depends  on 
the  activity -consciousness  (karmavijnana),  by  means  of 
which  the  Activity  is  conceived  by  the  minds  of  the 
Bodhisattvas  while  passing  from  their  first  aspiration 
(chittotpada)  stage  up  to  the  height  of  Bodhisattva-hood. 
This  is  called  the  Body  of  Bliss  (Sambhogakaya)  "  (pp. 
100,  101). 

We  have  used  the  term  "  formless  state "  in  the 
penultimate  paragraph  to  signify  the  states  of  conscious- 
ness in  "  worlds "  called  Arupa ;  but  these  are  only 
"  formless  "  for  consciousness  which  has  not  reached  the 
Bodhisattva  level — presumably  the  Buddhic  plane  of 
Neo-theosophical  nomenclature. 

For  "  this  Body  has  infinite  forms.  The  form  has 
infinite  attributes.  The  Attribute  has  infinite  excel- 
lencies. And  the  accompanying  reward  of  Bodhisattvas 
—that  is,  the  region  where  they  are  predestined  to  be 
born — also  has  infinite  merits  and  ornamentations. 
Manifesting  itself  everywhere,  the  Body  of  Bliss  is 
infinite,  boundless,  limitless,  unintermittent,  directly 
coming  forth  from  the  Mind"  (p.  101). 

The  older  Chinese  Version  says :   "  It  is   boundless, 


46  THRICE-GREATEST   HERMES 

cannot  be  exhausted,  is  free  from  the  signs  of  limita- 
tion. Manifesting  itself  wherever  it  should  manifest 
itself,  it  always  exists  by  itself  and  is  never  destroyed  " 
(p.  101,  n.  2). 

In  other  words,  one  who  has  reached  the  Nirvanic 
Consciousness — that  is  to  say,  a  Master — can  teach  or 
be  active  on  "  planes  "  that  are  as  yet  unmanifest  to  us 
ordinary  folk ;  these  "  planes,"  however,  even  when  the 
disciple  is  conscious  of  them,  are  conditioned  by  the 
self-limitation  of  his  own  imperfection.  The  Vehicles 
of  this  Activity  are  called  Dharmakaya,  Sambhogakaya 
and  liirmanakaya ;  and  the  limitation  of  their  Activity 
is  determined  on  the  side  of  the  disciple  by  the  degree 
of  his  ability  to  function  consciously  in  those  states 
which  are  known  in  Neo-theosophical  nomenclature 
respectively  as  those  of  Atman,  Buddhi  and  Higher 
Manas,  or,  in  more  general  terms,  those  of  the  divine, 
spiritual  and  human  aspects  of  the  self. 

In  the  first  degree  of  conscious  discipleship,  then,  the 
Master  communicates  with  His  disciples  and  teaches 
them  by  means  of  the  Nirmanakaya ;  that  is  to  say,  He 
quickens  the  highest  form  of  consciousness  or  conception 
of  masterhood  they  have  so  far  attained  to — taking  the 
form  of  their  greatest  love,  perhaps,  as  they  have  known 
Him  in  the  flesh,  or  as  He  has  been  told  of  as  existing 
in  the  flesh,  but  not  His  own-form,  which  would  tran- 
scend their  consciousness. 

The  next  stage  is  when  the  disciple  learns  to  tran- 
scend his  own  "egoity,"  in  the  ordinary  sense  of  the 
word;  this  does  not  mean  to  say  that  his  true  in- 
dividuality is  destroyed,  but  instead  of  being  tied  down 
to  one  ego-vehicle,  he  has  gained  the  power  of  manifest- 
ing himself  wherever  and  however  he  will,  at  any 
moment  of  time ;  in  brief,  the  power  of  self-generation 
on  the  plane  of  egoity,  in  that  he  has  reached  a  higher 


PCEMANDRES,    THE   SHEPHERD    OF   MEN          47 

state  which  is  free  from  the  limitations  of  a  single  line 
of  egoity. 

He  now  begins  to  realise  in  the  very  nature  of  his 
being  that  the  "  Self  is  in  all  and  all  in  the  Self."  Such 
a  disciple,  or  Bodhisattva,  is  taught  by  the  Master  in  this 
state  of  being,  and  the  Kaya  which  he  supplies  for  the 
energizing  of  his  beloved  Father  is  perfectly  unintelli- 
gible to  us,  and  can  only  be  described  as  an  expanded 
consciousness  of  utmost  sympathy  and  compassion,  which 
not  only  strives  to  blend  with  the  Life  of  all  beings, 
but  also  with  the  One  Being  in  the  world  for  him,  the 
Beloved.  Such  a  sensing  of  the  Master's  Presence  is 
called  the  Sambhogakaya  of  the  Master,  His  Body  of 
Bliss. 

There  is  a  still  higher  Perfection,  the  Dharmakaya,  or 
Own-Nature  of  Masterhood.  But  how  should  the  dim 
mind  of  one  who  is  Without  imagine  the  condition  of 
One  who  is  not  only  Within,  but  who  combines  both 
the  Without  and  the  Within  in  the  Transcendent  Unity 
of  the  Perfect  Fullness  ? 


THE  PREACHING  OF  THE  GNOSIS 

27.  With  the  exposition  of  the  Consummation  of  the 
Teaching  and  the  return  to  earth  of  the  consciousness 
of  the  Seer,  our  treatise  breaks  off  into  a  graphic 
instruction  of  how  the  Gnosis  is  to  be  utilized.  The 
Wisdom  is  no  man's  property ;  he  who  receives  it 
holds  it  in  trust  for  the  benefit  of  the  world-folk. 

I  am,  however,  inclined  to  believe  that  §§  27  to  29 
are  a  later  interpolation,  and  that  the  treatise  originally 
ran  straight  on  after  the  conclusion  of  the  Shepherd's 
Instruction  with  the  words :  "  But  I  recorded  in  my 
heart  the  Shepherd's  benefaction  "  (§  30). 

Until   the  end   of   §    26    we    have   moved   in    the 


48  THRICE-GREATEST   HERMES 

atmosphere  of  an  inner  intimate  personal  instruction, 
set  forth  in  a  form  evidently  intended  only  for  the  few ; 
indeed,  as  we  find  in  other  treatises  emphatic  injunctions 
to  keep  the  teaching  secret,  we  cannot  but  conclude  that 
the  oldest  and  most  authoritative  document  of  the 
school  was  guarded  with  the  same  secrecy.  The  general 
impression  created  by  the  instruction  is  not  only  that 
it  itself  is  the  consummation  and  reward  of  a  strict  and 
stern  probation,  and  not  a  sermon  to  be  preached  on 
the  house-tops,  but  also  that  those  who  followed  that 
way  were  not  propagandists,  but  rather  members  of  a 
select  philosophic  community. 

With  §  27,  however,  all  is  changed ;  we  are 
introduced  to  the  picture  of  a  man  burning  with 
enthusiasm  to  communicate,  if  not  the  direct  teaching 
itself,  at  any  rate  the  knowledge  of  its  existence  and 
saving  power  to  all  without  distinction.  In  a  few 
graphic  sentences  the  history  of  the  fortunes  of  this 
propagandist  endeavour  is  sketched.  An  appeal  is 
made  of  the  most  uncompromising  nature;  it  is  a 
clarion  call  to  repentance,  and  we  seem  to  be  moving 
in  an  atmosphere  that  is  Hebrew  rather  than  Greek, 
prophetical  rather  than  philosophical. 

It  would  seem  almost  that  this  propagandist  phase 
had  been  forced  upon  the  community  rather  than  that 
it  was  natural  to  it ;  something  seems  to  have  occurred 
which  obliged  it  to  enter  the  arena  of  general  life  and 
proclaim  its  existence  publicly.  What  this  compulsion 
was  we  have  no  means  of  determining  with  any 
exactitude,  for  the  historical  indications  are  very 
obscure.  If  we  were  to  conjecture  that  it  was  the 
vigorous  preaching  of  nascent  Christianity  which 
wrought  this  change,  we  should,  I  think,  be  taking 
part  for  whole,  for  prior  to  Christianity  there  was  the 
most  energetic  propaganda  made  by  the  Jews,  the 


PCEMANDRES,    THE    SHEPHERD   OF   MEN         49 

intensity  of  which  may  be  estimated  by  the  phrase 
"  Ye  compass  sea  and  land  to  make  one  proselyte,"  and 
the  nature  of  which  may  be  most  clearly  seen  in  the 
propaganda  of  the  Sibylline  writers,  with  whose  diction 
the  appeals  to  the  "  earth-born  folk  "  in  our  text  may 
be  aptly  compared,  while  the  prayer  at  sunset  may  be 
paralleled  with  the  prayers  of  the  Essenes  and 
Therapeuts. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  tradition  of  the  Gnosis  and 
Saving  Faith  preached  by  our  Pcemandrists  is  distinctly 
not  Hebrew;  it  is  a  philosophizing  of  other  materials 
— materials  which,  as  we  have  seen,  were  also  partly 
used  by  Jewish  and  Christian  mystics,  and  adapted  to 
their  own  special  traditions. 

We  thus  see  that  at  the  time  when  Christianity  came 
to  birth  there  were  many  rival  traditions  contending 
for  general  recognition,  all  of  them  offering  instruction 
in  the  Gnosis  and  hopes  of  Salvation,  and  I  myself 
believe  that  all  of  them  were  partial  manifestations  of 
the  impartial  Quickening  of  the  Spiritual  Life  which 
was  at  that  time  more  abundantly  poured  forth  than 
ever  before  or  after  in  the  Western  world. 

With  §  30,  if  my  conjecture  of  an  interpolation  is 
correct,  the  original  treatise  is  continued,  and  we  are 
told  the  nature  of  the  awakening  of  the  spiritual 
consciousness  which  has  come  to  the  new-born  disciple. 

Henceforth  all  things  are  new  for  him,  they  all 
have  new  meanings.  He  has  become  a  man,  instead 
of  a  "  procession  of  fate  "  ;  he  has  reached  the  "  Plain  of 
Truth."  In  Christian  terms  the  Christ  has  been  born 
in  his  heart  consciously. 

A  HYMN  OF  PRAISE  AND  PRAYER  FOR  THE  GNOSIS 

31.  The  treatise   is  concluded   with   a   most  noble 
hymn,  in  which  the  further  growth  and  effort  of  the 
VOL.  n.  4 


50  THRICE-GREATEST    HERMES 

man  in  spirit  is  set  forth.  Henceforth  his  effort  will 
be  to  become  like  unto  the  Father  Himself,  to  pass 
from  Sonship  into  the  Perfection  of  perfection,  Identity 
or  At-one-ment  with  the  Father. 

The  sentence,  "  That  I  may  give  the  Light  to  those 
in  ignorance  of  the  Race,  my  Brethren  and  Thy  Sons," 
seems  to  me  to  be  either  an  interpolation,  showing  the 
same  tendency  as  that  of  the  propagandist  section,  or  an 
indication  that  the  whole  hymn  was  added  at  the  same 
time  as  the  propagandist  paragraphs,  for  the  treatise 
proper  seems  to  end  naturally  and  consistently  in  the 
Hellenistic  form  of  the  tradition  with  the  words,  "I 
reached  the  Plain  of  Truth." l 

THE  NAME  "  POIMANDRES  " 

Many  have  already  remarked  that  the  name  "  Poi- 
mandres "  is  formed  irregularly  in  Greek,  and  this  has 
led  to  an  interesting  speculation  by  Granger,  who 
writes : 

"While,  however,  the  name  Poimandres  does  not 
answer  to  any  Greek  original,  it  is  a  close  transliteration 
of  a  Coptic  phrase.  In  the  dialect  of  Upper  Egypt 
p'm'n'tre  means  '  the  witness.'  That  the  Coptic 
article  [pe]  should  be  treated  as  part  of  the  name  itself 
is  not  unusual ;  compare  the  name  Pior.2  Such  a  title 
corresponds  very  closely  in  style  with  the  titles  of 
other  works  of  this  same  period — for  example,  the  True 
Word  of  Celsus,  or  the  Perfect  Word,  which  is  an 
alternative  title  of  the  Asdepius.  The  term  Poemandres, 
therefore,  on  this  supposition,  contains  an  allusion  to 

1  It  is  to  be  noticed  that  the  Hymn  is  a  Song  of  Holiness. 
"Holy  art  thou"  is  nine  times  repeated — most    probably  in- 
tentionally.   This  was  noticed  long  ago  by  Casaubon.    See  R. 
58,  n.  3. 

2  Palladius,  Hist.  Laus.,  89. 


PCEMANDRES,    THE   SHEPHERD   OF   MEN         51 

the  widely  spread  legend  of  Hermes  as  witness,1  a 
legend  which  is  verified  for  us  from  several  sources. 
But  the  writer  has  adapted  the  details  to  his  purpose. 
Hermes  is  not  himself  the  witness,  but  the  herald  of 
the  witness."  2 

Granger  then  propounds  the  very  strange  theory, 
contradicted  by  all  the  phenomena  and  opposed  to 
every  authority,  that  the  Coptic  Gnostic  works  of  the 
Askew  and  Bruce  Codices  were  originally  composed  in 
Coptic  with  the  adoption  of  Greek  technical  terms, 
whereas  they  are  manifestly  translations  from  the  Greek. 
He,  however,  continues : 

"There  seems  no  adequate  reason  why  such  works 
may  not  have  been  composed  in  Coptic.  The  Egyptian 
Gnostic  writings  of  the  third  century  exhibit  the 
same  qualities  of  style  as  the  Coptic  biographies  and 
apocalypses  of  the  fourth  and  following  centuries. 
And  so  I  am  prepared  to  believe  that  the  Poemandres 
may  have  been  first  composed  in  Coptic.  Or  shall  we 
say  that  the  work  was  current  from  the  first  in  both 
languages  ? " 3 

We  should  say  that  the  last  guess  is  most  highly 
improbable,  and  only  denotes  the  indecision  of  the 
writer.  The  original  "  Poemandres "  may  very  well 
have  been  composed  not  in  Coptic  but  in  Demotic  ;  but 
the  reasons  given  by  Granger,  as  based  on  the  pheno- 
mena of  the  Gnostic  Coptic  writings,  are  not  to  be 
seriously  considered.  Nevertheless,  the  name  "Poi- 
mandres  "  may  be  a  Greek  transliteration  of  an  Egyptian 
name,  though  we  hardly  think  that  "  The  Witness " 

1  G.  has  just  referred  to  the  story  of  Hermes  being  witness  for 
Horus  when  indicted  on  a  charge  of  bastardy   by  Typhon,  as 
related  in  Plutarch. 

2  Granger  (F.),   "The  Poemandres  of  Hermes  Trismegistus," 
/.  Th.  Stud.,  vol.  v.,  no.  191,  p.  400. 

3  Ibid.,  p.  401. 


52  THRICE-GREATEST   HERMES 

will  suit  the  theme.  In  any  case  "  Man-Shepherd " 
was  certainly  the  idea  conveyed  to  the  Non-Egyptian 
by  the  name,  however  philologically  unsound  its  form 
may  be  in  Greek. 

THE  GOOD  SHEPHERD 

It  has  been  no  part  of  our  task  to  attempt  to  trace 
the  Hermes-idea  along  the  line  of  pure  Greek  descent, 
for  this  would  have  led  us  too  far  from  our  immediate 
subject.  There  is,  however,  one  element  of  that  tradi- 
tion which  is  of  great  interest,  and  to  which  we  may 
draw  the  attention  of  the  reader  in  passing.  The 
beautiful  idea  of  the  Christ  as  the  "  Good  Shepherd  " 
is  familiar  to  every  Christian  child.  Why  the  Christ 
is  the  Shepherd  of  all  men  is  shown  us  by  this  first 
of  our  marvellous  treatises.  In  it  we  have  the 
universal  doctrine  apart  from  any  historical  dogma, 
the  eternal  truth  of  an  ever-recurring  fact,  and  not 
the  exaggeration  of  one  instance  of  it. 

The  representation  of  Christ  as  the  Good  Shepherd 
was  one  of  the  earliest  efforts  of  Christian  art;  but 
the  prototype  was  far  earlier  than  Christianity — in 
fact,  it  was  exceedingly  archaic.  Statues  of  Hermes 
Kriophoros,  or  Hermes  with  a  ram  or  lamb  standing 
beside  him,  or  in  his  arms,  or  on  his  shoulder,  were 
one  of  the  most  favourite  subjects  for  the  chisel  in 
Greece.  We  have  specimens  dating  to  the  archaic 
period  of  Greek  art.1  Hermes  in  these  archaic  statues 
has  a  pointed  cap,  and  not  the  winged  head-dress  and 
sandals  of  later  art.  This  type  in  all  probability  goes 
back  to  Chaldsean  symbolic  art,  to  the  bearers  of  the 
twelve  "signs  of  the  zodiac,"  the  "sacred  animals." 
These  were,  in  one  human  correspondence,  the  twelve 

1  See  Reseller's  Lexikon,  art.  "Hermes."  "Hermes  in  der 
Kunst "— "  Periode  des  Archaismus." 


PCEMANDRES,    THE    SHEPHERD    OF   MEN         53 

septs  or  classes  of  priests.  Here  we  see  that  the  Greek 
tradition  itself  was  not  pure  Aryan  even  in  its  so- 
called  archaic  period.  Chaldaea  had  given  of  her 
wisdom  to  post-diluvian  Greece,  even  as  she  had 
perchance  been  in  relation  with  Greece  before  the 
"  flood."  Here,  then,  we  have  another  element  in  the 
Hermes-idea.  In  fact,  nowhere  do  we  find  a  pure  line 
of  tradition ;  in  every  religion  there  are  blendings  and 
have  been  blendings.  There  was  unconscious  syncretism 
(and  conscious  also)  long  before  the  days  of  Alexandria, 
for  unconscious  syncretism  is  as  old  as  race-blendings. 
Even  as  all  men  are  kin,  so  are  popular  cults  related ;  and 
even  as  the  religion  of  nobler  souls  is  of  one  paternity, 
so  are  the  theosophies  of  all  religions  from  one  source. 

One  of  the  greatest  secrets  of  the  innermost  initiated 
circles  was  the  grand  fact  that  all  the  great  religions 
had  their  roots  in  one  mother  soil.  And  it  was  the 
spreading  of  the  consciousness  of  this  stupendous 
truth  which  subsequently — after  the  initial  period 
of  scepticism  of  the  Alexandrian  schools — gave  rise  to 
the  many  conscious  attempts  to  synthesise  the  various 
phases  of  religion,  and  make  "  symphonies  "  of  apparently 
contradictory  philosophical  tenets.  Modern  research, 
which  is  essentially  critical  and  analytical,  and  rarely 
synthetical,  classifies  all  these  attempts  under  the 
term  "  syncretism,"  a  word  which  it  invariably  uses  in 
a  depreciatory  sense,  as  characterising  the  blending  of 
absolutely  incompatible  elements  in  the  most  uncritical 
fashion.  But  when  the  pendulum  swings  once  more 
towards  the  side  of  synthesis,  as  it  must  do  in  the 
coming  years — for  we  are  but  repeating  to-day  in 
greater  detail  what  happened  in  the  early  centuries — 
then  scholarship  will  once  more  recognise  the  unity 
of  religion  under  the  diversity  of  creeds  and  return 
to  the  old  doctrine  of  the  mysteries. 


54  THRICE-GREATEST    HERMES 

In  connection  with  the  "Good  Shepherd"  glyph, 
it  will  be  useful  to  quote  from  Granger's  instructive 
exposition  on  the  subject,1  where  he  writes: 

"  Since  the  identification  of  Jesus  with  Hermes  took 
place  in  circles  which  formed  part  of  the  Christian 
community,2  we  shall  not  be  surprised  to  find  that 
one  of  the  leading  types  of  Christian  art,  the  Good 
Shepherd,  was  immediately  adopted  from  a  current 
representation  of  the  Greek  Hermes.3  As  we  see 
from  Hippolytus  (Refut.,  v.  7),  the  Gnostics  were 
especially  interested  in  Hermes  as  Hermes  Logius,  a 
type  which  was  increasingly  frequent  in  later  Greek 
art.  And  this  epithet  was  connected  by  them  with 
the  conception  of  Jesus  as  the  Logos.  Now  another 
type  of  Hermes,  the  Kriophoros,  seemed  to  bring 
together  Jesus  as  the  Logos  and  Jesus  as  the  Good 
Shepherd.  These  representations  of  Jesus  begin  in 
the  second  century;  and  so  they  correspond  in  order 
of  time  with  the  appearance  of  the  Gospel  according  to 
the  Egyptians,  and  of  those  Gnostic  compositions  which 
largely  depend  upon  it.* 

"  Another  fact  leads  us  to  think  that  the  figure  of 

1  Op.  dt.,  pp.  408  ff. 

3  G.  seems  here  to  be  referring  to  the  Naassene  Document, 
but  without  any  suspicion  apparently  of  its  composite  character. 

3  See  Sittl,  Klassische  Kunstarchaologie,  777,  809,  819. 

4  G.  here   again   refers   apparently   to    the   Naassene   Docu- 
ments, which,  however,  did  not  depend  on  the  Gospel  according 
to  the  Egyptians,  as  we  have  shown  ;  nor  have  we  any  sure 
ground  for  dating  this  widespread   mystic  gospel  of  Egypt  as 
being  of  the  second  century  rather  than  of  the  first.     G.  (p.  411) 
suggests  that  the  scene  of  the  Gospel  of  the  Egyptians  was  on  top 
of  the  Mount  of  Olives  after  the  resurrection,  which  may  very 
well  be  the   case,  and   that   the   title   of   C.  H.t   xiii.  (xiv.), 
"The  Secret  Sermon  on  the  Mountain,"  has  reference  to  this 
gospel,  which  is  by  no  means  probable,  for  our  sermon  keeps 
entirely  within  its  own  tradition  in  its  setting. 


PCEM ANDRES,    THE   SHEPHERD   OF   MEN         55 

the  Good  Shepherd  had  its  roots  in  a  previous  tradition. 
'It  is  probable  that  there  were  no  statues  before  the 
age  of  Constantine,  except  the  Good  Shepherd.'1  We 
must  therefore  add  Hermes  to  the  list  of  pagan  types 
which  were  taken  over  for  its  own  purpose  by  the 
rising  Christian  art. 

"  Moreover,  we  are  enabled  to  advance  one  step 
further  the  long-standing  controversy  as  to  the  portraits 
of  Jesus.  Since  the  figure  of  the  Good  Shepherd  is 
borrowed  from  Greek  sculpture,  it  cannot  be  used  as 
evidence  for  the  earliest  conceptions  about  the  appear- 
ance of  Jesus.  And  so  the  arguments  of  Farrar  and 
others  fall  to  the  ground,  in  so  far  as  they  take  the 
presence  of  this  type  to  show  that  there  was  no  genuine 
tradition  of  Christ's  appearance.2 

"  We  are  now  in  a  position  to  throw  a  little  further 
light  upon  the  famous  inscription  of  Abercius.  The 
inscription  speaks  of  a  Shepherd — ' Who  feedeth  on  the 
plains  His  flock  of  sheep,  and  hath  great  eyes  that  gaze 
forth  every  way.  For  He  did  teach  me  [how  to  under- 
stand and]  scriptures  worthy  to  believe.'3 

"The  Shepherd,  whose  great  eyes  look  in  every 
direction,  is  no  other  than  Hermes  treated  as  a 
symbol  of  Christ.  And  so  some  of  the  arguments 
which  may  be  directed  against  the  Christian  character 
of  this  inscription,  and  to  which  Harnack.4  attaches 
an  exaggerated  weight,  are  turned  aside." 

With  all  of   this  may  be  compared  what  we   have 

1  Lowrie,  Christian  Art  and  Archeology,  p.  290. 

2  Taken  in  connection  with  the  above  quotation  from  Lowrie, 
we  should  say  that  it  disposes  of  the  whole  contention.     And  for 
further  corroboration  of  this  view  we  would  refer  the  reader  to 
the  Acts  of  John. 

3  G.  gives  the  Greek  text  only,  omitting  the  first  line,  which 
runs  :  "  The  disciple  of  the  Pure  Shepherd."     Cf.  R.  115. 

*  Cf.  Class.  Rev.,  ix.  297. 


56  THRICE-GREATEST   HERMES 

already  written  in  the  Prolegomena  on  "  The  Popular 
Symbolic  Kepresentation  of  the  Shepherd"  in  the 
chapter  on  " '  Hermas '  and  '  Hermes.' " 

Compare  also  the  Hymn  to  Attis  in  the  Naassene 
tradition,  where  he  is  invoked  "  as  Pan,  as  Bacchus,  as 
Shepherd  of  bright  stars."  This  is  the  macrocosmic 
side  of  the  microcosmic  mystery. 

We  should  also  not  forget  the  interesting  grouping 
on  a  Christian  lamp l  and  gem,2  which  goes  back  very 
probably  to  the  third  century.3  It  represents  the  Christ 
as  the  Good  Shepherd,  after  the  Hermes  type,  with  a 
lamb  on  his  shoulder.  Above  his  head  are  the  Seven 
"Planets,"  the  Lords  of  the  Fate,  and  in  addition  the 
Sun  and  Moon  on  either  side,  as  is  frequently  the  case  in 
Mithraic  representations.  Eound  his  feet  seven  lambs 4 
crowd,  symbolical  of  the  "seven  peoples,"  one  under 
each  "  planet."  Moreover,  on  the  right  is  Noah's  dove 
and  ark,  and  Jonah  being  swallowed  by  the  whale, 
while  on  the  left  is  Jonah  again,  vomited  on  to  the 
land  and  peacefully  resting  beneath  the  shade  of  the 
miraculous  gourd-tree. 

This  seems  to  me  to  be  a  symbol  of  the  mysteries, 
a  glyph  of  rebirth.  The  lambs  are  the  purified  lower 
nature  of  the  man,  the  purest  essence  of  which  is 
exalted  to  the  head  of  the  Great  Man.  This  purified 
"little  man"  is  swallowed  by  the  Cosmic  Fish,  the 
Great  Mother,  the  Womb  of  the  Almighty,  and  the 
man  is  born  again  to  rest  under  his  own  tree  in  the 
Paradise  of  the  Further  Shore. 

It  is  also  of  interest  to  note  that  the  Hermetic 
colonies  already  planted  in  Mesopotamia,  in  the  earliest 

1  Garucci,  Storia  delta  Arte  Christiana,  vi.   tav.   474 ;  Ferret, 
Catacombes  de  Rome,  tab.  17,  no.  5. 

2  Ferret,  ibid.,  tab.  16,  no.  80 

s  R.  113.  The  gem  has  only  six. 


PCEMANDRES,    THE   SHEPHERD   OF    MEN         57 

Islamic  times  of  which   the  Arabian  writers  tell  us, 
called  their  head  the  "Shepherd."1 

From  all  of  which  we  conclude  that  the  Good 
Shepherd  was  one  of  the  leading  ideas  of  Hellenistic 
theology. 

1  Cf.  Chwolsohn  (D.),  Die  Ssabier  und  der  Ssabismus,  ii.  628. 
Cf.  R.  166  ff. 


COKPUS  HERMETICUM  (II.) 

THE  GENERAL  SERMON 

(THE  title  only  is  preserved  in  our  Corpus,  the 
text  having  disappeared  with  the  loss  of  a  quire 
or  quires  before  the  parent  copy  came  into  the 
hands  of  Psellus.) 

»  +  »  *  « 

***** 
***** 
***** 
***** 
***** 
***** 


58 


CORPUS  HERMETICUM  II.  (III.) 


TO  ASCLEPIUS 

(Text:  P.  19-30;  Pat.  18b-20.) 

***** 

1.  Hermes.1  All  that  is  moved,  Asclepius,  is 
it  not  moved  in  something  and  by  something  ? 

Asclepius.  Assuredly. 

Her.  And  must  not  that  in  which  it's  moved 
be  greater  than  the  moved  ? 

Asc.  It  must. 

Her.  Mover,  again,  has  greater  power  than 
moved  ? 

Asc.  It  has,  of  course. 

Her.  The  nature,  furthermore,  of  that  in 
which  it's  moved  must  be  quite  other  from  the 
nature  of  the  moved  ? 

Asc.  It  must  completely. 

2.  Her.  Is  not,  again,  this  cosmos  vast,  [so 
vast]  that  than  it  there  exists  no  body  greater  ? 

1  From  here  till  the  end  of  §  4  is  quoted  by  Stobaeus,  Phys., 
xviii.  2  ;  G.  pp.  147-149  ;  W.  157,  6  ff. 

59 


60  THRICE-GREATEST   HERMES 

Asc.  Assuredly. 

Her.  And  massive  too,  for  it  is  crammed  with 
multitudes  of  other  mighty  frames,  nay  rather 
all  the  other  bodies  that  there  are  ? 

Asc.  It  is. 

Her.  And  yet  the  cosmos  is  a  body  ? 

Asc.  It  is  a  body. 

Her.  And  one  that's  moved  ? 

3.  Asc.  Assuredly. 

Her.  Of  what  size,  then,  must  be  the  space 
in  which  it's  moved ;  and  of  what  kind  [must 
be]  the  nature  [of  that  space]?  Must  it  not 
be  far  vaster  [than  the  cosmos],  in  order  that 
it  may  be  able  to  find  room  for  its  continued 
course,  so  that  the  moved  may  not  be  cramped 
for  want  of  room  and  lose  its  motion  ? 

Asc.  Something,  Thrice -greatest  one,  it  needs 
must  be,  immensely  vast. 

4.  Her.  And  of  what  nature  ?     Must  it   not 
be,  Asclepius,  of  just  the  contrary  ?     And  is  not 
contrary  to  body  bodiless  ? 

Asc.  Agreed. 

Her.  Space,  then,  is  bodiless.  But  bodi- 
less must  either  be  some  godlike  thing  or  God 
[Himself].  And  by  "some  godlike  thing"  I 
mean  no  more  the  generable  but  the  ingener- 
able.1 

1  That  is,  beyond  genesis,  the  universe  of  becoming,  or  the 
sensible  universe. 


TO   ASCLEPIUS  61 

5.  If,  then,  space  be  some  godlike  thing,  it  is 
substantial * ;   but  if  'tis  God  [Himself],  it  tran- 
scends substance.     But  it  is  to  be  thought  of 
otherwise  [than  God],  and  in  this  way. 

God  is  first  "  thinkable " 2  for  us,  not  for 
Himself,  for  that  the  thing  that's  thought  doth 
fall  beneath  the  thinker's  sense.  God  then  can 
not  be  " thinkable"  unto  Himself,  in  that  He's 
thought  of  by  Himself  as  being  nothing  else 
than  what  He  thinks.  But  He  is  "  something 
else  "  for  us,  and  so  He's  thought  of  by  us. 

6.  If  space   is,  therefore,    to   be  thought,  [it 
should]   not,   [then,    be   thought   as]   God,   but 
space.     If  God  is  also  to  be  thought,  [He  should] 
not  [be  conceived]  as  space,  but  energy  that  can 
contain  [all  space]. 

Further,3  all  that  is  moved  is  moved  not  in 
the  moved  but  in  the  stable.  And  that  which 
moves  [another]  is  of  course  stationary,  for  'tis 
impossible  that  it  should  move  with  it. 

Asc.  How  is  it,  then,  that  things  down  here, 
Thrice-greatest  one,  are  moved  with  those  that 
are  [already]  moved  ?  For  thou  hast  said 4  the 
errant  spheres  were  moved  by  the  inerrant  one. 

Her.  This  is  not,  0  Asclepius,  a  moving 
with,  but  one  against;  they  are  not  moved  with 

1  ovffiaSes.  2  Or  intelligible. 

3  From  here  till  the  end  of  §  9  (exclusive  of  the  last  sentence)  is 
quoted  by  Stobaeus,  Phys.,  xix.  2  ;  G.  pp.  154-157  ;  W.  163, 14  ff. 

4  Sc.  in  some  previous  sermon. 


62  THRICE-GREATEST   HERMES 

one  another,  but  one  against  the  other.  It  is 
this  contrariety  which  turneth  the  resistance  of 
their  motion  into  rest.  For  that  resistance  is 
the  rest  of  motion. 

7.  Hence,  too,  the  errant  spheres,  being  moved 
contrarily  to  the  inerrant  one,  are  moved  by  one 
another  by  mutual  contrariety,  [and  also]  by  the 
stable  one  through  contrariety  itself.     And  this 
can  otherwise  not  be. 

The  Bears1  up  there,  which  neither  set  nor 
rise,  think'st  thou  they  rest  or  move  ? 

Asc.  They  move,  Thrice-greatest  one. 

Her.  And  what  their  motion,  my  Asclepius  ? 

Asc.  Motion  that  turns  for  ever  round  the 
same. 

Her.  But  revolution — motion  round  same — 
is  fixed  by  rest.  For  "  round-the-same "  doth 
stop  "beyond-same."  "Beyond-same"  then, 
being  stopped,  if  it  be  steadied  in  "round-same" 
— the  contrary  stands  firm,  being  rendered  ever 
stable  by  its  contrariety. 

8.  Of  this   I'll   give   thee   here   on  earth  an 
instance,   which  the  eye  can  see.     Eegard  the 
animals    down    here,  —  a    man,    for    instance, 
swimming!     The  water  moves,  yet  the   resist- 
ance of  his  hands  and  feet  give  him  stability, 
so  that  he  is  not  borne  along  with  it,  nor  sunk 
thereby. 

1  Sc.  Ursa  Major  and  Ursa  Minor. 


TO   ASCLEPIUS  63 

Asc.  Thou  hast,  Thrice-greatest  one,  adduced 
a  most  clear  instance. 

Her.  All  motion,  then,  is  caused  in  station 
and  by  station. 

The  motion,  therefore,  of  the  cosmos  (and  of 
every  other  hylic  animal l)  will  not  be  caused 
by  things  exterior  to  the  cosmos,  but  by  things 
interior  [outward]  to  the  exterior — such  [things] 
as  soul,  or  spirit,  or  some  such  other  thing 
incorporal. 

Tis  not  its  body  that  doth  move  the  living 
thing  in  it ;  nay,  not  even  the  whole  [body  of 
the  universe  a  lesser]  body  e'en  though  there 
be  no  life  in  it.2 

9.  Asc.  What  meanest  thou  by  this,  Thrice- 
greatest  one  ?  Is  it  not  bodies,  then,  that 
move  the  stock  and  stone  and  all  the  other 
things  inanimate  ? 

Her.  By  no  means,  0  Asclepius.  The  some- 
thing-in-the-body,  the  that-which-moves  the 
thing  inanimate,  this  surely 's  not  a  body,  for 
that  it  moves  the  two  of  them — both  body  of 
the  lifter  and  the  lifted  ?  So  that  a  thing  that's 
lifeless  will  not  move  a  lifeless  thing.  That 
which  doth  move  [another  thing]  is  animate,  in 
that  it  is  the  mover. 

Thou  seest,  then,  how  heavy  laden  is  the  soul, 

1  That  is,  living  material  organism. 

2  That  is,  in  the  lesser  body. 


64  THRICE-GREATEST    HERMES 

for  it  alone  doth  lift  two  bodies.  That  things, 
moreover,  moved  are  moved  in  something  as  well 
as  moved  by  something  is  clear. 

10.  Asc.  Yea,1  0  Thrice-greatest  one,  things 
moved  must  needs  be  moved  in  something  void.2 

Her.  Thou  sayest  well,  0  [my]  Asclepius ! 3 
For  naught  of  things  that  are  is  void.  Alone  the 
' '  is-not "  's  void  [and]  stranger  to  subsistence.  For 
that  which  is  subsistent  can  never  change  to  void.4 

Asc.  Are  there,  then,  0  Thrice-greatest  one, 
no  such  things  as  an  empty  cask,  for  instance, 
and  an  empty  jar,  a  cup  and  vat,  and  other 
things  like  unto  them? 

Her.  Alack,  Asclepius,  for  thy  far-wandering 
from  the  truth !  Think'st  thou  that  things 
most  full  and  most  replete  are  void  ? 

11.  Asc.  How  meanest   thou,  Thrice-greatest 
one? 

Her.  Is  not  air  body  ? 
Asc.  It  is. 

1  For  a  criticism   of  Parthey's  text  of  the   following  three 
paragraphs,  see   R.,  pp.    209,   300.      Parthey  had    uncritically 
conflated  the  text  of  our  Corpus  and  the  readings  of  Stobaeus,  in 
ignorance  that  he  had  before  him  two  different  recensions  of  the 
same  text.     I  follow  Reitzenstein. 

2  Cf.  P.  S.  A.,  xxxiii.  1. 

3  From  here  to  the  end  of  §  12  is  quoted  by  Stobseus,  Phys., 
xviii.  3 ;  G.  pp.  149-150 ;  W.  158,  13  ff. 

4  The  variant  in  Stobaeus  reads :  "  No  single  thing  of  things 
that  are  is  void  by  reason  of  the  [very  nature  of]  subsistence. 
The    'is'    could    not   be   'is'  were   it  not  full  of  subsistence 
[itself]."    The    rest   of    the    variants    need    not    be    noted    in 

ranslation. 


TO   ASCLEPIUS  65 

Her.  And  doth  this  body  not  pervade  all 
things,  and  so,  pervading,  fill  them?  And 
"  body "  ;  doth  body  not  consist  from  blending 
of  the  "  four  "  ?  Full,  then,  of  air  are  all  thou 
callest  void  ;  and  if  of  air,  then  of  the  "  four/' l 

Further,  of  this  the  converse  follows,  that  all 
thou  callest  full  are  void — of  air ;  for  that  they 
have  their  space  filled  out  with  other  bodies,  and, 
therefore,  are  not  able  to  receive  the  air  therein. 
These,  then,  which  thou  dost  say  are  void,  they 
should  be  hollow  named,  not  void ;  for  they  not 
only  are,  but  they  are  full  of  air  and  spirit. 

12.  Asc.  Thy  argument  (logos),  Thrice-greatest 
one,  is  not  to  be  gainsaid ;  air  is  a  body. 
Further,  it  is  this  body  which  doth  pervade  all 
things,  and  so,  pervading,  fill  them.  What  are 
we,  then,  to  call  that  space  in  which  the  all  doth 
move? 

Her.  The  Bodiless,  Asclepius. 

Asc.  What,  then,  is  Bodiless  ? 

Her.  'Tis  Mind  and  Reason  (Logos),  whole 
out  of  whole,  all  self-embracing,  free  from  all 
body,  from  all  error  free,  unsensible  to  body  and 
untouchable,  self  stayed  in  self,  containing  all, 
preserving  those  that  are,  whose  rays,  to  use  a 

1  The  physical  elements  —  earth,  air,  water  and  fire  — were 
supposed  to  be  severally  combinations  of  the  Primal  Elements, 
Earth,  Air,  Water  and  Fire,  one  Element  dominating  in  each. 
Thus  our  air  would  consist  of  a  proportion  of  all  four  Great  Ele- 
ments, but  would  have  Air  predominant  in  it ;  and  so  for  the  rest. 
VOL.  II.  5 


66  THRICE-GREATEST   HERMES 

likeness,  are  Good,  Truth,  Light  beyond  light, 
the  Archetype  of  soul. 
Asc.  What,  then,  is  God  ? 

1 3.  Her.  Not  any  one  of  these  is  He ;  for  He 
it  is  that  causeth  them  to  be,  both  all  and  each 
and  every  thing  of  all  that  are.     Nor  hath  He 
left  a  thing  beside  that  is-not ;  but  they  are  all 
from  things-that-are  and  not  from    things-that- 
are-not.     For  that  the  things-that-are-not  have 
naturally  no  power  of  being  anything,  but  rather 
have  the  nature   of  the   inability-to-be.      And, 
conversely,    the    things-that-are    have    not    the 
nature  of  some  time  not-being. 

14.  Asc.  What  say'st  thou  ever,  then,  God  is  ? 
Her.  God,  therefore,  is  not  Mind,  but  Cause 

that  the  Mind  is ;  God  is  not  Spirit,  but  Cause 
that  Spirit  is ;  God  is  not  Light,  but  Cause  that 
the  Light  is.  Hence  should  one  honour  God  with 
these  two  names  [the  Good  and  Father] — names 
which  pertain  to  Him  alone  and  no  one  else. 

For  no  one  of  the  other  so-called  gods,  no  one 
of  men,  or  daimones,  can  be  in  any  measure 
Good,  but  God  alone ;  and  He  is  Good  alone 
and  nothing  else.  The  rest  of  things  are 
separable  all  from  the  Good's  nature ;  for  [all 
the  rest]  are  soul  and  body,  which  have  no  space 
that  can  contain l  the  Good. 

1  In  the  original  there  is  a  word-play — x«pt(rr<£  (separable)  and 
X«pi}<ra^(contain) — which  is  impossible  to  reproduce  in  translation. 


TO   ASCLEPIUS  67 

15.  For  that  as  mighty  is  the  Greatness  of  the 
Good  as  is  the  Being  of  all  things  that  are — 
both  bodies  and  things  bodiless,  things  sensible 
and  intelligible  things.     Call  not  thou,  therefore, 
aught  else  Good,  for  thou  would'st  impious  be ; 
nor  anything  at  all  at  any  time  call    God   but 
Good   alone,    for    so    thou    would'st    again    be 
impious. 

16.  Though,  then,  the  Good  is  spoken  of  by 
all,  it  is  not  understood  by  all,  what  thing  it  is. 
Not  only,  then,  is  God  not  understood  by  all, 
but  both  unto  the  gods  and  some  of  men  they 
out  of  ignorance  do  give  the    name    of  Good, 
though   they    can   never   either   be   or    become 
Good.     For  they  are  very  different   from    God, 
while   Good   can   never   be    distinguished    from 
Him,  for  that  God  is  the  same  as  Good. 

The  rest  of  the  immortal  ones  are  natheless 
honoured  with  the  name  of  God,  and  spoken  of 
as  gods ;  but  God  is  Good  not  out  of  courtesy 
but  out  of  nature.  For  that  God's  nature  and 
the  Good  is  one ;  one  is  the  kind  of  both,  from 
which  all  other  kinds  [proceed]. 

The  Good  is  He  who  gives  all  things  and 
naught  receives.1  God,  then,  doth  give  all 
things  and  receive  naught.  God,  then,  is  Good, 
and  Good  is  God. 

17.  The  other  name  of  God  is  Father,  again 

1  Cf.  C.  H.t  x.  (xi.)  3  :  Tis  "He  alone  who  taketh  naught." 


68  THRICE-GREATEST    HERMES 

because  He  is  the  that-which-maketh  all.     The 
part  of  father  is  to  make. 

Wherefore  child-making  is  a  very  great  and  a 
most  pious  thing  in  life  for  them  who  think 
aright,  and  to  leave  life  on  earth  without  a  child 
a  very  great  misfortune  and  impiety ;  and  he 
who  hath  no  child  is  punished  by  the  daimons 
after  death. 

And  this  the  punishment :  that  that  man's 
soul  who  hath  no  child,  shall  be  condemned  unto 
a  body  with  neither  man's  nor  woman's  nature, 
a  thing  accurst  beneath  the  sun. 

Wherefore,  Asclepius,  let  not  your  sympathies 
be  with  the  man  who  hath  no  child,  but  rather 
pity  his  mishap,  knowing  what  punishment 
abides  for  him. 

Let  all  that  has  been  said,  then,  be  to  thee, 
Asclepius,  an  introduction  to  the  gnosis  of  the 
nature  of  all  things. 


COMMENTARY 

"AN  INTRODUCTION  TO  THE  GNOSIS  OF  THE  NATURE 
OF  ALL  THINGS" 

This  treatise  has  no  precise  title,  for,  as  we  have 
already  seen  in  treating  of  the  make-up  of  the  Corpus, 
the  traditional  title,  "  Of  Hermes  to  Tat,  the  General 
Sermon,"  found  in  all  the  MSS.,  cannot  apply  to  our 


TO   ASCLEPIUS  69 

tractate,  which  is  addressed  to  Asclepius,  and  from 
which  Stobaeus  quotes  under  the  general  title,  "Of 
Hermes,  from  the  [Sermons]  to  Asclepius." 

The  supposition,  however,  that  Sermon  (II.)  has 
dropped  out  from  the  parent  copy  of  our  Corpus,  owing 
to  the  loss  of  one  or  more  quires  or  quaternions,  explains 
those  phenomena  so  admirably,  that  it  has  only  to  be 
brought  forward,  as  it  has  been  by  Eeitzenstein,  to 
carry  conviction. 

It  is  a  curious  fact,  however,  that  Stobaeus  starts 
his  quotations  from  this  treatise  precisely  with  the 
same  words  with  which  our  text  begins  ;  nevertheless 
these  words  plunge  us  so  immediately  into  a  secondary 
subject,  that  Reitzenstein  thinks  there  may  have  been 
a  more  general  introduction  which  Johannes  may  very 
well  have  omitted. 

That,  however,  the  lost  pages  of  our  Corpus  should 
have  contained  such  an  introduction,  broken  at  precisely 
the  very  same  point  to  a  word,  would  seem  to  be  a 
coincidence  the  reverse  of  probable  ;  nevertheless  the 
treatise  itself  purports  to  be  a  very  formal  one,  for 
we  learn  from  the  concluding  words  (§  17)  that  it 
was  intended  to  be  "  An  Introduction  to  the  Gnosis 
(ir poyvwcria)  of  the  Nature  of  All  Things." 

We  are,  therefore,  driven  to  conclude  that,  in  spite 
of  a  most  improbable  coincidence,  the  beginning  may 
have  been  lost,  and  that  we  have  therefore  to  regret  the 
loss  not  only  of  the  whole  of  the  "  General  Sermon  "  to 
Tat,  but  also  of  the  introduction  to  the  "  Introduction 
to  the  Gnosis"  addressed  to  Asclepius,  and  therewith,  in 
all  probability,  some  precious  indications  of  how  "  Tat " 
and  "  Asclepius  "  are  to  be  precisely  defined. 

Parthey's  conflated  title  (p.  19)  from  the  MSS.,  and 
Stobaeus,  "  Of  Hermes  the  Thrice-greatest,  the  General 
Sermon  to  Asclepius,"  must  therefore  be  definitely 


70  THRICE-GREATEST   HERMES 

abandoned,  and,  in  lieu  of  the  lost  general  title,  we 
must  be  content  with  the  simple  heading,  "To 
Asclepius." 

SPACE  is  A  PLENUM 

The  subject  is  that  of  the  Fullness  of  Being  or  the 
>/    Plenum   of   things.     Space   is   a   Plenum, — the  funda- 
mental concept  of  modern  scientific  speculation. 

Asclepius,  however,  must  guard  himself  against  the 
confusion  of  Space  with  God ;  for  God  is  not  Space, 
but  Cause  thereof, — the  True  Transcendency  of  "that 
which  can  contain  all  things"  (§  6). 

"  In  Him  we  move. "  "  All  that  is  moved  is  moved 
in  what  is  stable,"  or  "  in  Him  who  stands"  (cv  earrwri)  ; 
where  it  is  to  be  noticed  that  the  term,  "  He  who 
stands,"  is  found  in  Philo,  and  is  made  much  of  in 
Gnostic  tradition,  especially  in  the  so-called  Simonian 
Gnosis,  for  in  The  Great  Announcement,  from  which 
Hippolytus  has  preserved  some  passages,  the  Logos  is 
called  "He  who  stands"  or  "He  who  has  stood, 
stands  and  will  stand."1  This  is  the  aspect  of  the 
Reason  of  things  that  holds  and  compacts  all  together, 
the  Stock  or  Pillar  of  Immobility,  the  opposite  aspect 
being  that  of  the  Separator  or  Divider ;  the  two 
together  forming  the  Cross  of  Manifestation,  the 
resolution  of  the  Sphere  of  Sameness. 

The  World-Soul  is  in  perpetual  motion ;  this  per- 
petual motion  is  ordered  and  reduced  to  a  cosmos  and 
harmony  of  motion  by  the  introduction  into  it,  by 
means  of  the  Reason,  of  the  root-forms  of  motion 
(mentioned  in  the  Timceus  and  elsewhere) ; — up,  down ; 
right,  left;  front,  back  ;  in,  out ;  round, — and  no-motion* 

All  bodies  are  essentially  inert ;  it  is  the  soul  that 
moves  them,  either  immediately  or  mediately  (§  9). 
1  R.,  p.  305,  also  makes  a  brief  reference  to  this. 


TO    ASCLEPIUS  71 

What  the  precise  meaning  of  §  10  may  be  I  cannot 
say;  the  tradition  of  the  original  text  was  variable, 
showing  that  the  copyists  had  difficulty  with  it.  As, 
however,  the  doctrine  throughout  is  that  of  a  Plenum 
(as,  indeed,  it  is  elsewhere  in  the  Trismegistic  writings), 
I  can  only  suppose  that  the  instructor  of  "  Asclepius  " 
was  endeavouring  to  clinch  his  point  by  arguing  that  the 
only  Void  was  the  "  is-not  "  or  non-being  ;  now  as  non- 
being  cannot  possibly  "exist,"  there  can  be  no  such 
thing  as  Void. 

THE  SPOUSE  OF  DEITY 

That,  then,  in  which  "  the  All  doth  move,"  in  which 
all  things  "live  and  move  and  have  their  being,"  is 
the  Bodiless  ;  in  other  words,  the  Mind  or  Reason  of 
God,  the  Logos,  —  who,  as  Philo  tells  us,  is  the  Place  of 
God,  —  that  is,  Infinite  Space  itself,  the  Container  of  all 
things,  the  very  Spouse  of  Deity.  Spouse  or  Son,  it 
matters  not;  that  in  which  all  moves  and  lives  and 
breathes  is  Wisdom,  Good  and  Truth,  the  ^Eon  of  aeons, 
Light  of  light,  Life  of  life,  the  Archetype  of  Soul 
itself  (§  12). 

GOD  is  CAUSE  THAT  SPIRIT  is 

"  God,  then,  is  not  Spirit,"  l  much  less  "  a  spirit,"  2 
"  but  Cause  that  Spirit  is  "  ;  for  God  is  "  Good  alone." 
Therefore  :  "  Call  not  thou  aught  else  Good." 

And  now  let  us  turn  to  F.  C.  Conybeare's  important 
criticism  of  Matt.  xix.  17  =  Mk.  x.  18  =  Lk.  xviii.  19, 
in  the  first  number  of  The  Hibbert  Journal?  where  he 


1  Cf.  Joh.  iv.  24  : 

2  As  the  A.V.  has  it  erroneously. 

3  See  his  article,  "  Three  Early  Doctrinal  Modifications  of  the 
Text  of  the  Gospels,"  in  The  Hibbert  Journal  (Oct.  1902),  pp.  98- 
113.     J.  R.  Wilkinson's  few  remarks  (H.  J.,  Ap.  1903,  pp.  575, 


72  THRICE-GREATEST   HERMES 

brings  forward  very  strong  evidence  that  the  original 
reading  was:  "Call  thou  me  not  Good;  One  only  is 
Good,  God  the  Father/'— a  reading  known  to  Marcion, 
the  Clementine  Homilies,  Athanasius,  Didymus,  Tatian, 
and  Origen  (the  two  last  inferentially). 

If  we  compare  this  with  our  text,  "Call  not  thou, 
therefore,  aught  else  Good,  for  thou  would'st  impious  be ; 
nor  any  thing  at  all  at  any  time  call  Good  but  God  alone," 
and  "  He  is  Good  alone  and  nothing  else," — we  cannot 
fail  to  be  struck  with  the  precise  similarity  of  the 
phrasing  and  blend  of  ideas. 

If,  further,  we  take  this  in  connection  with  the  still 
more  striking  contrast,  "God  is  not  Spirit,"  with  the 
Johannine  "God  is  Spirit,"  we  might  at  first  sight 
almost  persuade  ourselves  that  our  treatise  had  these 
Christian  declarations  immediately  in  mind.  But  the 
general  phenomena  of  similarity  of  diction  and  idea  of 
the  Trismegistic  literature  with  those  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment documents  is  so  much  more  satisfactorily  explained 
by  the  fact  that  both  literatures  use  mainly  the  common 
Hellenistic  theological  phrases  of  the  time,  that  we  need 
not  distress  ourselves  with  any  suggestions  either  of 
plagiarism  or  of  direct  controversy. 

Doubtless  the  declaration,  "  God  is  Spirit,"  was  a 
commonplace  among  the  religio-philosophical  circles  of 
the  time,  and  Hermes  is  here  simply  refining  on  a 
common  idea.  The  reading,  "  Call  thou  not  me  Good," 
which  appears  to  have  been  preserved  mainly  in  Gnostic 
tradition,  may  also  as  easily  have  come  from  a  similar 
general  idea  that  the  One  and  Only  One  was  Good  alone. 

It  is,  moreover,  of  special  interest  to  notice  that  the 
second  clause  of  the  Marcionite  reading  runs :  "  There 
is  one  [only]  Good,  God  the  Father,"  while  in  our 

576)  on  Conybeare's  criticism  of  this  synoptic  passage  do  not  seem 
to  me  to  be  of  any  weight. 


TO    ASCLEPIUS  73 

treatise  the  two  names  of  God  are  given  as  Good  and 
Father;  and  so  we  read  (§  16):  "God,  then,  is  Good, 
and  Good  is  God  ";  and  immediately  after  (§  17) :  "  The 
other  name  of  God  is  Father." 1 

Striking  however,  as  are  those  coincidences,  we  are 
nevertheless  wholly  unpersuaded  that  there  was  any 
immediate  literary  contact  between  those  two  sets  of 
Scripture.  All  that  can  be  said  is  that  their  literary 
similarities  are  due  to  a  common  theological  language 
and  their  many  points  of  contact  in  ideas  to  a  generally 
common  atmosphere  of  theological  conceptions. 

HE  WHO  is  WITHOUT  A  WIFE  is  HALF  A  MAN 

Again,  the  doctrine  of  the  duty  to  beget  children  (§17) 
seems  at  first  sight  to  be  an  interpolation  by  a  Jewish 
editor,  the  Jews  holding  that  "he  who  is  without  a 
wife  is  half  a  man."  We  must,  however,  remember 
that  the  Egyptian  priests  were  married,  and  that  the 
rule  with  them,  as  with  the  Pythagoreans,  was  that  a 
man  should  first  of  all  discharge  his  duty  to  society  and 
live  the  "  practical,"  "  political "  or  "  social "  life,  before 
retiring  into  the  life  of  contemplation.  He  must  first 
beget  children,  not  only  that  the  race  might  be 
continued,  but  also  that  bodies  might  be  supplied  by 
parents  devoted  to  the  ideal  of  the  religious  or 
philosophic  life,  so  that  advanced  souls  might  find  birth 
in  favourable  conditions,  and  so  the  Order  be  continued. 

This  also  is  the  ancient  rule  laid  down  by  the  Manu 
of  the  Aryan  Hindus  in  the  Mdnava  Dharma  Shdstra. 
The  duties  of  the  householder  station  of  life  (Grihastha 
ashrama)  must  first  be  performed,  before  the  parents 
can  retire  to  the  contemplative  life  (Vanaprastha 

1  Cf.  the  expression,  "God,  Father  and  the  Good,"  G.  H.,  x. 
(xi.)  l. 


74  THRICE-GREATEST    HERMES 

ashrama).  In  special  cases,  however,  exceptions  could 
be  made. 

It  may  then  be  that  Asclepius  stands  for  those  pupils 
who  were  still  living  the  married  life. 

The  scribe  of  the  thirteenth  century,  Codex  B. 
(Parisinus,  1220),  has  laconically  written  on  the  margin 
of  this  paragraph  the  single  word  "  nonsense  "  (<j>\vapia) ; 
he  was  presumably  a  monk 


COKPUS  HERMETICUM  III.  (IV.) 

THE  SACRED  SERMON 

OF  HERMES 

(Text:  P.  31-33;  Pat.  8b-9.) 

1.  THE  Glory  of  all  things  is  God,  Godhead  and 
Godly  Nature.  Source  of  the  things  that  are  is 
God,  who  is  both  Mind  and  Nature, — yea  Matter, 
the  Wisdom  that  reveals  all  things.  Source 
[too]  is  Godhead, — yea  Nature,  Energy,  Neces- 
sity, and  End,  and  Making-new-again.1 

Darkness  that  knew  no  bounds  was  in  Abyss, 
and  Water  [too]  and  subtle  Breath  intelligent ; 
these  were  by  Power  of  God  in  Chaos. 

Then  Holy  Light  arose ;  and  there  collected 
'neath  Dry  Space2  from  out  Moist  Essence 

1  Cf.  P.  S.  A.,  xxvi  2. 

2  Lit.  u  Sand  "  ;  this  presumably  refers  to  the  Light,  and  would 
thus  mean  "  within  the  area  or  sphere  of  Light " — that  is  to  say, 
manifestation.     The  "  Moist  Essence"  is  apparently  the  Water  of 
Chaos,  or  primal  substance. 

76 


76  THRICE-GREATEST   HERMES 

Elements ;  and  all  the  Gods  do  separate  things 
out  from  fecund  Nature. 

2.  All  things  being  undefined  and  yet   un- 
wrought,  the  light  things  were  assigned  unto  the 
height,  the  heavy  ones  had  their  foundations  laid 
down  underneath  the  moist  part  of  Dry  Space,1 
the  universal  things  being  bounded  off  by  Fire 
and  hanged  in  Breath  to  keep  them  up. 

And 2  Heaven  was  seen  in  seven  circles ;  its 
Gods  were  visible  in  forms  of  stars  with  all  their 
signs;  while  Nature  had  her  members  made 
articulate  together  with  the  Gods  in  her.  And 
[Heaven's]  periphery  revolved  in  cyclic  course, 
borne  on  by  Breath  of  God. 

3.  And  every  God  by  his  own  proper  power 
brought  forth  what  was  appointed  him.     Thus 
there  arose  four-footed  beasts,  and  creeping  things, 
and  those  that  in  the  water  dwell,  and  things 
with  wings,  and  everything  that  beareth  seed, 
and  grass,  and  shoot  of  every  flower,  all  having 
in  themselves  seed  of  again-becoming.3 

And  they  selected  out 4  the  births 5  of  men  for 
gnosis  of  the  works  of  God  and  attestation  of  the 
energy  of  Nature;  the  multitude  of  men  for 


presumably  the  "Water"  of  space.     The 
heavy  things  are  apparently  primaeval  or  cosmic  "  Earth." 

2  The  emended  text  from  here  to  the  end  of  the  first  sentence 
of  §  3  is  given  by  R.  47,  n.  1. 

3  Or  "  reincarnation  "  (Tra\iyyfvffflas). 

4  Iffirtpnohtyovv.  5  reks  yevffftts. 


THE    SACRED   SERMON  77 

lordship  over  all  beneath  the  Heaven  and  gnosis 
of  its  blessings,  that  they  might  increase  in 
increasing  and  multiply  in  multitude,  and  every 
soul  infleshed  by  revolution  of  the  Cyclic  Gods, 
for  observation  of  the  marvels  of  the  Heaven 
and  Heaven's  Gods'  revolution,  and  of  the  works 
of  God  and  energy  of  Nature,  for  tokens  of  its 
blessings,  for  gnosis  of  the  power  of  God,  that 
they  might  know  the  fates  that  follow  good  and 
evil  [deeds]  and  learn  the  cunning  work  of  all 
good  arts. 

4.  [Thus]  there  begins  their  living  and  their 
growing  wise,  according  to  the  fate  appointed  by 
the  revolution  of  the  Cyclic  Gods,  and  their 
deceasing  for  this  end. 

And  there  shall  be  memorials  mighty  of  their 
handiworks  upon  the  earth,  leaving  dim  trace 
behind  when  cycles  are  renewed. 

For  every  birth  of  flesh  ensouled,  and  of  the 
fruit  of  seed,  and  every  handiwork,  though  it 
decay,  shall  of  necessity  renew  itself,  both  by  the 
renovation  of  the  Gods  and  by  the  turning-round 
of  Nature's  rhythmic  wheel. 

For  that  whereas  the  Godhead  is  Nature's  ever- 
making-new-again  the  cosmic  mixture,  Nature 
herself  is  also  co-established  in  that  Godhead. 


78  THRICE-GREATEST   HERMES 

COMMENTARY 

TEXT  AND  TITLE 

The  text  seems  to  be  very  corrupt,  and  at  one  time  I 
thought  it  incomplete ;  but  it  may  very  well  end  with 
the  reference  to  the  mighty  deeds  of  the  men  of  old. 

The  title  "  Sacred  Sermon  "  would  lead  us  to  expect 
something  of  a  special  nature,  something  that  would 
constitute  a  basis  of  doctrine.  For  we  hear  of  the 
"  Sacred  Sermon "  of  Orpheus,  and  of  the  "  Sacred 
Sermon  "  of  Pythagoras,  and  are  told  that  they  formed 
the  most  sacred  deposits  of  these  two  mystic  schools 
respectively,  and  were  regarded  with  special  reverence ; 
they  thus  seem  to  have  been  looked  upon  in  some 
fashion  as  containing  the  groundwork  of  these  systems. 

And  this  is  precisely  what  we  find  with  our  treatise  ; 
it  is  to  a  large  extent  a  summary  of  the  general  ideas 
of  the  "Shepherd"  cosmogony  adapted  to  the  needs  of 
a  simpler  formularization. 

When,  however,  Reitzenstein  (p.  193)  refers  to  this 
treatise  cursorily  as  the  preaching  of  some  prophet  or 
other  which  has  been  transferred  to  Hermes  by  the 
Redactor  of  our  Corpus,  he  suggests  that  we  are  dealing 
with  a  doctrine  foreign  to  the  cosmogonical  ideas  of 
the  "  Shepherd."  It  is,  indeed,  true  that  if  we  compare 
the  data  of  the  two  treatises  together,  detail  by  detail, 
we  shall  find  strong  contradictions ;  but  the  general 
"  feel "  of  both  is  the  same,  the  general  atmosphere  is 
identical. 

THE  TRINITY 

Prefixed  to  the  cosmogenesis  is  a  formal  theological 
prooem,  the  precise  meaning  of  which  escapes  me 
because  of  its  almost  mnemonic  nature  ;  it  is,  indeed 


THE    SACRED    SERMON  79 

quite  in  sutra  style.  There  appears,  however,  to  be  a 
distinct  trinitarian x  idea  lurking  in  the  first  sentence, 
the  trinity  consisting  of  God  (o  6eo?)  and  Godhead 
(TO  Qelov)  and  Nature  (fj  </>vo-is).  The  Glory  or  Power 
of  all  things  is  this  Divine  Trinity.  The  Source  (or 
Beginning),  the  End  and  the  Ever-renewing  of  all  things 
are  owing  to  this  Triad.  All  three  seem  to  be  almost 
interchangeable  terms.  The  Godhead  is  the  Mind  of 
God,  Godly  Nature  is  the  Wisdom  of  God.  Again,  at 
the  end  of  the  sermon  (§  4)  we  are  told  that  the  God- 
head (or  that  which  is  Divine)  is  "  Nature's  ever-making- 
new-again  the  cosmic  mixture."  Godhead  in  operation  is 
Nature,  while  at  the  same  time  Nature  is  co-established 
in  Godhead,  and  both  are  one  in  God,  the  Source  of  all. 

The  cosmogenesis  begins  with  the  grandiose  image : 
"  Darkness  that  knew  no  bounds  was  in  Abyss." 

We  have  already,  in  commenting  on  "  Darkness  "  in 
the  "  Poemandres "  treatise,  referred,  in  explanation, 
to  a  Gnostic  tradition  in  which  the  Primal  Elements 
appear  as  Water,  Darkness,  Abyss,  and  Chaos,  and  have 
given  some  reason  for  ascribing  the  form  of  this  tradition 
to  Egypt — that  is,  Archaic  Egypt,  a  parallel  tradition 
to  the  Sumerian,  both  derived  from  a  still  more  Archaic 
source. 

FROM  THE  SYSTEM  OF  THE  NICOLAITANS 

If,  now,  we  turn  to  Epiphanius  (remembering  that  he 
picked  up  what  he  knew  or  thought  he  knew  about  the 
Gnostics  in  Egypt),  we  shall  find  that  he  has  preserved 
from  another  Gnostic  system  an  even  more  striking 
parallel  with  our  text. 

The  Bishop  of  Salamis  is  denouncing  the  Nicolaitans,2 
who  for  him  were  the  earliest  Christian  Gnostics,  there 

1  Not,  of  course,  in  a  technical  Christian  sense. 

2  Adv.  Har.,  xxv.  1-5. 


80  THRICE-GREATEST   HERMES 

being  very  numerous  and  various  sects  of  them,  all 
deriving  from  a  certain  Nicolaus,  whom  Epiphanius 
would  have  us  believe  to  have  been  one  of  the  first 
seven  deacons  of  the  Church. 

If,  in  reality,  however,  the  Nicolaitans  =  the  Balaam- 
ites  of  early  Talmudic  Rabbinism,1  then  the  original 
Nicolaitans  were  the  earliest  Christians,  for  "Balaam- 
ites"  was  the  Rabbinical  by-name  of  the  followers  of 
Balaam  (Bileam)  =  Jeschu,  and  Balaam  =  Nicolaos,  in 
Hebrew  and  Greek  respectively. 

Curiously  enough,  moreover,  in  the  paragraph  (§  4) 
before  the  one  from  which  we  are  going  to  quote, 
Epiphanius  ascribes  the  use  of  the  mystic  words, 
"Kaulakau  Kaulakau,"  to  the  Nicolaitans,  words 
which  we  have,  with  high  probability,  shown  in  the 
chapter  "  Myth  of  Man  in  the  Mysteries  "  (§  16  J.,  end) 
to  have  been  used  by  a  Jewish  Gnostic  of  the  time  of 
Philo,  writing  in  an  Egyptian  environment,  and  dealing 
with  the  Man- tradition,  which  is  one  of  the  main 
elements  of  the  "  Poemandres  "  doctrine.  All  of  which 
carries  us  back  to  the  dawn  of  Christianity. 

Speaking,  then,  of  these  Nicolaitans,  Epiphanius 
writes  (xxv.  5): 

"  Others  of  them,  again,  plaster  together  empty  names, 
saying:  There  was  Darkness  and  Abyss  (fivQos)  and 
Water ;  and  Spirit  in  the  midst  of  them  made  separa- 
tion of  them." 2 

Here  we  have  precisely  the  same  elements  as  in  our 
text  for  the  foundation  of  a  eosmogonical  representation. 
What  precise  relationship  these  various  traditions  may 
have  had  to  one  another  we  cannot  say  with  any 
certainty ;  but  what  we  can  say  is  that  the  writer  or 

1  See  D.  J.  L.y  p.  188,  where  this  identification  is  worked  out 
with  some  probability. 

2  Ed.  Dindorf  (Leipzig,  1859),  ii.  35,  36. 


THE    SACKED   SERMON  81 

writers  of  our  treatise  are  dealing  with  a  material 
common  to  themselves,  to  pre  -  Christian  Jewish 
•Gnosticism  and  the  earliest  forms  of  the  Christian 
Gnosis. 

THE  "BOOKS  OF  THE  CHALDEANS" 

The  sentence  (in  §  2),  "  All  things  being  undefined 
and  yet  unwrought  (aKaraarKevaa-rwv)"  is  also  to  be 
noticed,  and,  together  with  the  opening  sentence  of 
the  cosmogony,  compared  with  the  LXX.  version  of 
Gen.  i.  2 : 

"  And  the  earth  was  invisible  and  as  yet  unwrought 
(a/carao-KeiWro?),  and  Darkness  was  upon  the  Abyss, 
and  the  Spirit  of  God  was  borne  upon  the  Water." 

Are  we,  then,  to  suppose  that  our  Trismegistic  writer 
based  himself  directly  upon  this  famous  "oracle"  of 
Jewish  Scripture  ? 

The  Jewish  Gnostics  would  doubtless  do  so  in  their 
commentaries ;  but  the  phenomena  of  the  Christianized 
Jewish  Gnostic  systems  persuade  us  rather  that  these 
Gnostic  Jews  did  not  derive  their  ideas  directly  from 
the  text  of  their  national  Scripture,  but  from  what  we 
may  call  parallel  traditions  of  an  esoteric  nature.  We 
shall  see  later  on,  when  treating  of  Zosimus,  that  there 
were  translations  of  the  Chaldsean  sacred  books  in  the 
Alexandrian  Library,  and  we  cannot  but  believe  that 
the  general  ideas  of  Chaldaean  cosmogony  were  familiar 
to  all  the  learned  of  the  time.  For  Chaldsea  and  Egypt 
were  regarded  as  the  two  most  wisdom-loving  nations 
of  antiquity,  the  two  most  sacred  lands.  What  wonder, 
then,  that  Chaldaean  and  Egyptian  ideas  should  be 
blended  together,  and  turned  out  into  a  "scientific" 
whole,  by  the  spirit  of  Greek  "  philosophizing,"  in  our 
treatises  ? 

I  would  therefore  conclude  that  both  here,  and  in 

VOL.   II.  6 


82  THRICE-GREATEST   HERMES 

the  repetition  of  the  formula,  "increase  in  increasing 
and  multiply  in  multitude"  (§  3),  from  the  "  Poemandres  " 
treatise  (§  18),  the  similarities  are  not  due  to  direct 
plagiarism,  but  to  the  fact  that  such  logoi  were  "  in  the 
air."  I  would  also  suggest  that  the  somewhat  peculiar 
term  a/caracr/ceJacrTo?  was  not  original  with  the  Greek 
Targum  of  Genesis,  first  made  at  Alexandria  some 
250  years  B.C.,  but  that  it  was  rather  taken  from  the 
theological  and  philosophical  language  of  the  day  and 
used  by  the  Hebrew  translators ;  that,  in  brief,  in  the 
LXX.  translation  already  we  have  to  take  into  account 
the  strong  influence  of  the  technology  of  Hellenistic 
theology. 

With  regard  to  the  whole  of  our  treatise,  I  would 
suggest  that  we  have  the  heads  of  topics  which  were 
to  be  subsequently  explained  and  commented  upon, 
rather  than  a  didactic  treatise  setting  forth  a  clear 
teaching.  Like  the  proem,  the  cosmogenesis  itself  is 
straitly  condensed,  so  condensed  that  the  indications 
are  too  vague  for  us  to  form  any  clear  mental  picture 
of  the  process  that  is  suggested.  We  have  nothing  but 
a  series  of  headings  that  may  have  meant  something 
very  definite  to  the  writer — may,  in  fact,  have  summed 
up  for  him  a  whole  body  of  doctrine — but  which  for  us, 
in  our  ignorance  of  detail,  can  have  but  little  precise 
meaning. 

To  add  to  our  difficulties,  the  text,  as  we  have  already 
said,  appears  to  be  very  faulty.  It  is  very  probable 
that  owing  to  its  original  brevity,  copyists  and  readers 
would  be  tempted  to  gloss  it  in  the  interests  of 
what  would  appear  to  them  greater  clearness;  these 
glosses  creeping  into  the  text  later  on  would,  since 
the  gloss-makers  did  not  know  the  original  scheme, 
blurr  rather  than  elucidate  the  mother-text — and  hence 
our  tears. 


THE    SACRED   SERMON  83 

The  most  striking  doctrine  in  the  exposition  is  that 
of  Renewal  or  Making-new-again  (avaveaxris).  All 
animal  and  vegetable  forms  contain  in  themselves  "  the 
seed  of  again-becoming  "  (TO  o-Tre'/o/xa  TW  TraAcyyeyecr/c^). 
I  do  not  think  that  this  is  intended  simply  to  mean 
that  the  individual  is  continued  in  the  species  ;  for  we 
read  that  "  every  birth  of  flesh  ensouled  .  .  .  shall  of 
necessity  renew  itself  (ai/ai/eo^o-eraf)-"  The  doctrine 
that  is  preached  is,  therefore,  that  of  palingenesis  or 
"  re-incarnation  "  ;  the  renewal  on  the  karmic  wheel  of 
birth-and-death  Jo-ea>?  KVK\OV  e 


THE  "  FLOOD  " 

The  last  point  to  which  we  need  call  the  reader's 
attention  is  the  sentence:  "And  there  shall  be 
memorials  mighty  of  their  handiworks  upon  the 
earth,  leaving  dim  trace  behind  when  cycles  are 
renewed." 

The  thought  of  the  writer  is  evidently  turned  back 
towards  the  past,  to  a  time  when  a  mighty  race,  devoted 
to  growth  in  wisdom,  lived  on  earth  and  left  great 
monuments  of  their  wisdom  in  the  work  of  their  hands, 
dim  traces  of  which  were  to  be  seen  "  in  the  renewal  of 
the  times."  This  seems  to  me  to  be  a  clear  reference 
to  the  general  belief  of  the  time  (commonly,  though 
erroneously,  called  Stoic)  that  there  were  alternate 
periods  of  destruction,  by  fire  and  water,  and  of  renewal. 
In  Egypt  the  common  belief,  as  we  have  pointed  out 
elsewhere,  was  that  the  last  destruction  had  been  by 
water  and  flood.  Before  this  Flood  our  author  believed 
there  had  been  a  mighty  race  of  Egyptians,  the  race  of 
the  First  Hermes,  and  that  some  dim  traces  of  the 
mighty  works  of  this  bygone  wisdom-loving  civilization 
were  still  to  be  seen. 


84  THRICE-GREATEST   HERMES 

I  am,  myself,  strongly  inclined  to  believe  in  this 
tradition ;  and  I  have  sometimes  speculated  as  to  the 
possibility  of  there  being  buried  beneath  one  or  more 
of  the  pyramids  the  remains  of  some  prehistoric  build- 
ings (perhaps  also  of  pyramid-shape)  that  have  survived 
the  "  Flood." 


CORPUS  HERMETICUM  IV.  (V.) 


THE  CUP  OR  MONAD 

OF  HERMES  TO  TAT 

(Text :  P.  34-40 ;  Pat.  26b-27.) 

1.  Hermes.  With  Reason  (Logos),  not  with 
hands,  did  the  World-maker l  make  the  universal 
World 2 ;  so  that  thou  thus  shouldst  think  of  Him 
as  everywhere  and  ever-being,  the  Author  of  all 
things,  and  One  and  Only,  who  by  His  Will 3  all 
beings  hath  created. 

This  Body  of  Him  is  a  thing  no  man  can 
touch,  or  see,  or  measure,  a  Body  inextensible, 
like  to  no  other  frame.  'Tis  neither  Fire  nor 
Water,  Air  nor  Breath4;  yet  all  of  them  come 
from  it.5  Now  being  Good  He  willed  to  conse- 
crate this  [Body]  to  Himself  alone,  and  set  its 
Earth  in  order  and  adorn  it.6 

1   6  J>T)fjiiovpy4s.  2  rby  irdvra  K6<r/j.ov. 

3  6f\r)<ris.  *  Perhaps  meaning  JSther. 

6  Of.  C.  H.9  xiii.  (xiv.)  6. 

6  Kofffjtriffai, — the  whole  is  a  play  on  the  word  utto-pos  (kosmos\ 
which  means  "  order,"  "  ornament,"  and  "  world."     I  have  tried 

85 


86  THRICE-GREATEST    HERMES 

2.  So  down  [to  Earth]  He  sent  the  Cosmos 1 
of  this  Frame  Divine,2 — man,  a  life  that  cannot 
die,  and  yet   a   life    that   dies.     And   o'er   [all 
other]  lives   and   over   Cosmos   [too],  did   man 
excel  by  reason  of  the  Reason  (Logos)  and  the 
Mind.     For   contemplator   of  God's   works   did 
man  become;   he  marvelled  and   did   strive   to 
know  their  Author. 

3.  Reason  (Logos)  indeed,  0  Tat,  among  all 
men  hath  He  distributed,  bat  Mind  not  yet ;  not 
that  He  grudgeth  any,  for  grudging  cometh  not 
from  Him,3  but  hath  its  place  below,  within  the 
souls  of  men  who  have  no  Mind. 

Tat.  Why  then  did  God,  0  father,  not  on  all 
bestow  a  share  of  Mind  ? 

Her.  He  willed,  my  son,  to  have  it  set  up 
in  the  midst  for  souls,  just  as  it  were  a  prize. 

4.  Tat.  And  where  hath  He  had  it  set  up  ? 
Her*  He  tilled  a  mighty  Cup5  with   it,  and 

sent  it  down,  joining  a  Herald  [to  it],  to  whom 
He  gave  command  to  make  this  proclamation 
to  the  hearts  of  men : 

to  retain  it  in  English  by  using  both  meanings.  The  three  pre- 
ceding sentences,  from  "This  Body"  onwards,  are  quoted  by 
Stobaeus,  Phys.,  I.  ii.  30  ;  G.  i.  26  ;  W.  38, 10  ff.,  under  the  head- 
ing  "  Of  Hermes." 

1  That  is,  "Order." 

2  That  is,  the  Body  of  God  ;  the  One  Element. 

3  Cf.  G.  H.,  v.  (vi.)  2. 

4  A  critical  text  of  most  of  these  two  paragraphs  is  given,  R. 
214,  n.  1. 

6  Kparrjpa,  lit.  a  crater  or  mixing-bowl. 


THE   CUP    OR   MONAD  87 

Baptize 1  thyself  with  this  Cup's  baptism,  what 
heart  can  do  so,  thou  that  hast  faith  thou '  canst 
ascend  to  Him  that  hath  sent  down  the  Cup, 
thou  that  dost  know  for  what  thou  didst  come 
into  being ! 

As  many  then  as  understood  the  Herald's 
tidings  and  doused  themselves  in  Mind,  became 
partakers  in  the  Gnosis ;  and  when  they  had 
"received  the  Mind"  they  were  made  "perfect 


men." 


But  they  who  do  not  understand  the  tidings, 
these,  since  they  possess  the  aid  of  Reason  [only] 
and  not  Mind,  are  ignorant  wherefor  they  have 
come  into  being  and  whereby. 

5.  The  senses  of  such  men  are  like  irrational 
creatures' ;  and  as  their  [whole]  make-up  is  in 
their  feelings  and  their  impulses,2  they  fail  in  all 
appreciation  of8  those  things  which  really  are 
worth  contemplation.  These  centre  all  their 
thought  upon  the  pleasures  of  the  body  and  its 
appetites,  in  the  belief  that  for  its  sake  man  hath 
come  into  being. 

But  they  who  have  received  some  portion 
of  God's  gift,4  these,  Tat,  if  we  judge  by  their 
deeds,  have  from  Death's  bonds  won  their  release  ; 
for  they  embrace  in  their  own  Mind  all  things, 

1  The  meaning  of  this  term  is  not  to  "  sprinkle "  with  water, 
but  to  "  plunge  the  whole  body  "  into  water. 

2  Kal  fv  QV/J.CP  Kctl  tv  opyf)  r^jv  Kpatriv  «x°VT(S' 

3  Lit.  "  they  do  not  wonder  at."  *  Sc.  the  Mind. 


88  THRICE-GREATEST   HERMES 

things  on  the  earth,  things  in  the  heaven,  and 
things  above  the  heaven, — if  there  be  aught.1 
And  having  raised  themselves  so  far  they  sight 
the  Good ;  and  having  sighted  It,  they  look 
upon  their  sojourn  here  as  a  mischance ;  and  in 
disdain  of  all,  both  things  in  body  and  the 
bodiless,  they  speed  their  way  unto  that  One 
and  Only  One. 

6.  This  is,  0  Tat,  the  Gnosis  of  the  Mind, 
Vision  of  things  Divine ;  God-knowledge  is  it, 
for  the  Cup  is  God's. 

Tat.  Father,  I,  too,  would  be  baptized. 
Her.  Unless  thou  first  shalt  hate  thy  Body, 
son,  thou  canst  not  love  thy  Self.     But  if  thou 
lov'st  thy  Self  thou  shalt  have  Mind,  and  having 
Mind  thou  shalt  share  in  the  Gnosis. 
Tat.  Father,  what  dost  thou  mean  ? 
Her.  It   is   not    possible,    my    son,    to    give 
thyself  to  both, — I  mean  to  things  that  perish 
and  to  things  divine.     For  seeing  that  existing 
things  are  twain,  Body  and  Bodiless,  in  which 
the  perishing  and  the  divine  are  understood,  the 
man   who   hath  the   will   to  choose  is  left  the 
choice  of  one  or  other ;  for  it  can  never  be  the 
twain   should   meet.      And   in   those    souls    to 
whom  the  choice  is  left,  the  waning  of  the  one 
causes  the  other's  growth  to  show  itself. 

1  Cf.  C.  H.  xi.  (xii.)  19  :"  And  contemplate  what  is  beyond— if 
there  be  aught  beyond  the  Cosmos." 


THE    CUP    OR    MONAD  89 

7.  Now  the  choosing  of  the  Better  not  only 
proves  a  lot  most  fair  for  him  who  makes  the 
choice,   seeing  it   makes   the   man   a  God,  but 
also   shows   his   piety   to   God.       Whereas   the 
[choosing]     of    the    Worse,    although    it    doth 
destroy  the  "  man/'  it  only  doth  disturb  God's 
harmony  to  this  extent,  that  as  processions  pass 
by  in  the  middle  of  the  way,  without  being  able 
to  do  anything  but  take  the  road  from  others, 
so  do  such  men  move  in  procession  through  the 
world  led  by  their  bodies'  pleasures.1 

8.  This   being   so,  0   Tat,  what  comes  from 
God  hath  been  and  will  be  ours  ;  but  that  which 
is  dependent  on  ourselves,  let  this  press  onward 
and  have  no  delay ;    for   'tis   not   God,  'tis  we 
who  are  the  cause  of  evil  things,  preferring  them 
to  good. 

Thou  see'st,  son,  how  many  are  the  bodies 
through  which  we  have  to  pass,  how  many  are 
the  choirs  of  daimones,  how  vast  the  system  of 
the  star-courses 2  [through  which  our  Path  doth 
lie],  to  hasten  to  the  One  and  Only  God. 

For  to  the  Good  there  is  no  other  shore 3 ; 
It  hath  no  bounds ;  It  is  without  an  end  >  and 

1  Critical  text  of  simile  is  also  given  by  E.  102,  n.  2.     Quoted 
by  Zosimus  in  §  "  On  the  Anthropos  Doctrine." 

2  teal  o-uvexetov  teal  Sp6/j.ovs  atrrepuv, — the  Septenary  Spheres  or 
"  Cyclic  Gods  ";  for  the  oWx* ««  (lit.  continuity)  is  evidently  the 
same  as  the  apuovla,  Harmony,  Concord,  System. 

oj', — lit.  not  to  be  crossed,  not  to  be  forded. 


90  THRICE-GREATEST   HERMES 

for  Itself  It  is  without   beginning,  too,  though 
unto  us  it  seemeth  to  have  one  —  the  Gnosis. 

9.  Therefore  to   It   Gnosis   is  no  beginning  ; 
rather  is  it  [that  Gnosis  doth  afford]  to  us  the 
first  beginning  of  Its  being  known. 

Let  us  lay  hold,  therefore,  of  the  beginning, 
and  quickly  speed  through  all  [we  have  to  pass]. 

Tis  very  hard,  to  leave  the  things  we  have 
grown  used  to,  which  meet  our  gaze  on  every 
side,  and  turn  ourselves  back  to  the  Old  Old 
[Path]. 

Appearances  delight  us,  whereas  things  which 
appear  not  make  their  believing  hard. 

Now  evils  are  the  more  apparent  things, 
whereas  the  Good  can  never  show  Itself  unto 
the  eyes,  for  It  hath  neither  form  nor  figure. 

Therefore  the  Good  is  like  Itself  alone,  and 
unlike  all  things  else  ;  for  'tis  impossible  that 
That  which  hath  no  body  should  make  Itself 
apparent  to  a  body. 

10.  The  "  Like's  "  superiority  to  the  "  Unlike  " 
and  the  "  Unlike's  "  l  inferiority  unto  the  "  Like  " 
consists  in  this  : 

The  Oneness  2  being  Source  3  and  Eoot  of  all, 
is  in  all  things  as  Koot  and  Source.  Without 
[this]  Source  is  naught;  whereas  the  Source 
[Itself]  is  from  naught  but  Itself,  since  It  is 


1  Reading  with  B.,  rov 

2  novds,  —  the  Monad,  that  is  the  Good.  3  Or,  Beginning. 


THE   CUP    OR   MONAD  91 

Source  of  all  the  rest.  It  is  Itself  Its  Source, 
since  It  may  have  no  other  Source. 

The  Oneness  then  being  Source,  containeth 
every  number,  but  is  contained  by  none  ;  engen- 
dereth  every  number,  but  is  engendered  by  no 
other  one. 

11.  Now  all  that  is  engendered  is  imperfect, 
it  is  divisible,  to  increase  subject  and  to  decrease  ; 
but  with  the  Perfect  [One]  none  of  these  things 
doth  hold.  Now  that  which  is  increasable  in- 
creases from  the  Oneness,  but  succumbs  through 
its  own  feebleness  when  it  no  longer  can  contain 
the  One. 

And  now,  0  Tat,  God's  Image l  hath  been 
sketched  for  thee,  as  far  as  it  can  be 2 ;  and  if 
thou  wilt  attentively  dwell  on  it  and  observe  it 
with  thy  heart's  eyes,  believe  me,  son,  thou'lt 
find  the  Path  that  leads  above  ;  nay,  that  Image 
shall  become  thy  Guide 3  itself,  because  the  Sight 
[Divine]  hath  this  peculiar  [charm],  it  holdeth 
fast  and  draweth  unto  it  those  who  succeed  in 
opening  their  eyes,  just  as,  they  say,  the  magnet 
[draweth]  iron.4 

1  The  Universal  Cosmos  or  Monad. 

2  The  above  sentences,  beginning  with  "  The  Oneness,"  second 
paragraph  of   §   10,  are  quoted  by  Stobseus,  Phys.,  I.   x.   15  ; 
G.   pp.    116,   117;    W.   127,   6    ff .  ;    under    the    heading,   "Of 
Hermes." 

3  Cf.  G.  #.,  vii.  (viii.)  2  ;  ix.  (x.)  10  ;  x.  (xi.)  21 ;  R.  23,  n.  5. 

4  This  simile  is  also  used  in  the  Naassene  Document,  and  in 
Plutarch,  On  Isis  and  Osiris,  where  I  have  noticed  it. 


92  THRICE-GREATEST   HERMES 

COMMENT  AEY 

THE  TITLE 

This  beautiful  little  treatise,  in  which  the  great 
principles  of  the  Gnosis  are  set  forth  so  clearly  and 
lucidly  by  the  philosopher-mystic  who  penned  it  so 
many  centuries  ago,  bears  a  double,  or  rather  a  triple, 
title:  "Of  Hermes  to  Tat:  The  Cup  or  Monad  [or 
Oneness]." l  The  double  title,  however,  is  but  a  choice  of 
names,  for  The  Cup  is  The  Oneness, — The  One  Element,2 
the  "  Body "  of  God,  which  is  the  Cause  of  all  bodies 
and  yet  itself  is  bodiless ;  in  other  words,  the  Monad 
is  the  Intelligible  Cosmos  itself,  God's  Image,  elsewhere 
called  His  Alone-begotten  Son. 

That  this  idea  of  a  Cup  or  Mixing-bowl  (Crater),  in 
the  symbolic  sense  of  an  all -containing  receptacle,  in 
which  all  the  elements  were  blended  together,  and  in 
the  metaphysical  sense  of  a  transcendent  Unity,  the 
source  of  all  things  measurable  and  numberable,  was 
one  of  the  main  doctrines  of  the  Trismegistic  tradition,  is 
plain  from  the  Pcemandrist  Zosimus,  who  refers  especially 
to  this  Cup  as  the  symbol  of  Spiritual  Baptism — that  is, 
the  plunging  of  the  whole  nature  into  the  Great  Ocean 
of  Spirit  or  Mind,  so  that  the  man  becomes  irradiate  with 
Life  and  illumined  with  Light. 

For  a  consideration  of  this  Crater  or  Cup  symbolism 
I  must  refer  the  reader  to  the  chapter  so  entitled  in 
the  "Prolegomena";  it  there  being  shown  that  in  all 
probability  it  was  transmitted  along  the  Orphic  line 

1  See  R.  193.     Unfortunately,  though  lie  twice  quotes  from 
our  treatise,  Stobaeus  adds  nothing  to  our  knowledge  of  the  title, 
since  he  prefixes   his  extracts  with  the   simple  heading,  "Of 
Hermes." 

2  Which  is  to  be  equated,  I  believe,  "  nieta-physically  "  with  the 
Quintessence  or  ^Ether. 


THE    CUP   OR   MONAD  93 

of  tradition,  though  doubtless  the  Egyptian  had  some 
similar  ideas. 

Our  treatise  should  be  read  in  the  closest  connection 
with  C.  H.,  xi.  (xii.),  "The  Mind  to  Hermes,"  which 
is  its  "  esoteric "  counterpart.  What  is  here  set  forth 
for  Tat  by  Hermes  is  there  imparted  to  Hermes  by  the 
Mind;  what  is  here  set  forth  for  the  probationer  or 
"  hearer "  is  there  set  forth  for  the  advanced  disciple  or 
"  seer " ;  or,  to  use  Mystery  terms,  what  is  here  told 
to  the  Mystes  is  there  revealed  to  the  Epopt.  Thus, 
then,  the  Tat-instruction  begins. 

THE  BAPTISM  OF  THE  MIND 

1.  All  things  are  made  by  Eeason,  the  Formative 
Energy  of  the  Mind.     The  Ideal  Cosmos,  or  World- 
Order,  is  the  Divine  Body. 

2.  Earth  is  the  sensible  Cosmos  ;  on  Earth  man,  the 
image   of  the  Image,   or  Eeason,  of  God  rules.     The 
purpose  of  man  is  thus  to  become   the  con  tempi  ator 
(OeaTw)  of  the  works  of  God ;  it  is  by  the  "  wonder  " 
aroused  in  him  by  the  sight  of  these  marvels  that  he 
will  rise  eventually  into  a  knowledge  of  God  Himself. 
This   "wonder"   is,  then,  the   beginning   of  the  True 
Philosophy  or  God-knowledge  (*}  TOV  Oeov  Karavorja-ts). 

3.  All  men  have  in  them  "reason"  (the  ray  of  the 
Eeason  or  Logos),  but  as  yet  few  have  "  Mind."    This 
"  mind  "  is  the  true  Son  of  Mind,  it  is  the  real  man, 
the  perfect  man,  self-conscious  of  his  Self.     This  true 
Self-consciousness  is  the  prize  set  up  for  souls  to  win : 
the  crown  of  humanity,  the  Christ-state  (or,  at  any  rate, 
the  super-man  or  true  man  state). 

The  Christ-Baptism  is  the  plunging  of  the  whole 
nature  into  the  Mind-filled  Cup, — the  Pleroma  of  the 
Divine  Being  whose  Body  and  Mind  are  one, — for  is 


94  THRICE-GREATEST    HERMES 

not  the  Cup  the  Body  of  God, "  consecrated  unto  Himself 
alone"  (§  1),  the  Universal  Body  of  all  things ? 

THE  HOLY  GRAIL 

It  would  be  fascinating  to  speculate  on  what  con- 
nection this  Cup  of  Initiation  may  have  had  with  the 
Mystic  Eucharist,  and  the  Original  of  the  later  Grail- 
tradition,  which  a  great  master  of  music  and  song  has 
in  our  days  made  to  live  again  in  undying  melody,  and 
so  restored  it  to  its  more  universal  significance.  How 
Wagner  sensed  the  marvel  of  the  wondrous  Vision 
with  a  poet's  intuition  may  be  seen  from  his  own 
words : 

"  To  the  enraptured  gaze  of  one  longing  for  celestial 
love,  the  clear  blue  atmosphere  of  heaven  seems  at  first 
to  condense  itself  into  a  wonderful,  scarcely  perceptible, 
but  dazzlingly  beautiful  Vision.  Then  with  gradually 
increasing  precision  the  wonder-working  angelic  host 
is  delineated  in  infinitely  delicate  outlines,  as,  conveying 
the  holy  vessel  in  its  midst,  it  insensibly  descends  from 
the  blazing  heights  of  heaven.  As  the  vision  grows 
more  and  more  distinct,  .  .  .  the  heart  throbs  with  the 
pain  of  ecstasy ;  .  .  .  and  when  at  last  the  Grail  shows 
itself  in  the  marvel  of  undraped  reality,  .  .  .  the 
beholder's  brain  reels — he  falls  down  in  a  state  of 
adoring  annihilation.  .  .  .  With  chaste  rejoicing  the 
angelic  host  then  returns  to  the  heavenly  height,  fading 
away  into  the  nothingness  whence  it  first  emanated." 

But  for  the  Seers  of  the  Gnosis  there  was  a  more 
intimate  realization,  for  they  were  bidden  to  cast  aside 
all  hesitation  and  fearlessly  to  plunge  themselves  into 
the  very  Cup  Itself,  the  Ocean  of  Divine  Love  and 
Wisdom. 

This  was  the  Proclamation  or  Preaching 


THE   CUP  OR   MONAD  95 

or  Good  Tidings,  of  the  Herald  of  God  to  men,  to  those 
who  had  the  Living  Faith  they  could  "ascend  to  Him 
who  had  sent  down  the  Cup,"  God's  Greatest  Gift. 

By  such  a  Baptism  as  this,  not  by  a  symbolic 
sprinkling  with  water,  is  it  that  man  is  to  be  redeemed. 
This  is  the  consummation  of  man's  earthly  pilgrimage, 
the  realization  of  the  "  Gnosis  of  the  Mind,  Vision  of 
things  Divine  ;  God- knowledge  is  it ;  for  the  Cup  is 
God's." 

THE  "  HATING  OF  THE  BODY  " 

6.  In  §  6  we  have  given  us  a  discipline  of  the 
mystic  way,  the  "  hating  of  the  body,"  which  is  by  no 
means  to  be  taken  literally. 

A  misunderstanding  of  this  discipline  led  many  of 
the  mystics  of  the  time  (and,  for  a  matter  of  that,  has 
led  most  of  the  mystics  of  all  time)  to  the  false  belief 
that  the  body  (or  matter  generally)  was  the  source  of 
evil.  Hence  we  have  all  the  mortifications  and  chastise- 
ments of  the  flesh  which  the  monkish  spirit  introduced 
into  Christendom,  and  which  persist  in  some  quarters 
even  to  our  own  day.  Against  this  the  Common  Sense 
of  Christianity  as  a  general  religion,  basing  itself  on 
the  general  utterances  of  the  Christ,  has  ever  protested. 

Our  mystic  philosopher,  in  urging  his  disciples  to 
hate  the  body,  apparently  does  so  because  they  are  in 
the  first  stages  of  awakening,  and  so  far  have  not  got 
the  "  Mi  ad  "  active  in  them. 

In  taking  the  first  steps  there  must  be  developed  a 
consciousness  of  the  strong  antithesis  of  good  and  evil, 
of  love  and  hate,  in  order  that  the  will  of  the  disciple 
may  be  strengthened  towards  the  good  and  weakened 
towards  the  bad. 

When,  however,  his  will  is  balanced  between  the 
two,  when  he  as  easily  wills  good  as  evil,  then,  and 


96  THRICE-GREATEST    HERMES 

not  till  then,  is  he  prepared  to  learn  the  further  great 
lesson:  that  real  wisdom  consists  in  balance,  in  the 
Middle  Way ;  that  nothing  is  evil  in  itself — the  Body 
is  as  honourable  in  its  own  sphere,  as  absolutely 
necessary  and  indispensable,  as  is  the  Mind  in  its. 

He  learns  the  great  secret  that  to  have  one's  thoughts 
always  in  heaven  is  as  erroneous  as  to  have  them  always 
on  earth ;  that  there  is  a  higher  mode  of  existence,  when 
the  things  of  heaven  and  earth  are  within  each  other, 
and  not  apart. 

As  the  Introduction  to  The  Book  of  the  Great  Logos 
according  to  the  Mystery  has  it: 

"  Jesus  saith :  Blessed  is  the  man  who  knoweth  this 
Word  (Logos),  and  hath  brought  down  the  Heaven  and 
borne  up  the  Earth  and  raised  it  Heavenwards." 1 

Heaven  and  Earth  must  kiss  each  other  for  this 
consummation,  this  truly  Sacred  Marriage. 

And  yet  in  the  third  Synoptic  (xvi.  25,  26)  we  read  : 

"  Jesus  saith :  If  any  man  come  unto  Me,  and  hate 
not  his  father,  and  mother,  and  wife,  and  children,  and 
brethren  and  sisters,  yea,  and  his  own  soul  also,  he 
cannot  be  My  disciple. " 

Here  we  have  precisely  the  same  word  "  hate  "  (fjna-el) 
as  in  our  text.  That,  however,  this  "  dark  saying  "  was 
interpreted  in  a  mystical  sense  by  Gnostic  tradition, 
as  by  no  means  referring  to  physical  parents  but  to 
the  past  causes  of  our  imperfections,2  I  have  already 
pointed  out  on  several  occasions  3  ;  we  may  therefore 

1  Codex  Brucianus ;  see  F.  F.  F.,  p.  520. 

2  Cf.  the  Pistis  Sophia,  341-343,  where  the  text  is  given  as  : 
"  He  who  shall  not  leave  father  and  mother  to  follow  after  Me 
is  not  worthy  of  Me,"  and  explained  by  the  Saviour  to  mean : 
"  Ye  shall  leave  your  Parents  the  Rulers,  that  ye  may  be  Children 
of  the  First  Everlasting  Mystery." 

3  See,  for  instance,  Extracts  from  the"  Vdhan"  (London,  1904), 
pp.  374-376. 


THE    CUP   OR   MONAD  97 

conclude  that  in  a  gnostic  teaching,  such  as  is  our 
treatise,  the  terms  "  hate "  and  "  body  "  are  not  to  be 
literally  interpreted. 

8.  And  that  this  is  so  may  be  seen  from  the  declaration 
in  §  8 :  "  For  'tis  not  God,  'tis  we  who  are  the  cause  of  evil 
things,  preferring  them  to  good  " ; — where  the  cause  of 
evil  is  not  assigned  to  the  body  but  to  man's  own  choice. 
And  finally,  to  clinch  our  contention,  we  would  refer  the 
reader  to  the  Sermon  to  Asclepius,  0.  H.,  vi.  (vii.)  6 : 

"  Such  are  the  things  that  men  call  good  and  beauti- 
ful, Asclepius — things  which  we  cannot  flee  or  hate." 


THE  GNOSIS  AND  ITS  BLESSINGS 

9.  In  §  9  we  have  to  notice  the  phrase :  "  Therefore  to 
It  Gnosis  is  no  beginning ;  rather  is  it  that  Gnosis  doth 
afford  to  us  the  first  beginning  of  Its  being  known"; 
and  compare  it  with  the  logos  quoted  by  the  Jewish 
commentator  in  the  Naassene  Document  (§  25) :  "  The 
Beginning  of  Perfection  is  Gnosis  of  Man,  but  Gnosis 
of  God  is  Perfect  Perfection." 

The  claim  for  the  Gnosis  is  therefore  a  modest  one. 
The  Gnosis  is  not  an  end  in  itself ;  it  is  but  the  begin- 
ning of  the  True  Knowledge  of  God.  They  who  receive 
the  Baptism  of  the  Mind  are  made  "  perfect  men,"  not 
Perfect ;  not  until  they  have  received  this  touch  of  the 
Christ-consciousness  have  they  reached  true  manhood. 

Those  who  have  received  this  Baptism  know  why 
they  have  come  into  being, — the  purpose  of  life.  They 
become  consciously  immortal;  they  know  they  are 
deathless,  they  do  not  only  believe  it ;  their  immortality 
is  no  longer  a  belief,  it  is  a  fact  of  knowledge. 

They  have  won  their  freedom  from  Death  and  Fate, 
and  know  the  real  constitution  of  the  cosmos  up  to  the 
Threshold  of  the  Good,  the  Plain  of  Truth— that  is  to 

VOL.   II.  7 


98  THRICE-GREATEST   HERMES 

say,  presumably  in  Buddhist  terms,  as  far  as  the 
Nirvanic  state  of  consciousness.  Not  yet,  however, 
have  they  entered  Nirvana — that  is  to  say,  become  one 
with  the  Logos.  They  have  seen  the  Sight  or  Vision 
of  Nirvana,  but  not  entered  into  the  Promised  Land, 
that  "  Blessed  Space,"  which,  as  Basilides  tells  us,  "  can 
neither  be  conceived  of  nor  characterized  by  any  word." l 
The  Vision  is  an  earnest  of  what  they  may  be.  They 
have  become  Gods,  it  is  true,  already,  or,  in  other  words, 
enjoy  the  same  freedom  and  consciousness  as  the  Gods 
or  Angels,  but  there  is  a  still  more  transcendent  state, 
when  they  will  be  at-oned  with  Deity  Himself. 

THE  ANCIENT  PATH 

Hard  as  it  is  to  leave  the  "things  we  have  grown 
used  to,"  the  things  habitual,  it  must  be  done  if  we  are 
to  enter  into  the  Way  of  the  Gnosis.  But  no  new  Path 
is  this,  no  going  forth  into  new  lands  (though  it  may 
have  all  the  appearance  of  being  so).  The  entrance  on 
the  Path  of  the  Gnosis  is  a  Going-Home,  it  is  a  Eeturn 
— a  Turning-Back  (a  True  Kepentance).  "  We  must 
turn  ourselves  back  unto  the  Old  Old  Way  "  (TO.  TraXaia 
KOI  apyala). 

And  for  the  followers  of  the  Doctrine  of  Thrice- 
greatest  Hermes,  this  Old  Old  Path  could  have  meant 
nothing  but  the  Archaic  Wisdom  of  Ancient  Egypt. 
The  Wisdom  of  Egypt  was  thus  the  Gnosis. 

1  See  F.  F.  F.y  p.  261. 


CORPUS  HERMETICUM  V.  (VI.) 


THOUGH  UNMANIFEST  GOD  IS 
MOST  MANIFEST 

OF  HERMES  TO  HIS  SON  TAT 

(Text:  P.  41-48;  Pat.  12b-13b.) 

1.  I  WILL  recount  for  thee  this  sermon  (logos) 
too,  0  Tat,  that  thou  may'st  cease  to  be  without 
the  mysteries  of  the  God  beyond  all  name.1 
And  mark  thou  well  how  That  which  to  the 
many  seems  unmanifest,  will  grow  most  manifest 
for  thee. 

Now  were  It  manifest,  It  would  not  be.  For 
all  that  is  made  manifest  is  subject  to  becoming, 
for  it  hath  been  made  manifest.  But  the  Un- 
manifest for  ever  is,  for  It  doth  not  desire  to  be 
made  manifest.  It  ever  is,  and  maketh  manifest 
all  other  things. 

Being  Himself  unmanifest,  as  ever  being  and 
ever  making  -  manifest,  Himself  is  not  made 

1  Cf.  §  8  end,  and  §  9  beginning. 
99 


100  THRICE-GREATEST    HERMES 

manifest.  God  is  not  made  Himself;  by  think- 
ing-manifest,1 He  thinketh  all  things  manifest. 

Now  "  thinking-manifest "  deals  with  things 
made  alone,  for  thinking-manifest  is  nothing  else 
than  making. 

2.  He,  then,  alone  who  is  not  made,  'tis  clear, 
is  both  beyond  all  power  of  thinking-manifest, 
and  is  un manifest. 

And  as  He  thinketh  all  things  manifest,  He 
manifests  through  all  things  and  in  all,  and  most 
of  all  in  whatsoever  things  He  wills  to  manifest. 

Do  thou,  then,  Tat,  my  son,  pray  first  unto 
our  Lord  and  Father,  the  One-and-Only  One, 
from  whom  the  One2  doth  come,  to  show  His 
mercy  unto  thee,  in  order  that  thou  mayest  have 
the  power  to  catch  a  thought  of  this  so  mighty 
God,  one  single  beam  of  Him  to  shine  into  thy 
thinking.  For  thought  alone  "sees"  the  Un- 
manifest,  in  that  it  is  itself  unmanifest. 

If,  then,  thou  hast  the  power,  He  will,  Tat, 
manifest  to  thy  mind's  eyes.  The  Lord  be- 
grudgeth  not  Himself  to  anything,  but  mani- 
fests Himself  through  the  whole  world. 

Thou  hast  the  power  of  taking  thought,  of 
seeing  it  and  grasping  it  in  thy  own  "  hands," 
and  gazing  face  to  face  upon  God's  Image.3  But 

1  iv  <t>a.vTo.(ria. — that  is  to  say,  by  thinking  into  manifestation. 

2  Presumably  the   Manifested  God  ;  the    One-and-Only  One 
being  the  Unmanifested,  the  God  beyond  all  name. 

3  The  Intelligible  Cosmos. 


THOUGH  UNMANIPEST   GOD  IS   MOST   MANIFEST    101 

if  what  is  within  thee  even  is  unmanifest  to  thee, 
how,  then,  shall  He  Himself  who  is  within  thy  self 
be  manifest  for  thee  by  means  of  [outer]  eyes  ? 

3.  But  if  thou  wouldst  "see"  Him,  bethink  thee 
of  the  sun,  bethink  thee  of  moon's  course,  bethink 
thee  of  the  order  of  the  stars.     Who  is  the  One 
who  watcheth  o'er  that  order  ?     For  every  order 
hath   its  boundaries  marked  out  by  place  and 
number. 

The  sun's  the  greatest  god  of  gods  in  heaven  ; 
to  whom  all  of  the  heavenly  gods  give  place 
as  unto  king  and  master.  And  he,  this  so-great 
one,  he  greater  than  the  earth  and  sea,  endures 
to  have  above  him  circling  smaller  stars  than 
him.  Out  of  respect  to  Whom,  or  out  of  fear  of 
Whom,  my  son,  [doth  he  do  this]  ? 

Nor  like  nor  equal  is  the  course  each  of  these 
stars  describes  in  heaven.  Who  [then]  is  He 
who  marketh  out  the  manner  of  their  course  and 
its  extent  ? 

4.  The   Bear   up   there    that   turneth    round 
itself,  and  carries  round  the  whole  cosmos  with 
it — Who  is  the  owner  of  this  instrument  ?     Who 
He   who    hath   set   round   the   sea   its  bounds  ? 
Who  He  who  hath  set  on  its  seat  the  earth  ? 

For,  Tat,  there  is  someone  who  is  the  Maker 
and  the  Lord  of  all  these  things.  It  could  not 
be  that  number,  place  and  measure  could  be 
kept  without  someone  to  make  them.  No  order 


102  THRICE-GREATEST    HERMES 

whatsoever  could  be  made  by  that  which  lacketh 
place  and  lacketh  measure ;  nay,  even  this l  is 
not  without  a  lord,  my  son.  For  if  the  orderless 
lacks  something,  in  that  it  is  not  lord  of  order's 
path,  it  also  is  beneath  a  lord — the  one  who 
hath  not  yet  ordained  it  order. 

5.  Would  it  were  possible  for  thee  to  get  thee 
wings,  and  soar  into  the  air,  and,  poised  midway 
'tween   earth   and   heaven,    behold    the    earth's 
solidity,  the  sea's  fluidity  (the   flowings   of  its 
streams),  the  spaciousness  of  air,  fire's  swiftness, 
[and]  the  coursing  of  the  stars,  the  swiftness 
of  heaven's  circuit  round  them  [all]  ! 

Most  blessed  sight  were  it,  my  son,  to  see  all 
these  beneath  one  sway — the  motionless  in 
motion,  and  the  unmanifest  made  manifest ; 
whereby  is  made  this  order  of  the  cosmos  and 
the  cosmos  which  we  see  of  order. 

6.  If  thou  would'st  see  Him  too  through  things 
that  suffer  death,2  both  on  the  earth  and  in  the 
deep,3  think  of  a  man's  being  fashioned  in  the 
womb,  my  son,  and  strictly  scrutinize  the  art  of 
Him  who  fashions  him,  and  learn  who  fashioneth 
this  fair  and  godly  image  of  the  Man.4 

1  Namely,  that  which  lacketh  place,  number,  and  order ;  that 
is,  disorder,  chaos. 

2  As  opposed  to  the  immortal  world-order. 

3  Cf.  §  9  below,  where  it  almost  seems  to  mean  "  water." 

4  The  Heavenly  Man  of  "  The  Shepherd "  treatise  ;  man  is  the 
image  of  The  Man,  the  Logos  or  Image  of  God.     This  and  the 
following  passage  is  referred  to  by  Lactantius,  D.  Institt.,  ii.  10. 


THOUGH  UNMANIFEST  GOD   IS   MOST  MANIFEST    103 

Who  [then]  is  He  who  traceth  out  the  circles 
of  the  eyes  ;  who  He  who  boreth  out  the  nostrils 
and  the  ears ;  who  He  who  openeth  [the  portal 
of]  the  mouth ;  who  He  who  doth  stretch  out 
and  tie  the  nerves ;  who  He  who  channels  out 
the  veins ;  who  He  who  hardeneth  the  bones ; 
who  He  who  covereth  the  flesh  with  skin ;  who 
He  who  separates  the  fingers  and  the  joints ; 
who  He  who  widens  out  a  treading  for  the  feet ; 
who  He  who  diggeth  out  the  ducts;  who  He 
who  spreadeth  out  the  spleen ;  who  He  who 
shapeth  heart  like  to  a  pyramid  ;  who  He  who 
setteth  ribs  together ;  who  He  who  wideneth  the 
liver  out ;  who  He  who  maketh  lungs  like  to  a 
sponge ;  who  He  who  maketh  belly  stretch  so 
much  ;  who  He  who  doth  make  prominent  the 
parts  most  honourable,  so  that  they  may  be  seen, 
while  hiding  out  of  sight  those  of  least  honour  ? 

7.  Behold  how  many  arts  [employed]  on  one 
material,  how  many  labours  on  one  single  sketch  ; 
and  all  exceeding  fair,  and  all  in  perfect  measure, 
yet  all  diversified  !    Who  made  them  all  ?    What 
mother,  or  what  sire,  save  God  alone,  unmanifest, 
who  hath  made  all  things  by  His  Will  ? 

8.  And  no  one  saith   a   statue   or   a   picture 
comes  to  be  without  a  sculptor  or  [without]  a 
painter ;  doth  [then]  such  workmanship  as  this 
exist  without  a  Worker  ?     What  depth  of  blind- 
ness, what  deep  impiety,  what  depth  of  ignorance ! 


104  THRICE-GREATEST    HERMES 

See,  [then]  thou  ne'er,  son  Tat,  deprivest  works 
of  Worker ! 

Nay,  rather  is  He  greater  than  all  names,  so 
great  is  He,  the  Father  of  them  all.1  For  verily 
He  is  the  Only  One ;  and  this  His  work,  to  be  a 
father. 

9.  So,  if  thou  forcest  me  somewhat  too  bold, 
to  speak,  His  being  is  conceiving  of  all  things 
and  making  [them].2 

And  as  without  its  maker  it  is  impossible  that 
anything  should  be,  so  ever  is  He  not  unless  He 
ever  makes  all  things,  in  heaven,  in  air,  in  earth, 
in  deep,  in  all  of  cosmos,  in  every  part  that  is 
and  that  is  not  of  everything.  For  there  is 
naught  in  all  the  world  that  is  not  He. 

He  is  Himself,  both  things  that  are  and  things 
that  are  not.  The  things  that  are  He  hath 
made  manifest,  He  keepeth  things  that  are  not 
in  Himself. 

10.  He  is  the  God  beyond  all  name ;  He  the 
unmanifest,  He  the  most  manifest;   He   whom 
the  mind  [alone]   can   contemplate,  He   visible 
unto  the  eyes  [as  well] ;    He  is  the  one  of  no 
body,  the  one  of  many  bodies,  nay,  rather  He  of 
every  body. 

Naught  is  there  which  He  is  not.     For  all  are 

1  The  translation  of  this  sentence  is  conjectural ;  for  the  text  is 
not  only  corrupt,  but  there  appears  to  be  a  lacuna  in  it. 

2  The  male  and  female  energies  of  the  Divine  Parent. 


THOUGH  UNMANIFEST  GOD  IS  MOST  MANIFEST    105 

He  and  He  is  all.1  And  for  this  cause  hath  He 
all  names,  in  that  they  are  one  Father's.  And 
for  this  cause  hath  He  Himself  no  name,  in  that 
He's  Father  of  [them]  all.2 

Who,  then,  may  sing  Thee  praise  of  Thee,  or 
[praise]  to  Thee  ? 

Whither,  again,  am  I  to  turn  my  eyes  to  sing 
Thy  praise  ;  above,  below,  within,  without  ? 

There  is  no  way,  no  place  [is  there]  about 
Thee,  nor  any  other  thing  of  things  that  are. 

All  [are]  in  Thee ;  all  [are]  from  Thee,  0  Thou 
who  givest  all  and  takest  naught,  for  Thou  hast 
all  and  naught  is  there  Thou  hast  not. 

11.  And  when,  0  Father,  shall  I  hymn  Thee? 
For  none  can  seize  Thy  hour  or  time. 

For  what,  again,  shall  I  sing  hymn?  For 
things  that  Thou  hast  made,  or  things  Thou  hast 
not?  For  things  Thou  hast  made  manifest,  or 
things  Thou  hast  concealed  ? 

How,5  further,  shall  I  hymn  Thee  ?  As  being 
of  myself  ?  As  having  something  of  mine  own  ? 
As  being  other  ? 

For  that  Thou  art  whatever  I  may  be ;  Thou 
art  whatever  I  may  do ;  Thou  art  whatever  I 
may  speak. 

For  Thou  art  all,  and  there  is   nothing   else 


For  emended  reading,  see  R.  244. 

That  is,  of  all  names.     For  the  following,  cf.  P.  S.  A.,  xxxi.  3 

Text  from  here  on  given  in  R.  68,  n.  4. 


106  THRICE-GREATEST   HERMES 

which  Thou  art  not.  Thou  art  all  that  which 
doth  exist,  and  Thou  art  what  doth  not  exist, — 
Mind  when  Thou  thinkest,  and  Father  when 
Thou  makest,  and  God  when  Thou  dost  energize, 
and  Good  and  Maker  of  all  things. 

(For  that  the  subtler  part  of  matter  is  the  air, 
of  air  the  soul,  of  soul  the  mind,  and  of  mind 
God.) 


COMMENTAKY 

THE  TITLE 

The  redactor  of  our  Corpus  must  have  taken  this 
sermon  from  some  collection  of  "  Those  to  Tat,"  for  it 
begins  "  KOI  rovSe  <TOL  TOV  Xo'yoi/."  One  other  sermon 
at  least,  then,  must  have  preceded  it ;  but  whether  it 
was  our  G.  H.y  iv.  (v.),  "  The  Cup,"  or  the  lost  0.  H.  (ii.), 
"  The  General  Sermon,"  it  is  impossible  to  say. 

The  sermon  bears  no  title  proper,  and  the  enunciation 
of  the  subject,  which  stands  in  its  place,  is  derived  from 
the  second  sentence  of  the  treatise  itself,  and  has  plainly 
been  superscribed  by  some  later  Byzantine  editor. 

MAYA 

The  opening  paragraphs  of  this  fine  tractate  are  very 
difficult  to  render  into  English  in  any  way  that  can 
preserve  the  subtle  shades  of  meaning  of  the  Greek. 
As  this  subtle  word-play  has  been  entirely  missed  by 
all  previous  translators,  I  have  made  a  rough  attempt 
to  preserve  it  by  using  the  somewhat  clumsy  term 
"manifest."  The  word-play  in  Greek  may  be  seen 


THOUGH  UNMANIFEST  GOD  IS  MOST   MANIFEST    107 

from  the  following  list  of  the  original  terms  taken  in 
the  order  of  their  occurrence :  a0ai/e?,  tfiaveparraTov, 
efjL<f>av€$,  (paivojuievov,  €(pdvr},  agaves,  (fiavrjvai,  <f>avepd, 
a^ai/jj?,  0aj/e/oeoy,  <f>avepovTai,  0cu/Ta<r/a,  <j>avTa<Tiwv, 
(fiavTGKria,  a0ai/ra<r/ac7TO9  KOI  a^aw}?,  (fiavTaa-icov,  <f>ai- 
vercu,  (^avrfvai.  These  all  occur  in  §  1  and  the  first  two 
lines  of  §  2. 

I  have  translated  ^avraoria  by  "thinking-manifest," 
seeing  that  it  is  the  power  by  which  an  object  is  made 
apparent  or  manifest.  The  doctrine  is  the  same  as  that 
of  the  Vedanta  philosophy,  the  Maya  of  the  Vedanta- 
vadins.  Maya  is  generally  translated  "illusion,"  but 
this  is  not  a  good  equivalent,  for  it  comes  from  the  root 
ma,  to  make  or  measure.  The  Logos  is  called  in  the 
Vedanta,  Mayin  (masc.),  the  Maker,  Measurer,  or 
Creator,  and  His  Power,  or  Shakti,  is  Maya  (fern.).  It 
is  the  Power  of  the  Divine  Thought,  and  so  far  from 
being  illusion  in  any  ordinary  sense  of  the  word,  is 
very  real  for  us,  and  is  only  non-real  as  compared 
to  the  Logos  Himself,  the  One  Reality  in  the  highest 
philosophical  sense  of  the  term. 

The  idea  is  magnificently  summed  up  for  us  in  a 
logos  of  Phosilampes,1  quoted  by  the  redactor  of  the 
Untitled  Apocalypse  of  the  Codex  Brucianus,  which  runs 
as  follows : 

"Through  Him  is  that-which-really-is  and  that- 
which-really-is-not,  through  which  the  Hidden-which- 
really-is  and  the  Manifest-which-really-is-not  exists." 

Also  compare  Hippolytus'  summary  of  the  "  Simonian" 
Gnosis : 

"  Of  this  Twofold  Nature  he  calls  the  one  side  the 
Hidden   and   the  other  the  Manifest,  saying  that  the 
concealed  [parts]  of  the  Fire  are  hidden  in  the  manifest, 
and  the  manifest  produced  by  the  concealed.  .  .  . 
1  Perhaps  a  by-name  of  Basilides  ;  see  F.  F.  F.y  p.  554. 


108  THRICE-GREATEST    HERMES 

"  And  the  manifest  side  of  the  Fire  has  all  things  in 
itself  which  a  man  can  perceive  of  things  visible,  or 
which  he  unconsciously  fails  to  perceive.  Whereas  the 
hidden  side  is  everything  that  we  can  conceive  as 
intelligible,  ...  or  which  a  man  fails  to  conceive." l 

2.  "  The  Lord  begrudge th  not  Himself  to  any  thing." 
Compare  this  with  G.  #".,  iv.  (v.)  3:  "Not  that  He 
grudgeth  any,  for  grudging  cometh  not  from  Him  " ; 
and  compare  both  with  the  saying  of  Plato  in  the 
Timceus  (29  E)  : 

"  He  was  Good,  and  to  the  Good  there  can  never  at 
any  time  be  any  grudging  of  aught." 

THE  HIGHER  PANTHEISM  OR  PANMONISM 

10.  With  the  soul-satisfying  pantheism  of  §  10  we 
may  with  interest  compare  the  address  to  the  Logos  in 
The  Martyrdom  of  Peter,  which  still  retains  many 
Gnostic  elements. 

"  Thou  thai  art  to  be  understood  by  spirit  alone ! 
Thou  art  my  father,  Thou  my  mother,  Thou  my  brother, 
Thou  my  friend,  Thou  my  servant,  Thou  my  master. 
Thou  art  the  all,  and  all  is  in  Thee.  Yea,  all  that  is,  is 
Thou;  and  there  is  nothing  else  that  is  but  Thee 
alone!"2 

HYMN  TO  ALL-GOD 

The  treatise  ends  with  one  of  the  most  magnificent 
Hymns  to  God  ever  written  in  any  language — a  hymn 
which  some  foolish  copyist  has  spoilt  by  tagging  on  to 
it  the  gloss  of  a  reader  noted  on  the  margin  of  the 
MS.  from  which  our  scribe  copied. 

1  Hipp.,  Philos.,  vi.  9 ;  see  my  Simon  Magus  (London,  1892), 
p.  13. 

2  Lipsius  (R.  A.)  and  Bonnet  (M.),  Acta  Apostolorum  Apocrypha 
(Leipzig,  1891),  i.  98. 


THOUGH  UNMANIFEST   GOD   IS   MOST   MANIFEST    109 

With  the  sentence:  "All  are  in  Thee,  all  are  from 
Thee,"  compare  the  Naassene  Hymn  (quoted  in  Hip- 
poly  tus'  Introduction,  in  "  The  Myth  of  Man  ") : 

"'From  Thee'  is  Father,  and  'Through  Thee,' 
Mother, — the  two  Immortal  Names,  Parents  of  ^Eons, 
0  Thou  who  hast  the  Heaven  for  Thy  City,  0  Man  of 
Mighty  Names ! " 


COEPUS  HERMETICUM  VI.  (VII.) 

IN  GOD  ALONE  IS  GOOD  AND 
ELSEWHERE  NOWHERE 

(Text:  P.  48-53;  Pat.  14a-15a.) 

1.  GOOD,  0  Asclepius,  is  in  none  else  save  God 
alone ;  nay,  rather,  Good  is  God  Himself 
eternally. 

If  it  be  so,  [Good]  must  be  essence,  from 
every  kind  of  motion  and  becoming  free  (though 
naught  is  free  from  It),  possessed  of  stable 
energy  around  Itself,  never  too  little,  nor  too 
much,  an  ever-full  supply.  [Though]  one,  yet 
[is  It]  source  of  all ;  for  what  supplieth  all  is 
Good.  When  I,  moreover,  say  [supplieth] 
altogether  [all],  it  is  for  ever  Good.  But  this 
belongs  to  no  one  else  save  God  alone. 

For  He  stands  not  in  need  of  any  thing,  so 
that  desiring  it  He  should  be  bad ;  nor  can  a 
single  thing  of  things  that  are  be  lost  to  Him, 
on  losing  which  He  should  be  pained ;  for  pain 

is  part  of  bad. 

no 


IN   GOD   ALONE   IS   GOOD  111 

Nor  is  there  aught  superior  to  Him,  that  He 
should  be  subdued  by  it ;  nor  any  peer  to  Him 
to  do  Him  wrong,  or  [so  that]  He  should  fall 
in  love  on  its  account ;  nor  aught  that  gives 
no  ear  to  Him,  whereat  He  should  grow  angry  ; 
nor  wiser  aught,  for  Him  to  envy. 

2.  Now  as  all  these  are  non-existent  in  His 
being,  what  is  there  left  but  Good  alone  \ 

For  just  as  naught  of  bad  is  to  be  found  in 
such  transcendent  Being,  so  too  in  no  one  of  the 
rest  will  Good  be  found. 

For  in  them  all  are  all  the  other  things1 — 
both  in  the  little  and  the  great,  both  in  each 
severally  and  in  this  living  one2  that's  greater 
than  them  all  and  mightiest  [of  them]. 

For  things  subject  to  birth3  abound  in  passions, 
birth  in  itself  being  passible.  But  where  there's 
passion,  nowhere  is  there  Good ;  and  where  is 
Good,  nowhere  a  single  passion.  For  where  is 
day,  nowhere  is  night ;  and  where  is  night, 
day  is  nowhere. 

Wherefore  in  genesis  the  Good  can  never  be, 
but  only  be  in  the  ingenerate. 

But  seeing  that  the  sharing  in  all  things  hath 
been  bestowed  on  matter,  so  doth  it  share  in 
Good. 


1  That  is,  things  not  Good. 

2  Or  animal ;  that  is,  cosmos  as  a  single  life  or  living  creature. 

3  Or  genesis. 


112  THRICE- GREATEST   HERMES 

In  this  way  is  the  Cosmos  good ;  that,  in  so 
far  as  it  doth  make  all  things,  as  far  as  making 
goes  it's  Good,  but  in  all  other  things  it  is  not 
Good.  For  it's  both  passible  and  subject  unto 
motion,  and  maker  of  things  passible. 

3.  Whereas  in  man  by  greater  or  by  less  of 
bad  is  good  determined.  For  what  is  not  too 
bad  down  here,  is  good  ;  and  good  down  here 
is  the  least  part  of  bad. 

It  cannot,  therefore,  be  that  good  down  here 
should  be  quite  clean  of  bad,  for  down  here 
good  is  fouled  with  bad;  and  being  fouled,  it 
stays  no  longer  good,  and  staying  not  it  changes 
into  bad. 

In  God  alone,  is,  therefore,  Good,  or  rather 
Good  is  God  Himself. 

So  then,  Asclepius,  the  name  alone  of  Good 
is  found  in  men,  the  thing  itself  nowhere  [in 
them],  for  this  can  never  be. 

For  no  material  body  doth  contain  It, — a 
thing1  bound  on  all  sides  by  bad,  by  labours, 
pains,  desires  and  passions,  by  error  and  by 
foolish  thoughts. 

And  greatest  ill  of  all,  Asclepius,  is  that  each 
of  these  things  that  have  been  said  above,  is 
thought  down  here  to  be  the  greatest  good. 

And  what  is  still  an  even  greater  ill,  is  belly- 
lust,  the  error  that  doth  lead  the  band  of  all 

1  Sc.  the  body. 


IN   GOD    ALONE    IS    GOOD  113 

the  other  ills — the  thing  that  makes  us  turn 
down  here  from  Good. 

4.  And  I,  for  my  own  part,  give  thanks  to 
God,  that  He  hath  cast  it  in  my  mind  about 
the  Gnosis  of  the  Good,  that  it  can  never  be 
It1  should  be  in  the  world.2  For  that  the 
world  is  "fullness"3  of  the  bad,  but  God  of 
Good,  and  Good  of  God. 

The  excellencies  of  the  Beautiful  are  round  the 
very  essence  [of  the  Good] ;  nay,  they  do  seem 
too  pure,  too  unalloyed ;  perchance  'tis  they 
that  are  themselves  Its  essences. 

For  one  may  dare  to  say,  Asclepius, — if  essence, 
sooth,  He  have — God's  essence  is  the  Beautiful ; 
the  Beautiful  is  further  also  Good. 

There  is  no  Good  that  can  be  got  from  objects 
in  the  world.  For  all  the  things  that  fall 
beneath  the  eye  are  image-things  and  pictures 
as  it  were ;  while  those  that  do  not  meet  [the 
eye  are  the  realities4],  especially  the  [essence] 
of  the  Beautiful  and  Good. 

Just  as  the  eye  cannot  see  God,  so  can  it  not 
behold  the  Beautiful  and  Good.  For  that  they 
are  integral  parts  of  God,  wedded  to  Him  alone, 
inseparate  familiars,  most  beloved,  with  whom 
God  is  Himself  in  love,  or  they  with  God. 

1  Sc.  the  Good.  2  Cosmos. 

3  Or  pleroma.     The   "world"   is  the   pleroma  of  evil,   but 
•'God"  the  pleroma  of  good. 

4  A  lacuna  unfortunately  occurs  here  in  the  text. 
VOL.  II.  8 


114  THRICE-GREATEST   HERMES 

5.  If  thou   canst   God    conceive,    thou   shalt 
conceive  the  Beautiful  and  Good,  transcending 
Light,   made  lighter  than  the   Light  by  God. 
That  Beauty  is  beyond  compare,  inimitate  that 
Good,  e'en  as  God  is  Himself. 

As,  then,  thou  dost  conceive  of  God,  conceive 
the  Beautiful  and  Good.  For  they  cannot  be 
joined  with  aught  of  other  things  that  live,  since 
they  can  never  be  divorced  from  God. 

Seek'st  thou  for  God,  thou  seekest  for  the 
Beautiful.  One  is  the  Path  that  leadeth  unto 
It — Devotion  joined  with  Gnosis. 

6.  And  thus  it  is  that  they  who  do  not  know 
and  do  not  tread  Devotion's  Path,  do  dare  to 
call  man  beautiful   and  good,  though  he  have 
ne'er  e'en  in  his  visions  seen  a  whit  that's  Good, 
but  is  enwrapped  with  every  kind  of  bad,  and 
thinks   the  bad  is  good,   and  thus  doth  make 
unceasing  use   of  it,   and  even  feareth  that  it 
should  be  ta'en  from  him,  so   straining  every 
nerve    not     only     to    preserve    but    even    to 
increase  it. 

Such  are  the  things  that  men  call  good  and 
beautiful,  Asclepius, — things  which  we  cannot 
flee  or  hate ;  for  hardest  thing  of  all  is  that 
we've  need  of  them  and  cannot  live  without 
them. 


IN   GOD   ALONE   IS   GOOD  115 


COMMENTARY 

THE  TITLE 

This  sermon,  which  bears  no  proper  title,  but  has  been 
headed  by  some  editor  with  the  enunciation  of  the 
subject  taken  from  the  opening  sentence  of  the  treatise 
itself,  belongs  to  the  Asclepius-group. 

Reitzenstein  (p.  194)  thinks  that  this  tractate  and 
the  previous  Asclepius-Dialogue — G.  H.,  ii.  (iii.) — may 
very  well  have  formed  part  of  the  same  collection  of 
Asclepiana. 

DUALISM  ? 

The  teaching  of  our  sermon  is  apparently  dualistic ; 
but  is  it  not  only  formally  so,  and  as  an  exercise  to 
raise  the  thought  of  the  pupil  away  from  the  "  things 
he  has  grown  used  to "  ?  For  at  the  end  Hermes 
declares : 

"  Such  are  the  things  that  men  call  good  and  beauti- 
ful, Asclepius — things  which  we  cannot  flee  or  hate  ;  for 
hardest  thing  of  all  is  that  we've  need  of  them  and 
cannot  live  without  them." 

This  is  a  clear  advance  on  the  formal  Tat-teaching 
as  to  "  hating  "  the  body  given  in  0.  H.}  iv.  (v.)  6,  and 
points  clearly  to  an  instruction  in  which  the  cosmos 
was  not  regarded  as  the  pleroma  of  bad,  in  spite  of  the 
formal  and  emphatic  statement  in  §  4 : 

"  o  yap  KoV/xo?  7r\^pcDfji.d  CCTTL  TJ;?  /ca/aa?." 

Moreover,  if  we  turn  to  0.  H.,  ix.  (x.),  4 — another 
treatise  of  Hermes  to  Asclepius,  and  curiously  enough 
having  as  superscription  almost  the  same  proposition 
as  heads  our  present  treatise — we  read : 

"  ^wpiov  yap  avr^  [/ccm'a?]  Y\  yJ},  oux  o  Kocruost  ft>? 

CVlOl  7TOT6  epOVO-l  /3\a(T(j)*)fJLOVVT€$." 


116  THRICE-GREATEST    HERMES 

"  Bad's  place  is  earth,  and  not  the  world,  as  some 
will  sometimes  say  with  impious  tongue." 

Here  we  have  a  formal  denial  in  an  Asclepius- 
tractate  of  the  formal  proposition  in  our  Asclepius- 
sermon. 

The  cosmos  is  not  evil ;  it  is  the  beautiful  world- 
order.  Evil  is  a  thing  connected  with  the  earth;  there 
is  no  such  thing  as  a  7r\jjpco/uLa  of  evil ;  evil  has  at  best 
only  a  ^>piov.  They  who  say  such  things  blaspheme. 

This  is  strong  language,  and  there  seems  no  other 
conclusion  to  be  drawn  from  it  but  that  there  were 
various  schools  within  the  Trismegistic  tradition,  and 
that  they  wrangled  theologically  together. 

Is  it,  however,  possible  that  the  Hermes  of  our 
treatise  is  only  speaking  metaphorically,  so  that  he 
may  intensify  the  ideal  of  the  Good,  and  that  he  was 
subsequently  taken  as  speaking  literally  ?  For  he 
must  have  known  that  the  Cosmos  was  regarded  as  the 
Son  of  God,  par  excellence,  the  fairest  and  best-beloved 
of  all,  God's  Very  Image. 

On  the  other  hand,  we  know  that  in  the  Trisme- 
gistic doctrine  the  "cosmic  man"  was  opposed  to  the 
"  essential  man,"  that,  in  fact,  the  term  "  cosmic  "  was 
used  in  the  nomenclature  of  the  time  in  a  theological  as 
well  as  in  a  philosophical  sense.  This  was  especially 
the  case  in  Christianity.  Many  instances  could  be  cited 
from  the  New  Testament  documents ;  and  we  have  also 
a  striking  example  of  the  use  of  "  cosmos  "  in  this  sense 
in  the  second  logion  of  the  First  Oxyrhynchus  Fragment: 

"Jesus  saith:  Except  ye  fast  to  the  world  (rov 
/coV/xoi/),  ye  shall  in  no  wise  find  the  Kingdom  of  God." 

As,  moreover,  we  nowhere  else  find  mention  of  a 
"  pleroma  of  evil, "  we  may  permissibly  conclude  that  it 
is  here  not  intended  to  be  taken  literally,  but  only  as 
a  metaphorical  expression. 


IN   GOD    ALONE    IS   GOOD  117 

GOD  THE  PLEROMA  OF  GOOD 

"God  is  the  Pleroma  of  Good,  and  Good  is  the 
Pleroma  of  God." 

And  so,  speaking  of  the  Triumphant  Christ  as  the 
Cosmic  Logos,  Paul  writes : 

"And  Him  hath  He  (God)  given  as  Head  over  all 
things  unto  the  Church,1  which  is  His  Body — the 
Fullness  (Pleroma)  of  Him  who  doth  fulfil  all  things  in 
all."2 

The  thought-atmosphere  in  which  the  idea  of  the 
"  Church  "  as  the  Pleroma  arose  may  be  sampled  from 
Philo,  De  Proem,  d  Pan.,  §  xi.  (M.  ii.  418,  p.  920; 
Ki.  v.  232): 

"  And  thus  the  soul,  becoming  a  Pleroma  of  virtues 
by  means  of  the  three  best  [blessings] — nature,  instruc- 
tion (mathesis)  and  practice  (asklsis),  —  leaving  no 
vacant  spot  in  her  for  entrance  of  aught  else,  brings 
unto  birth  a  perfect  number,  —  her  two  hexads  of 
sons,  a  miniature  and  copy  of  the  circle  of  the  types 
of  life,3  for  the  improvement  of  the  things  down 
here. 

"  This  is  the  House  4  that  naught  can  harm,  the  perfect 
and  continual  in  the  public  scriptures,  and  also  in  the 
secret  meanings  of  the  mystic  ones, — the  House  that 
won  the  prize,  as  I  have  said,  of  lordship  o'er  the  tribes 
of  its  [own]  race." 

"  It  was  thus  from  this  House  in  course  of  time,  as 
it  increased  and  became  populous,  that  well-regulated 
cities  were  established,  yea,  disciplines  of  wisdom  and 
of  righteousness  and  holiness,  in  which  the  transmuta- 

1  rrj  tKK\Tj<rict,  that  is,  the  Spiritual  Body  of  the  "  Elect." 

2  Eph.  i.  23.     Of.  Col.  ii.  19 :    "  In  Him  dwelleth  the  whole 
Fullness  of  the  Godhead  as  in  a  body." 

3  8c.  the  Zodiac.  *  Sc.  of  God. 


118  THRICE-GREATEST    HERMES 


tion  duLeTaTroitia-is)  of  the  rest   of   virtue   was   sought 
out  in  manner  worthy  of  so  high  a  work.  " 

In  the  Trismegistic  tradition,  however,  the  idea  is 
simpler,  as  we  learn  from  "  The  Definitions  of  Asclepius," 
C.  H.  (xvi.)  3  : 

"  For  that  the  Fullness  of  all  things  is  One  and  is  in 
One,  —  this  latter  One  not  coming  as  a  second  One,  but 
both  being  One.  .  .  . 

"For  should  one  try  to  separate  what  seems  to  be 
both  All  and  One  and  Same  from  One,  —  he  will  be 
found  to  take  his  epithet  of  'All'  from  the  idea  of 
multitude  and  not  from  that  of  fullness  (pleroma),  — 
which  is  impossible  ;  for  if  he  put  All  for  the  One,  he 
will  destroy  the  All." 

Nevertheless,  the  Pleroma  1  of  Life  is  more  specially 
the  Cosmos  as  the  Son  of  God  —  that  is,  as  the  Logos. 
Thus  in  C.  H.,  xii.  (xiii.)  15,  we  read  : 

"Matter  is  one;  and  the  World-order  (Cosmos),  as 
a  whole,  —  the  Mighty  God  and  Image  of  the  Mightier 
One,  both  with  Him  unified,  and  the  Conserver  of  the 
Will  and  Order  of  the  Father,  —  is  Life's  Fullness 
(Pleroma).  .  .  . 

"How  then,  0  son,  could  there  be  in  the  God,  — 
the  Image  of  the  Father,  the  Plenitude  (Pleroma)  of 
Life,2—  dead  things?" 

And  again  in  C.  H.y  ix.  (x.)  7  : 

"For  [Cosmos]  being  a  most  wise  Breath,  bestows 
their  qualities  on  bodies  together  with  the  one  Pleroma 
—that  of  Life." 

5.  This  Pleroma  of  God  is  the  Good  and  Beautiful. 
The  Path  to  this  True  Good  is  one  of  balance,  —  for  it 

1  Cf.  John  i.  16  :  "  Of  His  Fullness  we  have  all  received,  and 
grace  on  grace." 

2  Cf.  John  i.  4  :  "  In  Him  was  Life  and  the  Life  was  the  Light 
of  men." 


IN   GOD   ALONE   IS   GOOD  119 

is  the  Way  of  Devotion  united  unto  Gnosis  —  in 
Sanskrit  terms,  the  Bhakti-Marga  and  Jnana-Marga 
combined.1 

6.  Finally  we  learn,  though  inferentially,  that  things 
are  not  bad  in  themselves;  the  evil  is  that  men  are 
content  with  the  little  goods  they  have  and  cling 
desperately  to  these,  in  ignorance  of  the  greater 
blessings  to  which  they  could  attain,  did  they  but  open 
their  spiritual  eyes  for  the  True  Vision  of  the  Good. 
For  even  the  psychic  visions  of  the  soul,  in  spite  of 
their  beauty,  give  man  no  hint  of  that  Most  Blessed 
Sight  of  All. 

1  Compare  C.  H.y  i.  27 :  "  And  I  began  to  preach  to  men  the 
beauty  of  Devotion  and  of  Gnosis." 


CORPUS  HERMETICUM  VII.  (VIII.) 

THE  GREATEST  ILL  AMONG  MEN 
IS  IGNORANCE  OF  GOD 

(Text:  P.  54,  55;  Pat.  18a.) 

1.  WHITHER  stumble  ye,  sots,  who  have  sopped 
up  the  wine  of  ignorance  unmixed,  and  can  so  far 
not  carry  it  that  ye  already  even  spew  it  forth  ? 

Stay  ye,  be  sober,  gaze  upwards  with  the 
[true]  eyes  of  the  heart !  And  if  ye  cannot  all, 
yet  ye  at  least  who  can ! 

For  that  the  ill'  of  ignorance  doth  pour  o'er  all 
the  earth  and  overwhelm  the  soul  that's  battened 
down  within  the  body,  preventing  it  from  fetch- 
ing port  within  Salvation's  harbours. 

2.  Be  then  not  carried  off  by  the  fierce  flood, 
but  using  the  shore-current,1  ye  who  can,  make 
for  Salvation's  port,  and,  harbouring  there,  seek 
ye  for  one  to  take  you  by  the  hand  and  lead 
you  2  unto  Gnosis'  gates. 

1  Lit.  back  or  up-current. 

2  Cf.  G.  H.,  iv.  (v.)  11  ;  ix.  (x.;  10  ;  x  (xi.)  2  ;  R.  23,  n.  5. 

120 


THE    GREATEST   ILL   IS   IGNORANCE    OF    GOD    121 

Where  shines  clear  Light,  of  every  darkness 
clean  ;  where  not  a  single  soul  is  drunk,  but 
sober  all  they  gaze  with  their  hearts1  eyes  on 
Him  who  willeth  to  be  seen. 

No  ear  can  hear  Him,  nor  can  eye  see  Him, 
nor  tongue  speak  of  Him,  but  [only]  mind  and 
heart. 

But  first  thou  must  tear  off  from  thee  the  cloak 
which  thou  dost  wear, — the  web  of  ignorance, 
the  ground  of  bad,  corruption's  chain,  the  cara- 
pace of  darkness,  the  living  death,  sensation's 
corpse,  the  tomb  thou  carriest  with  thee,  the 
robber  in  thy  house,  who  through  the  things  he 
loveth,  hateth  thee,  and  through  the  things  he 
hateth,  bears  thee  malice. 

3.  Such  is  the  hateful  cloak  thou  wearest,— 
that  throttles  thee  [and  holds  thee]  down  to  it, 
in  order  that  thou  may'st  not  gaze  above,  and, 
having  seen  the  Beauty  of  the  Truth,  and  Good 
that  dwells  therein,  detest  the  bad  of  it ;  having 
found  out  the  plot  that  it  hath  schemed  against 
thee,  by  making  void  of  sense  those  seeming 
things  which  men  think  senses. 

For  that  it  hath  with  mass  of  matter  blocked 
them  up  and  crammed  them  full  of  loathsome 
lust,  so  that  thou  may'st  not  hear  about  the 
things  that  thou  should'st  hear,  nor  see  the 
things  that  thou  should'st  see. 


122  THRICE-GREATEST    HERMES 

COMMENTARY 
A  PREACHING 

THERE  is  little  to  be  said  about  this  powerful  appeal  to 
cease  from  the  drunkenness  of  physical  sensations  and 
to  awaken  to  the  Light. 

Reitzenstein  (p.  194)  calls  it  a  "  Prophetenpredigt" 
and  says  that  nowhere  in  the  MSS.  is  it  ascribed  to 
Hermes ;  by  which  he  can  only  mean  that  it  bears  no 
other  superscription  than  the  descriptive  sentence  which 
heads  it. 

The  style  and  spirit  remind  us  not  so  much  of 
C.  H.,  iii.  (iv.),  as  Reitzenstein  (p.  206,  1)  suggests,  as 
of  the  interpolated  or  superadded  passages  in  the 
"  Pcemandres"  treatise  (§  27): 

"O  ye  people,  earthborn  folk,  ye  who  have  given 
yourselves  to  drunkenness,  and  sleep,  and  ignorance, 
be  sober  now,  cease  from  your  surfeit,  cease  to  be 
glamoured  by  irrational  sleep!" 

Did  this  sentence  give  rise  to  our  little  sermon ;  or 
is  the  sentence  a  summary  of  the  preaching?  Or  do 
both  sentence  and  sermon  come  from  a  common  stock  ? 

THE  PROBABLE  COMPLETION  OF  AN 
OXYRHYNCHUS  LOGION 

The  last  hypothesis  seems  to  be  the  most  satisfactory 
choice ;  and  we  may  compare  what  would  appear  to 
be  a  familiar  figure  of  speech  among  such  communities 
with  logion  3  of  the  First  Oxyrhynchus  Fragment : 

"  Jesus  saith :  I  stood  in  the  midst  of  the  world  (rov 
/coV/xoi/),  and  in  the  flesh  did  I  appear  unto  them ;  and 
I  found  all  men  drunken,  and  none  found  I  athirst 
among  them ;  and  my  soul  grieveth  over  the  souls  of 


THE   GREATEST   ILL   IS   IGNORANCE   OF   GOD    123 

men,  because  they  are  blind  in  their  heart  and  see 
not  ..." 

Can  we  fill  up  the  missing  word  from  our  sermon  ? 

"  But  sober  all  they  gaze  with  their  hearts'  eyes  on 
Him  who  willeth  to  be  seen." 

The  missing  word  seems,  therefore,  to  be  "  God." 

The  Gospel  that  is  preached  is  the  Beauty  of  the 
Gnosis, — "  the  Beauty  of  the  Truth  and  Good  that  dwells 
therein  "  ;  just  as  in  0.  H.,  i.  27 : 

"And  I  began  to  preach  to  men  the  Beauty  of 
Devotion  and  of  the  Gnosis." 

The  tempest-tossed  on  the  Sea  of  Ignorance  are  to 
make  for  the  Harbour  of  Salvation — evidently  some 
great  organization  devoted  to  the  holy  life ;  therein 
they  must  seek  for  one  who  knows,  who  can  take  them 
by  the  hand  and  lead  them  unto  the  Gates  of  the 
Gnosis. 

This  suggests  that  the  organization  consisted  of  a 
general  body,  within  which  were  grades  of  instruction ; 
the  many  were  striving  for  illumination,  some  few  had 
reached  it. 


CORPUS  HERMETICUM  VIII.  (IX.) 


THAT  NO  ONE  OF  EXISTING 
THINGS  DOTH  PERISH,  BUT 
MEN  IN  ERROR  SPEAK  OF 
THEIR  CHANGES  AS  DESTRUC- 
TIONS AND  AS  DEATHS 

[OF  HERMES  TO  TAT] 

(Text:  P.  56-59;  Pat.  48a,  48b.) 

1.  \Hermes.~]  Concerning  Soul  and  Body,  son, 
we  now  must  speak ;  in  what  way  Soul  is  death- 
less, and  whence  comes  the  activity1  in  com- 
posing and  dissolving  Body. 

For  there's  no  death  for  aught  of  things  [that 
are] ;  the  thought  [this]  word  conveys,  is  either 
void  of  fact,  or  [simply]  by  the  knocking  off  a 
syllable  what  is  called  "  death,"  doth  stand  for 
"deathless."2 

1  eWpyeio. 

2  The  text  is  obscure,  and  the  translations  without  exception 
make  nonsense  of  it.     Some  words  seem  to  be  missing. 


NO   ONE   OF    EXISTING   THINGS    DOTH    PERISH    125 

For  death  is  of  destruction,  and  nothing  in 
the  Cosmos  is  destroyed.  For  if  Cosmos  is 
second  God,  a  life *  that  cannot  die,  it  cannot  be 
that  any  part  of  this  immortal  life  should  die. 
All  things  in  Cosmos  are  parts  of  Cosmos,  and 
most  of  all  is  man,  the  rational  animal. 

2.  For   truly   first   of  all,    eternal   and  tran- 
scending birth,  is   God   the  universals'   Maker. 
Second    is    he    "  after     His    image,"     Cosmos, 
brought  into  being  by  Him,  sustained  and  fed  by 
Him,  made  deathless,  as  by  his  own  Sire,  living 
for  aye,  as  ever  free  from  death. 

Now  that  which  ever-liveth,  differs  from  the 
Eternal ;  for  He 2  hath  not  been  brought  to  being 
by  another,  and  even  if  He  have  been  brought  to 
being,  He  hath  not  been  brought  into  being  by 
Himself,  but  ever  is  brought  into  being. 

For  the  Eternal,  in  that  It  is  eternal,  is  the  all. 
The  Father  is  Himself  eternal  of  Himself,  but 
Cosmos  hath  become  eternal  and  immortal  by 
the  Father. 

3.  And  of  the  matter  stored  beneath  it,8  the 
Father  made  of  it  a  universal  body,  and  packing 
it  together  made  it  spherical — wrapping  it  round 
the  life 4 — [a  sphere]  which  is  immortal  in  itself, 
and  that  doth  make  materiality  eternal. 

1  Living  thing,  "  animal."  2  Sc.  the  Eternal. 

3  Sc.  beneath  the  cosmos,  world-order  or  universe. 

4  The  text  here  seems  to  me  to  be  very  faulty ;  for  voi6v,  void, 
I  read  £$ovt  £$a.     In  such  unintelligible  phrases  as  aur<p 


126  THRICE-GREATEST    HERMES 

But  He,  the  Father,  full-filled  with  His  ideas, 
did  sow  the  lives l  into  the  sphere,  and  shut  them 
in  as  in  a  cave,  willing  to  order  forth 2  the  life 
with  every  kind  of  living. 

So  He  with  deathlessness  enclosed  the  uni- 
versal body,  that  matter  might  not  wish  to 
separate  itself  from  body's  composition,  and  so 
dissolve  into  its  own  [original]  unorder. 

For  matter,  son,  when  it  was  yet  incorporate, 
was  in  unorder.  And  it  doth  still  retain  down 
here  this  [nature  of  unorder]  enveloping  the  rest 
of  the  small  lives3 — that  increase-and-decrease 
which  men  call  death. 

4.  It  is  round  earthly  lives  that  this  unorder 
doth  exist.  For  that  the  bodies  of  the  heavenly 
ones  preserve  one  order  allotted  to  them  from 
the  Father  as  their  rule  * ;  and  it  is  by  the  restora- 
tion5 of  each  one  [of  them]  this  order  is  pre- 
served indissolute.6 

The  "  restoration  "  then  of  bodies  on  the  earth 


and  rb  jter*  avrov  "xodv,  the  writer  is  evidently  dealing  with  the 
Cosmos  as  the  one  life,  the  avrtfoov,  from  which  all  other  lives 
are  derived  ;  and  if  he  did  not  write  avrtfyov,  he  assuredly  wrote 
£$ov.  He  wrote  sense  and  not  the  nonsense  of  the  present  text. 

1  Sc.  the  great  lives  or  so-called  heavenly  "  bodies." 

2  Or  beautify. 

3  As  distinguished  from  the  great  lives  or  animals,  the  so-called 
heavenly  "  bodies." 

4  TV  fy>xV, — or  source  or  principle. 

5  airoKaTdffTaffis,  a  term  used  of  the  cyclic  return  of  stars  to  their 
original  positions. 

6  If  we  may  be  permitted  to  coin  a  neologism. 


NO    ONE   OF    EXISTING    THINGS    DOTH    PERISH    127 

is  [thus  their]  composition,  whereas  their  dissolu- 
tion restores  them  to  those  bodies  which  can 
never  be  dissolved,  that  is  to  say,  which  know 
no  death.  Privation,  thus,  of  sense  is  brought 
about,  not  loss  of  bodies. 

5.  Now  the  third  life — Man,  after  the  image 
of  the  Cosmos  made,  [and]  having  mind,  after 
the  Father's  will,  beyond  all  earthly  lives — not 
only  doth  have  feeling  with  the  second  God,  but 
also  hath  conception  of  the  first ;  for  of  the  one 
'tis  sensible  as  of  a  body,  while  of  the  other  it 
conceives  as  bodiless  and  the  Good  Mind. 

Tat.  Doth  then  this  life  not  perish  ? 

Her.  Hush,  son !  and  understand  what  God, 
what  Cosmos  [is],  what  is  a  life  that  cannot  die, 
and  what  a  life  subject  to  dissolution. 

Yea,  understand  the  Cosmos  is  by  God  and  in 
God ;  but  Man  by  Cosmos  and  in  Cosmos. 

The  source  and  limit  and  the  constitution  of 
all  things  is  God. 


COMMENTARY 

THE  COSMOS  AS  "SECOND  GOD" 

The  superscription  enunciates  the  nature  of  the 
treatise.  It  is  evidently  taken  from  the  Dialogues  to 
Tat,  and  originally  formed  part  of  some  General  Dis- 
sertation or  of  a  collection  of  Dissertations. 

It  formed  part  of  an  instruction  in  which  the  Cosmos 


128  THRICE-GREATEST    HERMES 

was  treated  of  as  "  Second  God,"  as  we  find  it  also  in 
Philo 1 ;  but  just  as  Philo  guards  against  any  idea  of 
duality,  so  does  our  treatise  when  it  ends  with  the 
words  (§  5) : 

"  The  source  and  limit  and  the  constitution  of  all 
things  is  God." 

The  Great  Body  of  the  Cosmos,  the  Sphere  or  Perfect 
Form,  the  root  of  all  forms,  seems  to  be  bounded  by 
the  idea  of  the  Mon  or  Eternity,  or  Deathlessness.  It 
is,  as  it  were,  the  Cave  or  Womb  of  all  things  in  genesis, 
centred  in  the  Pleroma  of  ideas,  the  Intelligible  Cosmos, 
which  is  full-filled  with  the  ideas  of  God  (§  3). 

THE  LAW  OF  APOKATASTASIS 

The  eternal  order  and  life  of  Cosmos  is  preserved  by 
the  law  of  apoJcatastasis  or  restoration  (§  4),  the  law  of 
ever-becoming,  and  cyclic  renewal,  the  making-new- 
again  (avaveaxris)  of  C.  H.,  iii.  (iv.)  1. 

There  is  no  question  of  loss  of  body, — this  is  an 
illusion ;  there  is  a  privation  of  sense,  a  going  into 
latency  of  some  particular  phase  of  consciousness. 

There  are  then  Great  Lives — God,  Cosmos,  Man. 
Cosmos  is  made  in  the  image  of  God,  Man  in  the  image 
of  Cosmos.  Therefore  has  Man  sense  and  mind ;  by 
the  former  he  is  "in  sympathy  with"  the  Cosmos,  as 
Body  by  the  latter  he  is  conscious  of  God  as  Mind, — 
that  is  the  Bodiless.  Or  as  we  might  phrase  it,  by 
sense  Man  knows  the  Sensible  Cosmos,  by  mind  the 
Intelligible  Cosmos,  the  Good  Mind ;  for  God  is  Source 
and  Limit  and  the  Constitution  of  all  things — the 
Cosmos,  both  Intelligible  and  Sensible,  included. 

i  Leg.  Alleg.,  §  21  j  M.  i.  82 ;  P.  1103  (Ri.  i.  113) ;  Quasi.  Sol, 
i.  (quoted  by  Euseb.,  Prcep.  Evang.,  vii.  13).  See  in  the  "  Prolego- 
mena," "  Philo  Concerning  the  Logos.53 


CORPUS  HERMETICUM  IX.  (X.) 


ON  THOUGHT  AND  SENSE 

THAT  THE  BEAUTIFUL  AND  GOOD  is  IN  GOD 
ONLY  AND  ELSEWHERE  NOWHERE 

(Text:  P.  60-67;  Pat.  14,  15.) 

1.  I  GAVE  the  Perfect  Sermon  (Logos)  yester- 
day, Asclepius  ;  to-day  I  think  it  right,  as  sequel 
thereunto,  to  go  through  point  by  point  the 
Sermon  about  Sense. 

Now  sense  and  thought  do  seem  to  differ,  in 
that  the  former  has  to  do  with  matter,  the  latter 
has  to  do  with  substance.  But  unto  me  both 
seem  to  be  at-one  and  not  to  differ — in  men  I 
mean.  In  other  lives 1  sense  is  at-oned  with 
nature,  but  in  men  thought. 

Now  mind  doth  differ  just  as  much  from 
thought  as  God  doth  from  divinity.  For  that 
divinity  by  God  doth  come  to  be,  and  by  mind 
thought,  the  sister  of  the  word  (logos)2  and 

1  Or  animals. 

2  There  is  here  the  usual  play  on  the  meanings,  reason,  word, 
sermon  or  sacred  discourse. 

VOL.   II.  129  9 


130  THRICE-GREATEST   HERMES 

instruments  of  one  another.  For  neither  doth 
the  word  (logos)  find  utterance  without  thought, 
nor  is  thought  manifested  without  word. 

2.  So  sense  and  thought  both  flow  together 
into  man,  as  though  they  were  entwined  with 
one  another.     For  neither  without  sensing  can 
one  think,  nor  without  thinking  sense. 

But  it  is  possible  [they  say]  to  think  a  thing 
apart  from  sense,  as  those  who  fancy  sights  in 
dreams.  But  unto  me  it  seems  that  both  of 
these  activities  occur  in  dream-sight,  and  sense 
doth  pass  out  of  the  sleeping  to  the  waking 
state. 

For  man  is  separated  into  soul  and  body,  and 
only  when  the  two  sides  of  his  sense  agree 
together,  does  utterance  of  its  thought  con- 
ceived by  mind  take  place. 

3.  For   it   is   mind   that    doth    conceive    all 
thoughts — good  thoughts  when  it  receives  the 
seeds  from  God,   their  contraries  when   [it   re- 
ceive th  them]  from  one  of  the  daimonials ;    no 
part   of    Cosmos   being    free    of    daimon,    who 
stealthily   doth   creep   into   the    daimon    who's 
illumined  by  God's  Light,1  and  sow  in  him  the 
seed  of  its  own  energy. 

And    mind   conceives   the    seed   thus    sown, 

1  That  is  to  say  man,  or  rather  the  ego  in  man.  The  translators 
seem  to  make  nonsense  of  this  passage  through  rejecting  the 
original  reading. 


ON   THOUGHT   AND    SENSE  131 

adultery,  murder,  parricide,  [and]  sacrilege, 
impiety,  [and]  strangling,  casting  down  preci- 
pices, and  all  such  other  deeds  as  are  the  work 
of  evil  daimones. 

4.  The  seeds  of  God,  'tis  true,  are  few,  but 
vast  and  fair,  and  good — virtue  and  self-control, 
devotion.     Devotion  is  G-od-gnosis ;  and  he  who 
knoweth  God,  being  filled  with  all  good  things, 
thinks  godly  thoughts  and  not  thoughts  like  the 
many  [think]. 

For  this  cause  they  who  Gnostic  are,1  please 
not  the  many,  nor  the  many  them.  They  are 
thought  mad  and  laughed  at 2 ;  they're  hated  and 
despised,  and  sometimes  even  put  to  death. 

For  we  did  say3  that  bad  must  needs  dwell 
here  on  earth,  where  'tis  in  its  own  place.  Its 
place  is  earth,  and  not  Cosmos,  as  some  will 
sometimes  say  with  impious  tongue. 

But  he  who  is  a  devotee  of  God,  will  bear 
with  all — once  he  has  sensed  the  Gnosis.  For 
such  an  one  all  things,  e'en  though  they  be  for 
others  bad,  are  for  him  good ;  deliberately  he 
doth  refer  them  all  unto  the  Gnosis.  And, 
thing  most  marvellous,  'tis  he  alone  who  maketh 
bad  things  good. 

5.  But  I  return  once  more  to  the  Discourse 

1  ol  eV  yvtaffei  oi/res,  lit.  they  who  are  in  Gnosis. 

2  Of.  Plat.,  Phcedr.,  249  D  :  The  wisdom-lover  "  is  admonished, 
by  the  many  as  thoughr»he  were  beside  himself." 

3  Sc.  in  some  other  sermon. 


132  THRICE-GREATEST   HERMES 

(Logos)  on  Sense.  That  sense  doth  share  with 
thought  in  man,  doth  constitute  him  man.  But 
'tis  not  [every]  man,  as  I  have  said,  who  benefits 
by  thought ;  for  this  man  is  material,  that  other 
one  substantial. 

For  the  material  man,  as  I  have  said,  [con- 
sorting] with  the  bad,  doth  have  his  seed  of 
thought  from  daimons ;  while  the  substantial 
men  [consorting]  with  the  Good,  are  saved  by 
God. 

Now  God  is  Maker  of  all  things,  and  in  His 
making,  He  maketh  all  [at  last]  like  to  Himself; 
but  they,  while  they're  becoming1  good  by 
exercise  of  their  activity,  are  unproductive 
things. 

It  is  the  working  of  the  Cosmic  Course 2  that 
maketh  their  becomings  what  they  are,  befouling 
some  of  them  with  bad  and  others  of  them 
making  clean  with  good. 

For  Cosmos,  too,  Asclepius,  possesseth  sense- 
and-thought  peculiar  to  itself,  not  like  to  that  of 

1  Or  being  made. 

2  It  is  difficult  to  bring  out  the  full  delicacy  of  wording  of  the 
original  in  translation.     First  God's  ultimate  intention  is  stated 
to  be  the  making  all  things  like  (Voia)  Himself ;  this  is  the  great 
sameness  of  union  with  Him.     But  meantime  while  this  making, 
creating  or  becoming,  is  going  on,  these  imperfections  cannot 
produce — that  is,  become  creators  in  their  turn  ;  they  are  unpro- 
ductive (&0opo).     That  which  is  the  instrument  of  God's  making 
is  the  cosmic  course  (<£op<£).     We  are  finally  (§7)  told  that  it  is 
bodies  which  are  the  cause  of  difference  or  diversity  (eV 

the  opposite  pole,  so  to  speak,  to  the  likeness  (fyxom)  with  God. 


ON   THOUGHT   AND    SENSE  133 

man ;   'tis  not   so   manifold,  but   as   it  were   a 
better  and  a  simpler  one. 

6.  The  single  sense-and-thought  of  Cosmos  is 
to  make  all  things,  and  make  them  back  into 
itself  again,  as  Organ  of  the  Will  of  God,  so 
organised  that  it,  receiving  all  the  seeds   into 
itself  from  God,  and  keeping  them  within  itself, 
may  make  all  manifest,  and   [then]   dissolving 
them,  make  them  all  new  again ;  and  thus,  like 
a  Good  Gardener  of  Life,  things  that  have  been 
dissolved,  it  taketh  to  itself,  and  giveth  them 
renewal  once  again. 

There  is  no  thing  to  which  it  gives  not  life  ;  but 
taking  all  unto  itself  it  makes  them  live,  and  is  at 
the  same  time  the  Place  of  Life  and  its  Creator. 

7.  Now  bodies  matter  [-made]  are  in  diversity. 
Some  are  of  earth,  of  water  some,  some  are  of 
air,  and  some  of  fire. 

But  they  are  all  composed ;  some  are  more 
[composite],  and  some  are  simpler.  The  heavier 
ones  are  more  [composed],  the  lighter  less  so. 

It  is  the  speed  of  Cosmos'  Course  that  works 
the  manifoldness  of  the  kinds  of  births.  For 
being  a  most  swift  Breath,  it  doth  bestow  their 
qualities  on  bodies  together  with  the  One 
Pleroma — that  of  Life. 

8.  God,  then,  is  Sire  of  Cosmos ;  Cosmos,  of 
[all]  in  Cosmos.     And  Cosmos  is  God's  Son  ;  but 
things  in  Cosmos  are  by  Cosmos. 


134  THRICE-GREATEST    HERMES 

And  properly  hath  it  been  called  Cosmos 
[Order]  ;  for  that  it  orders 1  all  with  their  diversity 
of  birth,  with  its  not  leaving  aught  without  its 
life,  with  the  unweariedness  of  its  activity,  the 
speed  of  its  necessity,  the  composition  of  its 
elements,  and  order  of  its  creatures. 

The  same,  then,  of  necessity  and  of  propriety 
should  have  the  name  of  Order. 

The  sense-and-thought,  then,  of  all  lives  doth 
come  into  them  from  without,  inbreathed  by 
what  contains  [them  all] ;  whereas  Cosmos 
receives  them  once  for  all  together  with  its 
coming  into  being,  and  keeps  them  as  a  gift  from 
God. 

9.  But  God  is  not,  as  some  suppose,  beyond 
the  reach  of  sense-and-thought.  It  is  through 
superstition  men  thus  impiously  speak. 

For  all  the  things  that  are,  Asclepius,  all  are 
in  God,  are  brought  by  God  to  be,  and  do 
depend  on  Him — both  things  that  act  through 
bodies,  and  things  that  through  soul-substance 
make  [other  things]  to  move,  and  things  that 
make  things  live  by  means  of  spirit,  and  things 
that  take  unto  themselves  the  things  that  are 
worn  out. 

And  rightly  so ;  nay,  I  would  rather  say, 
He  doth  not  have  these  things;  but  I  speak 
forth  the  truth,  He  is  them  all  Himself.  He 

1  Or  adorns. 


ON   THOUGHT   AND    SENSE  135 

doth  not  get  them  from  without,  but  gives  them 
out  [from  Him]. 

This  is  God's  sense-and-thought,  ever  to  move 
all  things.  And  never  time  shall  be  when  e'en  a 
whit  of  things  that  are  shall  cease ;  and  when 
I  say  "  a  whit  of  things  that  are,"  I  mean  a  whit 
of  God.  For  things  that  are,  God  hath ;  nor 
aught  [is  there]  without  Him,  nor  [is]  He  without 
aught. 

1 0.  These  things  should  seem  to  thee,  Asclepius, 
if  thou  dost  understand  them,  true  ;  but  if  thou 
dost  not  understand,  things  not  to  be  believed. 

To  understand  is  to  believe,  to  not  believe  is 
not  to  understand. 

My  word  (logos)  doth  go  before  [thee] l  to  the 
truth.  But  mighty  is  the  mind,  and  when  it 
hath  been  led  by  word  up  to  a  certain  point,  it 
hath  the  power  to  come  before  [thee 2]  to  the 
truth. 

And  having  thought  o'er  all  these  things,  and 
found  them  consonant  with  those  which  have 
already  been  translated  by  the  reason,  it3  hath 
[e'en  now]  believed,  and  found  its  rest  in  that 
Fair  Faith. 

To  those,  then,  who  by  God['s  good  aid]  do 
understand  the  things  that  have  been  said  [by 

1  Cf.  C.  H.,  iv.  (v.)  11  ;  vii.  (viii.)  2  ;  x.  (xi.)  21  ;  E.  23,  n.  5. 

2  That  is,  presumably,   before    the    pupil    of    the    Gnosis  is 
conscious  of  it  in  his  physical  brain. 

3  Sc.  the  mind. 


136  THRICE-GREATEST   HERMES 

us]  above,  they're  credible ;  but  unto  those  who 
understand  them  not,  incredible. 

Let  so  much,  then,    suffice  on   thought-and- 
sense. 


COMMENTARY 

TITLE  AND  ORDERING 

This  treatise  bears  a  double  title: — "On  Thought 
and  Sense,"  and  "That  the  Beautiful  and  Good  is  in 
God  only."  The  former  heading  is  clearly  taken  from 
the  concluding  words:  "Let  so  much  then  suffice  on 
thought-and-sense  "  ;  whereas  the  introductory  sentence 
speaks  of  the  Sermon  on  Sense  only.  The  latter  head- 
ing seems  to  be  a  thoughtless  repetition  of  the  title 
of  0.  ff.}  vi.  (vii.). 

The  opening  words :  "  I  gave  the  Perfect  Sermon 
yesterday,  Asclepius,"  inform  us  not  only  that  we  have 
to  do  with  an  Asclepius  Dialogue,  but  also  that  our 
sermon  followed  directly  on  the  "Perfect  Sermon,"  a 
Latin  version  of  which  has  fortunately  been  preserved 
to  us.1 

It  is,  therefore,  of  very  great  interest  to  find  that 
Lactantius,2  in  quoting  a  sentence  from  our  treatise 
(§  4) — "  Devotion  is  God-gnosis  " — continues  with  the 
words :  "  Asclepius,  his  hearer,  has  also  explained  the 
same  idea  at  greater  length  in  the  Perfect  Sermon." 

1  For  it  would,  of  course,  be  absurd  to  suppose  that  the  "  Perfect 
Sermon"  could  in  any  way  be  thought  to  indicate  C.  JBT.,  vi.  (vii.), 
the  last  Asclepius  Dialogue  in  our  Corpus ;  especially  when  our 
sermon  (§  4)  directly  combats  the  teaching  of  G.  H.,  vi. 

2  Div.  Institt.,  ii.  15  (Ed.  Fritz.,  i.  106) ;  cf.  also  v.  14. 


ON   THOUGHT    AND    SENSE  137 

Lactantius  had,  therefore,  a  collection  before  him 
in  which  these  two  sermons  stood  in  close  connection. 

Eeitzenstein  (p.  195)  thinks  that  our  sermon  must 
be  an  extract  from  a  longer  one,  because  he  cannot 
bring  himself  to  believe  that  so  short  a  treatise  could 
have  been  found  in  immediate  connection  (as  the 
opening  words  suggest)  with  so  lengthy  and  detailed 
a  tractate  as  the  "  Perfect  Sermon."  This  may  be  so ; 
and  yet  the  formal  beginning  and  ending  of  our  sermon 
would  seem  to  suggest  that  we  are  dealing  with  a 
complete  tractate  and  not  with  an  extract. 

"  SENSE-AND-THOUGHT  " 

The  doctrine  that  in  men  "  sense  -  and  -  thought " 
together  constitutes  human  "  sense  "  throws  some  light 
on  the  meaning  of  the  term  "  sense  "  as  used  elsewhere 
in  the  Trismegistic  literature,  where  we  should  expect 
to  find  "  mind "  employed,  and  that,  too,  in  the  sense 
of  the  higher  mind. 

Normal  human  "  thought,"  then,  is,  so  to  say,  sensible, 
entirely  bound  up  in  sense-impressions ;  it  is  the  mind 
alone  that  can  soar  beyond  the  senses,  for  it  alone  can 
be  "illumined  by  God's  Light"  (§  3). 

The  mind  is,  as  it  were,  a  womb  or  woman,  that  can 
be  impregnated  either  by  the  "  Seeds  of  God  "  or  by  the 
"  Daimonial  Energy " ;  she  thus  conceives  and  brings 
forth  virtues  or  vices. 

All  of  this  is  precisely  the  same  doctrine  as  Philo 
preaches,  as  may  be  seen  by  the  passages  we  have 
quoted  in  the  "  Prolegomena "  on  the  subject  of  the 
"  Sacred  Marriage." 

THOSE  IN  GNOSIS 

The  Seeds  of  God  are  Virtue  and  Self-control  and 
Devotion  or  Piety;  and  Devotion  in  its  true  sense 


138  THRICE-GREATEST   HERMES 

is  God-gnosis,  or  Knowledge  of  God.  The  Gnostics, 
then,  "  they  who  are  in  Gnosis  " — a  curious  expression — 
because  of  their  natural  divorcement  from  the  "  world," 
"  please  not  the  many,  nor  the  many  them." 

"They  are  thought  mad  and  laughed  at;  they're 
hated  and  despised,  and  sometimes  even  put  to  death." 

Mark  the  impersonal  note,  the  calm  laying  down  of 
the  causes  of  misunderstanding  between  the  "  many " 
and  the  "few'';  and  compare  this  with  the  more 
personal  note  of  the  saying  underlying  the  following 
Synoptic  accommodations : 

"  Blessed  are  ye  when  men  hate  you  and  excommuni- 
cate you,  and  revile  and  expel  your  Name  as  evil,  for 
the  Son  of  Man's  sake"  (Luke  vi.  22). 

"  Blessed  are  ye  when  men  revile  you  and  persecute 
you  and  say  all  evil  against  you,  lying,  for  My  sake  " 
(Matt.  v.  11). 

It  is  clear,  at  least  it  seems  so  to  me,  that  "  Luke  " 
has  kept  closer  to  the  original,  and  that  that  original 
was  addressed  not  only  to  the  members  of  a  community, 
but  to  those  who  had  been  cast  forth  from  some  other 
community  "  for  the  sake  of  the  Son  of  Man  " — that  is, 
because  of  the  immediate  inspiration  of  the  Logos, 
which  doubtless  did  not  pay  sufficient  attention  to  the 
prejudices  of  the  "  many  "  of  that  community. 

"  Matthew,"  on  the  contrary,  seems  to  have  adapted 
the  Saying  for  general  purposes  and  the  necessities  of 
the  Cult  of  Jesus.1 

THE  TKUE  GNOSTIC 

Excellent  also  is  the  doctrine  that  the  true  "  Gnostic," 
the  man  who  is  consciously  growing  into  the  stature  of 

1  R.  (p.  213, 1)  brings  this  passage  of  our  sermon  into  connection 
with  some  assumed  persecution  of  the  Poemandres  communities 
in  the  course  of  the  fourth  century  ;  but  I  cannot  myself  see  the 
slightest  ground  for  such  an  assumption. 


ON    THOUGHT    AND    SENSE  139 

the  Christ,  the  true  "  Devotee  of  God/'  "  will  bear  with 
all,"  for  he  is  beginning  to  know  the  Keason  of  things. 

"  For  such  an  one  all  things,  e'en  though  they  be  for 
others  bad,  are  for  him  good ;  deliberately  he  doth 
refer  them  all  unto  the  Gnosis." 

He  sees  the  Good,  he  sees  God,  in  all  things.  He 
is  the  true  Alchemist.  For  "thing  most  marvellous, 
'tis  he  alone  who  maketh  bad  things  good " ;  by 
spiritual  alchemy  he  transmutes  the  evil  of  the  world  to 
good ;  he  drains  the  "  cup  of  bitterness  "  unto  the  dregs, 
and  transmutes  it  into  the  pure  Water  of  Life. 

In  every  Man,  then,  there  are  two  "  men,"  the  material 
(or  hylic)  and  the  substantial  (or  spiritual,  ovcrMrjs). 

Evil,  however,  is  not  a  permanent  thing;  it  is  but 
the  process  of  "  becoming  good,"  the  productive  side  of 
things  (§5). 

THE  GOAL  OF  THE  GNOSIS 

It  is  difficult  to  bring  out  the  delicacy  of  the  wording 
of  the  original  in  translation.  First  God's  ultimate 
intention  is  stated  to  be  the  making  of  all  things  like 
unto  (ovoid)  Himself ;  the  world-process  is  to  be  ulti- 
mately consummated  in  the  Great  Sameness  of  Union 
with  Him.  But  meantime  while  this  making,  creating 
or  becoming,  or  transformation,  is  going  on,  the  imper- 
fections cannot  produce,  that  is,  become  creators  in  their 
turn ;  they  are  unproductive  (a'0o/oa).  That  which  is 
the  instrument  or  organ  of  God's  making  is  the  Cosmic 
Course  (fyopa).  We  are  finally  (§  7)  told  that  the 
differences  of  bodies  are  conditioned  by  the  speed  of 
this  Cosmic  Course ;  therefore  the  opposite  poles,  Other 
and  Same,  are  both  ultimately  referable  to  Cosmos,  the 
Likeness  of  God. 

The  end  to  be  achieved  is  to  develop  the  "  sense-and- 
thought "  of  the  Cosmos,  the  One  Sense,  not  manifold, 


140  THRICE-GREATEST   HERMES 

but  simple.  This  is  the  deliberate  working  with  the 
Will  of  God,  the  Cosmic  Will,  the  perpetual  renewing 
of  all  things  (ai/ai/eoxrt?). 

The  Cosmos,  then,  as  the  Logos  of  God,  is  the  Good 
Gardener  of  Life ;  it  is  both  the  place  of  Life  and  its 
Creator — that  is  to  say,  both  female  and  male,  both 
Mother  and  Father. 

THE  POSSIBILITY  OF  KNOWING  GOD 

But  the  Cosmos  is  not  apart  from  God,  nor  even  in 
God ;  God  does  not  have  Cosmos  as  a  possession,  but  is 
Cosmos  and  all  therein  (§  9).  Cosmos  is  Son  of  God, 
His  Very  Self  (§  8). 

Therefore  we  can  learn  to  know  somewhat  of  the 
nature  of  God  by  sense  and  thought,  for,  "  God  is  not, 
as  some  suppose,  beyond  the  reach  of  sense  and  thought " 
(avai(70r]To$  KOI  avorjros) ;  that  is,  God  does  not  entirely 
transcend  sense  and  thought,  for  God  is  all  things. 

"As  some  suppose"  doubtless  refers  again  to  the 
"  blasphemers  "  of  §  4 — that  is,  the  apparently  dualistic 
doctrine  set  forth  in  C.  H.,  vi.  (vii.).1 

And  so,  finally,  we  learn  that  Faith,  in  the  true  sense, 
is  a  certitude  of  the  mind,  or  of  true  manhood.  "  To 
understand  is  to  believe"  (§  10).  Gnosis  and  not  belief 
is  the  Fair  Faith. 

Compare  with  this  the  "  Perfect  Sermon,"  x.  1 : 

"  The  reason  for  a  thesis  such  as  this,  0  my  Asclepius, 
I  would  that  thou  should'st  grasp,  not  only  with  the 
keen  attention  of  thy  soul,  but  also  with  its  living  power 
as  well. 

"  For  'tis  a  reason  that  most  men  cannot  believe ;  the 
Perfect  and  the  True  are  to  be  grasped  by  the  more  holy 
minds. " 

1  Reitzenstein  (p.  171,  2)  compares  this  doctrine  of  the  insensi- 
bility and  incognizability  of  God  with  the  Sabsean  Gnosis. 


COEPUS  HEKMETICUM  X.  (XI.) 

THE  KEY 

OF  THRICE-GREATEST  HERMES 

(Text :  P.  67-84 ;  Pat.  9b-12.) 

1.  Hermes.  My  yesterday's  discourse  (logos) 
I  did  devote  to  thee,  Asclepius,  and  so  'tis 
[only]  right  I  should  devote  to-day's  to  Tat ; 
and  this  the  more  because  'tis  the  abridgment 
of  the  General  Sermons  (Logoi)  which  he  has 
had  addressed  to  him. 

"  God,  Father  and  the  Good,"  then,  Tat,  hath l 
the  same  nature,  or  more  exactly,  energy. 

For  nature  is  a  predicate  of  growth,  and  used 
of  things  that  change,  both  mobile  and  immobile, 
that  is  to  say,  both  human  and  divine,  each  one 
of  which  He  willeth  into  being. 

1  The  three  are  only  different  names  for  one  idea  ;  the  verb  is 
in  the  singular  in  the  Greek.  Cf.  0.  H.,  ii.  (iii.)  16  and  17  : 
" Good  then  is  God  and  God  is  Good"  ;  and  " The  other  name  of 
God  is  Father." 

141 


142  THRICE-GREATEST   HERMES 

But  energy  consists  in  something  else,  as  we 
have  shown  in  treating  of  the  rest,  both  things 
divine  and  human  things 1 ;  which  thing  we 
ought  to  have  in  mind  when  treating  of  the 
Good.2 

2.  God's   energy   is   then    His   Will ;   further 
His  essence  is  to  will  the  being  of  all   things. 
For  what  is  "God  and  Father  and  the  Good" 
but  the  to  be  of  all  that  are   not   yet?     Nay, 
subsistence 3   self  of   everything  that  is  ; — this, 
then,  is  God,  this  Father,  this  the  Good ;  to  Him 
is  added  naught  of  all  the  rest. 

And  though  the  Cosmos,  that  is  to  say  the 
Sun,  is  also  sire  himself  to  them  that  share  in 
him ;  yet  so  far  is  he  not  the  cause  of  good 
unto  the  lives,  he  is  not  even  of  their  living. 

So  that  e'en  if  he  be  a  sire,  he  is  entirely 
so  by  the  compulsion  of  the  Good's  Good-will, 
apart  from  which  nor  being  nor  becoming  could 
e'er  be. 

3.  Again,  the  parent  is  the   children's  cause, 
both  on  the  father's  and  the  mother's  side,4  only 
by  sharing  in5   the   Good's   desire   [that   doth 
pour]  through  the  Sun.     It  is  the  Good  which 
doeth  the  creating. 

And  such  a  power  can  be  possessed  by  no  one 

1  That  is  to  say,  presumably,  in  the  General  Sermons. 

2  Lit.  of  this.  3  ftrapfi*.     Of.  G.  H.,  xvi.  4. 
4  Lit.  both  with  regard  to  seed  and  nourishment. 

6  Lit.  taking. 


THE   KEY  143 

else  than  Him  alone  who  taketh  naught,1  but 
wills  all  things  to  be ;  I  will  not,  Tat,  say 
makes. 

For  that  the  maker  is  defective  for  long  periods 
(in  which  he  sometimes  makes,  and  sometimes 
doth  not  make)  both  in  the  quality  and  in  the 
quantity  [of  what  he  makes]  ;  in  that  he  some- 
times maketh  them  so  many  and  such  like,  and 
sometimes  the  reverse. 

But  "God  and  Father  and  the  Good"  is 
[cause]  for  all  to  be.  So  are  at  least  these 
things  for  who  can  see. 

4.  For  It  doth  will  to  be,  and  It  is  both  Itself 
and  most  of  all  by  reason  of2  Itself.  Indeed 
all  other  things  beside  are  just  because  of  It ; 
for  the  distinctive  feature  of  the  Good  is  "  that 
it  should  be  known."  Such  is  the  Good,  0  Tat. 

Tat.  Thou  hast,  0  father,  filled  us  so  full3  of 
this  so  good  and  fairest  Sight,  that  thereby  my 
mind's  eye  hath  now  become  for  me  almost  a 
thing  to  worship. 

For  that  the  Vision  of  the  Good  doth  not, 
like  the  sun's  beam,  fire-like  blaze  on  the  eyes 
and  make  them  close ;  nay,  on  the  contrary,  it 
shineth  forth  and  maketh  to  increase  the  seeing 4 
of  the  eye,  as  far  as  e'er  a  man  hath  the  capacity 

1  Of.  G.  H.,  ii.  (iii.)  16  :  "  The  Good  is  He  who  gives  all  things 
and  naught  receives." 

2  Lit.  for. 

3  eV\TJp&><ras, — reminding  us  of  TTX^PW/AO.  4  Lit.  light. 


144  THRICE-GREATEST   HERMES 

to  hold  the  inflow  of  the  radiance  that  the  mind 
alone  can  see. 

Not  only  does  it  come  more  swiftly  down  to 
us,  but  it  does  us  no  harm,  and  is  instinct  with 
all  immortal  life. 

5.  They  who  are  able  to  drink  in  a  somewhat 
more  than  others  of  this  Sight,  ofttimes   from 
out  the  body  fall  asleep  into  this  fairest  Spectacle, 
as  was  the  case  with  Uranus  and   Cronus,  our 
forebears.1     May   this  be  our  lot  too,  0  father 
mine ! 

Her.  Yea,  may  it  be,  my  son!  But  as  it 
is,  we  are  not  jet  strung  to  the  Vision,  and 
not  as  yet  have  we  the  power  our  mind's  eye  to 
unfold  and  gaze  upon  the  Beauty  of  the  Good- 
Beauty  that  naught  can  e'er  corrupt  or  any 
comprehend. 

For  [only]  then  wilt  thou  upon  It  gaze  when 
thou  canst  say  no  word  concerning  It.  For 
Gnosis  of  the  Good  is  holy  silence  and  a  giving 
holiday  to  every  sense. 

6.  For    neither    can    he   who    perceiveth    It, 
perceive  aught  else ;  nor  he  who  gazeth  on  It, 
gaze  on  aught  else ;    nor  hear  aught  else,  nor 
stir   his   body   any   way.       Staying   his   body's 
every  sense  and  every  motion  he  stayeth  still. 

And  shining  then  all  round  his  mind,  It  shines 

1  See  Lact,  D.  Institt.,  i.  11 ;  P.  S.  A.,  xi.  4,  xxxvii.  3 ;  and 
Ex.  i.  4. 


THE    KEY  145 

through  his  whole  soul,  and   draws   it   out   of 
body,  transforming  all  of  him  to  essence. 

For  it  is  possible,  my  son,  that  a  man's  soul 
should  be  made  like  to  God,  e'en  while  it  still 
is  in  a  body,  if  it  doth  contemplate  the  Beauty 
of  the  Good. 

7.  Tat.  Made  like  to  God  !  What  dost  thou, 
father,  mean  ? 

Her.  Of  every  soul  apart  are  transformations, 
son. 

Tat.  What  meanest  thou  ?     Apart ! 

Her.1  Didst  thou  not,  in  the  General  Sermons, 
hear  that  from  One  Soul — the  All-soul — come 
all  these  souls  which  are  made  to  revolve  in  all 
the  cosmos,  as  though  divided  off? 

Of  these  souls,  then,  it  is  that  there  are  many 
changes,  some  to  a  happier  lot  and  some  to 
[just]  the  contrary  of  this. 

Thus  some  that  were  once  creeping  things 
change  into  things  that  in  the  water  dwell,  the 
souls  of  water  things  change  to  earth- dwellers, 
those  that  live  on  the  earth  change  into  things 
with  wings,  and  souls  that  live  in  air  change 
into  men,  while  human  souls  reach  the  first  step 
of  deathlessness  changed  into  daimones. 

And  so  they  circle  to  the  choir  of  the  Inerrant 
Gods ;  for  of  the  Gods  there  are  two  choirs,  the 

1  From  here  to  end  of  §  8  is  quoted  by  Stobaeus,  Phys.,  I.  xli. 
48  (G.  i.  429,  430  ;  W.  416,  18  ff.). 

VOL.   II.  10 


146  THRICE-GREATEST    HERMES 

one  Inerrant,  and  the  other  Errant.     And  this 
is  the  most  perfect  glory  of  the  soul. 

8.  But  if  a  soul  on  entering  in  the  body  of  a 
man  persisteth  in  its  vice,1  it  neither  tasteth 
deathlessness  nor  shareth  in  the  Good;  but 
speeding  back  again  it  turns  into  the  path  that 
leads  to  creeping  things.  This  is  the  sentence 
of  the  vicious  soul. 

And  the  soul's  vice  is  ignorance.2  For  that 
the  soul  who  hath  no  knowledge  of  the  things 
that  are,  or  knowledge  of  their  nature,  or  of 
Good,  is  blinded  by  the  body's  passions  and 
tossed  about. 

This  wretched  soul,  not  knowing  what  she  is, 
becomes  the  slave  of  bodies  of  strange  form  in 
sorry  plight,  bearing  the  body  as  a  load ;  not 
as  the  ruler,  but  the  ruled.  This  [ignorance] 
is  the  soul's  vice. 

9.  But  on  the  other  hand  the  virtue  of  the 
soul  is  Gnosis.  For  he  who  knows,  he  good  and 
pious  is,  and  still  while  on  the  earth 3  divine. 

Tat.  But  who  is  such  an  one,  0  father  mine  ? 

Her.  He  who  doth  not  say  much  or  lend 
his  ear  to  much.  For  he  who  spendeth  time 
in  arguing  and  hearing  arguments,  doth  shadow- 

1  &v  KCIK))  fJiflvp. 

2  Cf.  G.  H.,  xii.  (xiii.)  3  :  "  The  great  ill  of  the  soul  is  Godless- 
ness  "  ;  also  below  §  20  :  "  What  greater  chastisement  of  any 
human  soul  can  there  be,  son,  than  lack  of  piety  1 " 

3  Lit.  already. 


THE   KEY  147 

fight.     For  "God,  the  Father  and  the  Good," 
is  not  to  be  obtained  by  speech  or  hearing. 

And  yet  though  this  is  so,  there  are  in  all 
the  beings  senses,  in  that  they  cannot  without 
senses  be. 

But  Gnosis  is  far  different  from  sense.  For 
sense  is  brought  about  by  that  which  hath  the 
mastery  o'er  us,  while  Gnosis  is  the  end  of 
science,1  and  science  is  God's  gift. 

10.  All  science  is  incorporal,  the  instrument 
it  uses  being  the  mind,  just  as  the  mind  employs 
the  body. 

Both  then  come  into  bodies,  [I  mean]  both 
things  that  are  cognizable  by  mind  alone  and 
things  material.2  For  all  things  must  consist 
out  of  antithesis  and  contrariety ;  and  this  can 
otherwise  not  be. 

Tat.  Who  then  is  this  material  God  of  whom 
thou  speakest  ? 

Her.  Cosmos  is  beautiful,  but  is  not  good 3— 
for  that  it  is  material  and  freely  passible 4 ;  and 
though  it  is  the  first  of  all  things  passible,  yet 
is  it  in  the  second  rank  of  being  and  wanting 
in  itself. 

And  though  it  never  hath  itself  its  birth  in 
time,  but  ever  is,  yet  is  its  being  in  becoming, 

1  eirurT'fi/j.ns.  2  Or  hylic. 

3  But  cf.  P.  8.  A.,  xxvii.  1. 

4  That  is  capable  of  suffering,  or  impressionable  by  agencies 
other  than  itself. 


148  THRICE-GREATEST    HERMES 

becoming  for  all  time  the  genesis  of  qualities 
and  quantities ;  for  it  is  mobile  and  all  material 
motion's  genesis.1 

11.  It  is  intelligible2  rest  that  moves  material 
motion  in  this  way,3  since  Cosmos  is  a  sphere — 
that   is  to  say,  a   head.     And   naught  of  head 
above's  material,  as  naught  of  feet  below's  in- 
telligible,4 but  all  material. 

And  head  itself  moved  in  a  sphere-like  way — 
that  is  to  say,  as  head  should  move,5  is  mind. 

All  then  that  are  united  to  the  "tissue"  of 
this  "  head "  (in  which 6  is  soul)  are  in  their 
nature  free  from  death, — just  as  when  body  hath 
been  made  in  soul,  are  things  that  have  more  soul 
than  body. 

Whereas  those  things  which  are  at  greater 
distance  from  this  "  tissue  " — there,  where  are 
things  which  have  a  greater  share  of  body  than 
of  soul — are  by  their  nature  subject  unto  death. 

The  whole,  however,  is  a  life ;  so  that  the 
universe  consists  of  both  the  hylic  and  of  the 
intelligible.7 

12.  Again,  the  Cosmos  is  the  first   of  living 

1  Genesis  and  becoming  are  both  yevevts  in  Greek. 

2  Noetic  as  opposed  to  hylic — the  antithesis  and  contrariety 
mentioned  above. 

3  Namely  the  ever-becoming  of  genesis. 

4  Or  mental,  in  the  sense  of  being  of  the  same  nature  as  the  mind. 

5  K€(pa\iK&s.  6  In  which  "  tissue." 

7  §§  12, 13  are  quoted  by  Stobaeus,  Phys.,  I.  xxxix.  9  (G.  i.  307  ; 
W.  350, 13  ff.). 


THE    KEY  149 

things,  while  man  is  second  after  it,  though  first 
of  things  subject  to  death. 

Man  hath  the  same  ensouling  power  in  him 
as  all  the  rest  of  living  things l ;  yet  is  he  not  only 
not  good,  but  even  evil,2  for  that  he's  subject 
unto  death.3 

For  though  the  Cosmos  also  is  not  good  in 
that  it  suffers  motion,  it  is  not  evil,  in  that  it 
is  not  subject  unto  death.  But  man,  in  that 
he's  subject  both  to  motion  and  to  death,  is  evil.4 

13.  Now  then  the  principles5  of  man  are  this- 
wise vehicled :  mind  in  the  reason  (logos),  the 
reason  in  the  soul,  soul  in  the  spirit,6  [and]  spirit 
in  the  body. 

Spirit  pervading  [body]7  by  means  of  veins 
and  arteries  and  blood,  bestows  upon  the  living 
creature  motion,  and  as  it  were  doth  bear  it  in 
a  way. 

For  this  cause  some  do  think  the  soul  is  blood, 
in  that  they  do  mistake  its  nature,  not  knowing 
that  [at  death]  it  is  the  spirit  that  must  first 

1  That  is  to  say,  the  world-system  itself  and  all  the  globes  in  it. 

2  Cf.  Ex.  i.  11  and  15. 

3  Whereas  the  system  and  its  globes  are  regarded  as  practically 
immortal. 

4  Reitzenstein  (p.  40,  1)  gives  a  revised  text  of  the  major  part 
of  this  utterance  of  Hermes,  from  "  Cosmos  is  beautiful "  onwards, 
but  unfortunately  he  omits  just  the  most  obscure  sentences  in  it. 

6  Lit.  a  man's  soul,  where  tyvx'h  is  used  in  a  general  sense,  and 
not  in  the  particular  sense  applied  to  it  in  the  category  which 
immediately  follows. 

6  wtfiari.  7   Of.  P.  S.  A.,  Vi.  4. 


150  THRICE-GREATEST    HERMES 

withdraw  into  the  soul,  whereon  the  blood  con- 
geals and  veins  and  arteries  are  emptied,  and 
then  the  living  creature  is  withdrawn ;  and  this 
is  body's  death. 

14.  Now  from  One  Source1  all  things  depend ; 
while  Source  [dependeth]  from  the  One  and  Only 
[One].     Source   is,  moreover,  moved  to  become 
Source  again ;    whereas  the  One  standeth  per- 
petually and  is  not  moved. 

Three  then  are  they :  "  God,  the  Father  and 
the  Good,"  Cosmos  and  man. 

God  doth  contain  Cosmos ;  Cosmos  [con- 
taineth]  man.  Cosmos  is  e'er  God's  Son,  man 
as  it  were  Cosmos's  child. 

15.  Not   that,    however,  God   ignoreth  man; 
nay,  right  well  doth  He  know  him,  and  willeth  to 
be  known. 

This  is  the  sole  salvation  for  a  man — God's 
Gnosis.  This  is  the  Way  Up  to  the  Mount.2 

By  Him  alone  the  soul  becometh  good,  not 
whiles  is  good,  whiles  evil,  but  [good]  out  of 
necessity. 

Tat.  What  dost  thou  mean,  Thrice-greatest 
one? 

Her.  Behold  an  infant's  soul,  my  son,  that 
is  not  yet  cut  off,3  because  its  body  is  still  small 
and  not  as  yet  come  unto  its  full  bulk.4 

1  apx"fi-        2  Lit.  to  Olympus.         3  Sc.  from  the  world-soul. 
4  Of.  the  instructive  exposition  of  Basilides  in  F.  F.  F.,  pp.  274  f. 


THE   KEY  151 

Tat.  How? 

Her.  A  thing  of  beauty  altogether  is  [such 
a  soul]  to  see,  not  yet  befouled  by  body's 
passions,  still  all  but  hanging  from  the  Cosmic 
Soul! 

But  when  the  body  grows  in  bulk  and  draweth 
down  the  soul  into  its  mass,  then  doth  the  soul 
cut  off  itself  and  bring  upon  itself  forgetfulness, 
and  no  more  shareth  in  the  Beautiful  and  Good. 
And  this  forgetfulness  becometh  vice. 

16.  It  is  the  same  for  them  who  go  out  from 
the  body. 

For  when  the  soul  withdraws  into  itself,  the 
spirit  doth  contract  itself  within  the  blood,  and 
soul  within  the  spirit.1  And  then  the  mind, 
stript  of  its  wrappings,  and  naturally  divine, 
taking  unto  itself  a  fiery  body,  doth  traverse 
every  space,  after  abandoning  the  soul  unto  its 
judgment  and  whatever  chastisement  it  hath 
deserved. 

Tat.2  What  dost  thou,  father,  mean  by  this? 
The  mind  is  parted  from  the  soul  and  soul  from 

1  This  is  generally  translated  "  the  spirit  is  contracted  into  the 
blood,  and  the  soul  into  the  spirit,"  but  such  a  translation  con- 
tradicts §  13,  where  we  are  told  that  "  the  spirit  withdraws  into 
the  soul"  at  death.     It  seems  to   mean  that  the  spirit  passes 
within,  out  of  the  blood,  and  the  soul  is  then  clothed  in  a  spirit- 
vesture,  or  borne  in  a  spirit- vehicle. 

2  From  here  to  the  end  of  §  18  is  quoted  by  Stobseus,  Phys., 
xl.  3  (G.  i.  312,  313  ;  W.  310,  25  ff.) ;  only  the  dialogue  is  ascribed 
in  error  to  Asclepius  and  Tat  and  not  to  Hermes  and  Tat. 


152  THRICE-GREATEST    HERMES 

spirit?     Whereas  thou  said'st  the  soul  was  the 
mind's  vesture,  and  the  soul's  the  spirit. 

17.  Her.  The  hearer,  son,  should  think  with 
him  who  speaks  and  breathe  with  him l ;   nay, 
he  should  have  a  hearing  subtler  than  the  voice 
of  him  who  speaks. 

It  is,  son,  in  a  body  made  of  earth  that  this 
arrangement  of  the  vestures  comes  to  pass. 
For  in  a  body  made  of  earth  it  is  impossible  the 
mind  should  take  its  seat  itself  by  its  own  self 
in  nakedness. 

For  neither  is  it  possible  on  the  one  hand  the 
earthy  body  should  contain  such  immortality,  nor 
on  the  other  that  so  great  a  virtue  should  endure 
a  body  passible  in  such  close  contact  with  it.  It 
taketh,  then,  the  soul  for  as  it  were  an  envelope. 

And  soul  itself,  being  too  a  thing  divine,  doth 
use  the  spirit  as  its  envelope,  while  spirit  doth 
pervade  the  living  creature. 

18.  When  then  the  mind  doth  free  itself  from 
the   earth- body,  it   straightway  putteth   on   its 
proper  robe   of  fire,  with   which   it   could   not 
dwell  in  an  earth-body. 

For  earth  doth  not  bear  fire ;  for  it  is  all  set 
in  a  blaze  even  by  a  small  spark.  And  for  this 
cause  is  water  poured  round  earth,  to  be  a  guard 
and  wall,  to  keep  the  blazing  of  the  fire  away. 

But  mind,  the  swiftest  thing  of  all  divine  out- 
1  Cf.  P.  s.  A.,  x.  i. 


THE   KEY  153 

thinkings,  and  swifter  than  all  elements,  hath 
for  its  body  fire. 

For  mind  being  builder1  doth  use  the  fire  as 
tool  for  the  construction  of  all  things  —  the  Mind 
of  all  [for  the  construction]  of  all  things,  but 
that  of  man  only  for  things  on  earth. 

Stript  of  its  fire  the  mind  on  earth  cannot 
make  things  divine,  for  it  is  human  in  its 
dispensation.2 

19.  The  soul  in  man,  however,  —  not  every 
soul,  but  one  that  pious  is  —  is  a  daimonic  some- 
thing and  divine. 

And  such  a  soul  when  from  the  body  freed,  if 
it  have  fought  the  fight  of  piety  —  the  fight  of 
piety  is  to  know  God  and  to  do  wrong  to  no  man 
—  such  soul  becomes  entirely  mind. 

Whereas  the  impious  soul  remains  in  its  own 
essence,  chastised  by  its  own  self,  and  seeking 
for  an  earthy  body  where  to  enter,  if  only  it  be 
human. 

For  that  no  other  body  can  contain  a  human 
soul  ;  nor  is  it  right  that  any  human  soul  should 
fall  into  the  body  of  a  thing  that  doth  possess 
no  reason.  For  that  the  law  of  God  is  this  :  to 
guard  the  human  soul  from  such  tremendous 
outrage.3 


,  i.e.  in  its  economy. 
3  This  paragraph  is  quoted  by  Stobaeus,  Phys.,  xli.  49  (G.  i. 
430,  431  ;  W.  417,  15  ff.).     For  the  idea,  cf.  P.  S.  A.,  xxxii.  2. 


154  THRICE-GREATEST    HERMES 

20.  Tat.  How  father,  then,  is   a   man's   soul 
chastised  ? 

Her.  What  greater  chastisement  of  any  human 
soul  can  there  be,  son,  than  lack  of  piety  ? 
What  fire  has  so  fierce  flame  as  lack  of  piety  ? 
What  ravenous  beast  so  mauls  the  body  as  lack 
of  piety  the  very  soul  I 

Dost  thou  not  see  what  hosts  of  ills  the 
impious  soul  doth  bear  ? 

It  shrieks  and  screams  :  I  burn  ;  I  am  ablaze  ; 
I  know  not  what  to  cry  or  do ;  ah,  wretched 
me,  I  am  devoured  by  all  the  ills  that  compass 
me  about ;  alack,  poor  me,  I  neither  see  nor  hear ! 

Such  are  the  cries  wrung  from  a  soul  chastised  ; 
not,  as  the  many  think,  and  thou,  son,  dost 
suppose,  that  a  [man's]  soul,  passing  from  body, 
is  changed  into  a  beast. 

Such  is  a  very  grave  mistake,  for  that  the 
way  a  soul  doth  suffer  chastisement  is  this : 

21.  When  mind  becomes  a  daimon,  the  law 
requires   that   it   should  take   a   fiery   body  to 
execute  the  services  of  God ;    and  entering  in 
the  soul  most  impious  it  scourgeth  it  with  whips 
made  of  its  sins. 

And  then  the  impious  soul,  scourged  with  its 
sins,  is  plunged  in  murders,  outrage,  blasphemy, 
in  violence  of  all  kinds,  and  all  the  other  things 
whereby  mankind  is  wronged.1 

1  Of.  P.  S.  A .,  xxv.  4  and  xxviii.  1. 


THE    KEY  155 

But  on  the  pious  soul  the  mind  doth  mount 
and  guide  it l  to  the  Gnosis'  Light.  And  such  a 
soul  doth  never  tire  in  songs  of  praise  [to  God] 
and  pouring  blessing  on  all  men,  and  doing 
good  in  word  and  deed  to  all,  in  imitation  of 
its  Sire.2 

22.  Wherefore,  my  son,  thou  shouldst  give 
praise  to  God  and  pray  that  thou  mayst  have  thy 
mind  Good  [Mind].  It  is,  then,  to  a  better  state 
the  soul  doth  pass ;  it  cannot  to  a  worse. 

Further 3  there  is  an  intercourse  *  of  souls ; 
those  of  the  gods  have  intercourse  with  those  of 
men,  and  those  of  men  with  souls  of  creatures 
which  possess  no  reason. 

The  higher,  further,  have  in  charge  the  lower ; 
the  gods  look  after  men,  men  after  animals 
irrational,5  while  God  hath  charge  of  all ;  for 
He  is  higher  than  them  all  and  all  are  less 
than  He. 

Cosmos  is  subject,  then,  to  God,  man  to  the 
Cosmos,  and  irrationals  to  man.  But  God  is  o'er 
them  all,  and  God  contains  them  all. 

God's  rays,  to  use  a  figure,  are  His  energies ; 
the  Cosmos's  are  natures ;  the  arts  and  sciences 
are  man's.6 

1  Cf.  C.  H.,  iv.  (v.)  11 ;  vii.  (viii.)  11  ;  ix.  (x.)  10 ;  R.  23,  n.  5. 

2  Namely,  the  Good. 

3  From  here  to  the  end  is  quoted  by  Stobaeus,  Phys.,  I.  xxxix.  8 
(G.  i.  305-307  ;  W.  303,  14  ff.). 

4  Kotvuvia.     Cf.  P.  S.  A.j  xxiii.  1. 

5  Cf.  P.  S.  A.,  v.  1.  6  Of.  Ex.  viii.  1. 


156  THRICE-GREATEST   HERMES 

The  energies  act  through  the  Cosmos,  thence 
through  the  nature-rays  of  Cosmos  upon  man  ; 
the  nature-rays  [act]  through  the  elements  ;  man 
[acteth]  through  the  sciences  and  arts. 

23.  This  is  the  dispensation  *  of  the  universe, 
depending  from  the  nature  of  the  One,  pervading 
[all  things]  through  the  Mind,  than  which2  is 
naught  diviner  or  of  greater  energy  ;  and  naught 
a  greater  means  for  the  at-oning  men  to  gods 
and  gods  to  men. 

He,  [Mind,]  is  the  Good  Daimon.  Blessed  the 
soul  that  is  most  filled  with  Him,  and  wretched3 
is  the  soul  that's  empty  of  the  Mind. 

Tat.  Father,  what  dost  thou  mean,  again  ? 

Her*  Dost  think  then,  son,  that  every  soul 
hath  the  Good  [Mind]?  For  'tis  of  Him  we 
speak,  not  of  the  mind  in  service  5  of  which  we 
just  were  speaking,  the  mind  sent  down  for  [the 
soul's]  chastisement. 

24.  For  soul  without  the  mind  "  can  neither 
speak  nor  act."6     For  oftentimes  the  mind  doth 
leave  the  soul,  and  at  that  time  the  soul  nor  sees 


compare  §  19. 

2  Sc.  the  Mind. 

3  /ca/coSafyiav,  as  opposed  to  6  ayaObs  SaifjLwv.     It  is  impossible  to 
reproduce  the  original  word-play  in  translation. 

4  Stobaeus  (Gaisford)  here  reads  "  A."  —  that  is,  Asclepius. 

5  rov  virripertKov,  compare  §  21,  "the  services  of  God"  (T&S  rov 
0eoO  vwnpeff(as)  ;  that  is  to  say,  Hermes  speaks  of  the  Universal 
Mind  and  not  of  the  mind  in  man. 

6  A  quotation  from  the  ancient  gnomic  poet  Theognis  (v.  177). 
Theognis  lived  c.  570-490  B.C. 


THE   KEY  157 

nor  understands,  but  is  just  like  a  thing  that 
hath  no  reason.  Such  is  the  power  of  mind. 

Yet  doth  it  not  endure  a  sluggish l  soul,  but 
leaveth  such  a  soul  tied  to  the  body  and  bound 
tight  down  by  it.  Such  soul,  my  son,  doth  not 
have  Mind  ;  and  therefore  such  an  one  should 
not  be  called  a  man.2  For  that  man  is  a  thing- 
of-life 3  divine ;  man  is  not  measured  with  the 
rest  of  lives  of  things  upon  the  earth,  but  with 
the  lives  above  in  heaven,  who  are  called  gods. 

Nay  more,  if  we  must  boldly  speak  the  truth, 
the  true  "  man  "  is  e'en  higher  than  the  gods,  or 
at  the  [very]  least  the  gods  and  men  are  every 
whit  in  power  each  with  the  other  equal. 

25.  For  no  one  of  the  gods  in  heaven  shall 
come  down  on  the  earth,  o'er-stepping  heaven's 
limit ;  whereas  man  doth  mount  up  to  heaven 
and  measure  it ;  he  knows  what  things  of  it  are 
high,  what  things  are  low,  and  learns  precisely 
all  things  else  besides.  And  greater  thing  than 
all ;  without  e'en  quitting  earth,  he  doth  ascend 
above.  So  vast  a  sweep  doth  he  possess  of 
ecstasy.4 

1  vwrpas,—?  va>epas.    Everard  translates  "an  idle  or  lazy  soul," 
in  his  usual  slipshod  fashion  of  inserting  doubles  ;  Parthey  gives 
"  inertem    animam "  ;     Menard,     "  Vdme    vicieuse "  ;    Chambers, 
"  inert."     Several  of  the  old  editors  omit  the  entire  sentence. 

2  Of.  Philo,  De  Som.,  §  20  ;  M.  i.  639  ;  P.  584  (Hi.  iii.  241)  : 
"  not  for  those  who  are  called  men,  but  for  those  who  are  truly  so." 

3  Or  animal. 

*  tKffrdffeus,  lit.  extension,  or  consciousness. 


158  THRICE-GREATEST   HERMES 

For  this  cause  can  a  man  dare  say  that  man 
on  earth  is  god  subject  to  death,  while  god  in 
heaven  is  man  from  death  immune. 

Wherefore  the  dispensation  of  all  things  is 
brought  about  by  means  of1  these,  the  twain — 
Cosmos  and  Man 2 — but  by 3  the  One. 


COMMENTARY 

THE  CONSUMMATION  OF  THE  "GENERAL  SERMONS" 

What  "  yesterday's  sermon,"  which  Hermes  addressed 
to  Asclepius,  may  have  been,  we  have  no  means  of 
deciding.  The  similarity  of  the  phrase  with  the 
opening  words  of  C.  H.,  ix.  (x.)  is  noticeable,  and  points, 
perhaps,  to  a  collection  of  Sermons  to  Asclepius  and 
Tat  strung  together  in  some  chronological  order,  as 
delivered  day  by  day.  If  this  be  the  fact,  however,  we 
must  assume  that  such  introductions  were  prefixed  by 
the  editor  of  that  collection. 

"The  Key  of  Thrice-greatest  Hermes"  must  have 
been  considered  one  of  the  most  remarkable  documents 
of  the  school,  for,  as  we  have  already  mentioned  in  the 
case  of  "  The  Cup  "  treatise,  the  apocryphal  "  Books  of 
Moses  "  plagiarize  the  title.4 

That  it  was  an  important  treatise  may  also  be  seen 
from  the  fact  that  Stobaeus  reproduces  no  less  than  five 
extracts  from  it  under  the  title,  "  From  the  [Sermons] 
of  Hermes  to  Tat,"  or  simply  "  Of  Hermes."  Strangely 
enough  in  two  cases  (xxxix.  8  and  xl.  3)  Stobaeus  makes 

1  frd.  2  Of.  P.  S.  A.,  x.  3. 

•'  fat.  4  R.  182,  3  ;  190,  2. 


THE   KEY  159 

the  persons  of  the  dialogue  Asclepius  and  Tat;  this, 
however,  must  be  a  mistake,  for  it  contradicts  his  own 
headings,  it  contradicts  the  nature  of  the  sermon,  it 
contradicts  the  supposed  introduction  of  the  editor  of 
the  collection  from  whom  the  redactor  of  our  Corpus  has 
taken  his  text,  and  it  contradicts  Chalcidius,  who  quotes 
from  our  treatise  as  a  treatise  of  Hermes.1 

Nevertheless,  in  spite  of  the  importance  of  the 
treatise,  it  purports  to  be  an  epitome,2  an  abridgment 
of  the  "General  Sermons"  (ot  yeviKoi  Xo'yot)3  addressed 
to  Tat. 

The  sermon  itself,  however,  has  by  no  means  the 
appearance  of  being  an  abridgment;  on  the  contrary, 
it  is  one  of  the  most  complete  and  fundamental 
expositions  that  we  have. 

I  would,  therefore,  suggest  that  the  general  reference 
in  the  words,  "as  we  have  shown  in  treating  of  the 
rest"  (§  1),  and  the  precise  reference  to  "The  General 
Sermons,"  in  §  7,  have  originated  this  wording  of  the 
introduction  with  the  editor  of  the  collection  of 
Asclepius  and  Tat  Sermons  which  I  have  previously 
supposed.  It  is  a  gloss  of  the  editor  and  no  part  of  the 
original  text. 

If  this  argument  holds  good,  "  The  Key,"  instead  of 

1  Chalcid.,  Comment,  in  Timceum  (ed.  Fabric.),  p.  350. 

2  Compare  also  the  introduction  to  C.  #.,  xvi.  (see  K.  191,  1) ; 
and  also  Ex.  i.  16  and  Comment. 

3  Cf.  §  7,  below  ;  G.  H.,  xiii.  (xiv.)  1  ;  and  Exs.  ix.  1  and  xviii.  1. 
The  title  must  be  so  translated,  I  think,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  in 
the  introductory  words  of  the  above  treatise  the  term  is  imme- 
diately followed  by  the  antithesis  "rebirth"  (iraXtyyeveffia),  as 
though  the  Sermons  were  on  birth  or  genesis  (yei/eo-ts), — which, 
as  we  know  from  the  Naassene  Document,  was  the  subject  of 
the  Lesser  Mysteries,  whereas  Rebirth  was  that  of  the  Greater. 
Everard  gives  "  in  the  general  speeches "  ;  Parthey,   "  in  com- 
munibus  "  ;  Menard,  "  dans  les  discours  generaux  "  ;  Chambers,  "  in 
the  Generalities." 


160  THRICE-GREATEST   HERMES 

being  an  epitome,  is  a  further  teaching  that  presupposes 
a  prior  instruction  already  given  in  "The  General 
Sermons,"  and  so  stands  out  as  a  more  intimate 
exposition  of  the  inward  doctrine  of  the  higher  grades 
of  the  school. 

Reitzenstein  (p.  461)  would  have  it  that  the  doctrine 
of  Sermons,  ix.  (x.)  and  x.  (xi.),  is  a  mediate  one  between 
the  dualism  of  vi.  (vii.)  and  the  pronounced  pantheistic 
mysticism  of  v.  (vi.)  and  xi.  (xii.) ;  but  I  should  fancy 
that  these  labels,  even  if  they  are  correctly  attached, 
would  not  represent  such  overwhelming  contradictions 
to  the  Trismegistic  doctors  as  they  appear  to  do  to  their 
modern  critics.  There  were  different  points  of  view ; 
there  were  different  grades  of  instruction;  every 
doctrine  had  more  truth  in  it  at  the  proper  time  and 
in  the  right  place.  In  any  case  this  sermon  is  one  of 
the  most  beautiful  tractates  preserved  to  us. 


THE  WILL  OF  GOD 

1.  Our  treatise  begins  with  the  statement  that  the 
universe  and  all  therein  is  due  to  the  Energy  or 
Effective  Working  of  God— that  is  to  say,  His  Will. 
This  Will  is  immutable  and  constant — the  Law  of 
the  universe. 

How  subtly  these  philosophers  in  their  most  intimate 
circles  used  these  terms  may  be  seen  from  the  Gnostic 
Doctor,  Basilides,  who  writes : 

"Naught  was, — neither  matter,  nor  substance,  nor 
voidness  of  substance,  nor  simplicity,  nor  impossibility 
of  composition,  nor  inconceptibility,  nor  impercepti- 
bility,  neither  man,  nor  angel  [Hermetice,  daimon],  nor 
God ;  in  fine,  neither  anything  at  all  for  which  man  has 
ever  found  a  name,  nor  any  operation  which  falls  within 
the  range  either  of  his  perception  or  conception. 


THE    KEY  161 

"  Such,  or  rather  far  more  removed  from  the  power 
of  man's  comprehension,  was  the  state  of  Non-Being, 
when  the  Deity  beyond  Being,  without  thinking,  or 
feeling,  or  determining,  or  choosing,  or  being  compelled, 
or  desiring,  willed  to  create  universality." 

"  When  I  use  the  term  will,"  writes  Basilides,  "  I  do 
so  merely  to  suggest  the  idea  of  an  operation  tran- 
scending all  volition,  thought,  or  sensible  action." 1 

2.  God's   Energy,  or   Self-realization,  is,    then,   His 
Will  (Oe\rja-i$) ;   His  Essence  (ovarta)   or   Substance   is 
"  to  will  the  being  of  all  things  " ;  in  brief,  He  is  the 
Very    Subsistence    (i/Tra/o^?)    of    all — a    term    which 
subsequently  came  into  great  prominence  in  the  later 
Platonic  philosophy. 

3.  In  §  3  we  have  a  clear  distinction  drawn  between 
the  transcendent  idea  of  God  as  Creator  or  Wilier,  and 
the  ordinary  conception  of  God  as  Maker  or  Fabricator 
or   Demiurge — a  distinction  that  meets  us   in   almost 
every  Gnostic  system.     In  our  treatise,  however,  there 
is  no  setting  of  the  one  idea  over  against  the  other  in 
any  sense  of   antagonism.     It  is  only  stated  that  the 
self-operation  of  Deity  transcends  all  such  limited  con- 
ceptions as  that  of  a  Maker  or  Fabricator. 

OF  GNOSIS  AND  ECSTASIS 

4.  The  distinctive  feature  of   God  as   the   Good,   or 
the   Desirable,  the   Supreme  Consummation,  is   "  that 
He   should   be    known "   (TO    yvwpi^ecrQai) ;    in    other 
words,  the   science  of   all   sciences  is   the  Gnosis  of 
God. 

5.  The  Vision  Glorious,  the  One  Sight,  is  next  spoken 
of  under  the  simile  of  the  shining  of  a  Eay  of  the  Light 

1  Hipp.,  Philos.,  vii.  21  (ed.  D.  and  S.,  p.  358)  ;  F.  F.  F.,  pp. 
257,  258. 

VOL.   II.  11 


162  THRICE-GREATEST    HERMES 

and  Life  of  the  Spiritual  Sun  into  the  mind.  This  con- 
summation of  Ecstasis,1  we  are  told,  was  a  transcending 
of  the  limitations  of  body,  and  was  a  faculty  possessed 
by  the  forebears  ("wpoyovoi)  of  the  "  race "  into  which 
Hermes  and  now  Tat  are  being  born ;  these  ancestors 
are  mentioned  under  symbolic  Greek  names,  evidently 
a  substitute  for  Egyptian  ones,  for  the  reference  is 
clearly  to  the  priesthood  of  some  past  civilization  of 
the  Nile  Land.  At  the  same  time,  it  can  be  referred  to 
certain  grades  of  super-men,  regarded  as  gods,  who  had 
reached  to  certain  stages  of  celestial  dignity.2 

To  this  idea  of  ancient  Masters  of  the  Gnosis  in 
Egypt,  Lactantius  refers  as  follows : 

"  And  so  it  appears  that  he  [Cronus]  was  not  born 
from  Heaven  (which  is  impossible),  but  from  that  man 
who  was  called  Uranus ;  and  that  this  is  so,  Trismegistus 
bears  witness,  when,  in  stating  that  there  have  been 
very  few  in  whom  the  perfect  science  has  been  found, 
he  mentioned  in  their  number  Uranus,  Cronus,  and 
Hermes  his  kinsfolk."3 

Lactantius  seems  to  be  somewhat  under  the  fascina- 
tion of  the  theory  of  Euhemerus,  and  has  no  credence  in 
the  Heaven-born,  in  spite  of  the  Christ  Birth.  We, 
however,  learn  from  him  that  he  knew  of  a  statement 
by  Hermes  in  this  connection  in  which,  besides  Uranus 
and  Cronus,  an  ancient  Hermes  was  mentioned.  Now 
in  our  treatise  this  is  not  the  case,  and  Tat  and  not 
Hermes  is  the  speaker ;  whereas  in  P.  S.  A.,  xxxvii., 
where  Hermes  speaks  of  his  progenitor  Hermes,  no 

1  Cf.  §  25,  where  ecstasis  is  explained  as  an  extension  of  con- 
sciousness,— a  certain  "  greatness  "  (pcyeeos). 

2  See  the  "Chart  of  Orphic  Cosmogony,"  facing  p.  87  of  my 
Orpheus  (London,  1896),  where  Uranus  and  Cronus  are  referred 
to  the  two  lower  of  the  three  Noetic  "  planes  "  transcending  the 
Sensible  Universe. 

3  Div.  Institt.,  i.  11  (ed.  Fritz.,  i.  29,  30). 


THE    KEY  163 

mention   is  made  of   Uranus  and  Cronus.     Therefore 
Lactantius  refers  to  a  lost  treatise  of  Hermes. 

OF  APOTHEOSIS 

6.  The  nature  of  Ecstasy  is  then  further  explained ;  it 
is  the  fruit  of  meditation  or  contemplation,  the  con- 
summation of  the  Theoretic  Life. 

"  The  Gnosis  of  the  Good  is  holy  silence  and  a  giving 
holiday  (/carapy/a)  to  every  sense." 

The  Holy  Silence  reminds  us  of  the  Sige  of  the 
Christian  Gnostics ;  here,  however,  instead  of  the 
Mother-^Eon  of  Cosmos,  it  is  used  in  the  sense  of  the 
pure  mother-nature  of  the  little  cosmos  of  man,  the 
divine  womb  that  brings  to  birth  the  true  man. 

With  this  may  be  compared  0.  H.,  xiii.  (xiv.)  2  : 

"  Wisdom  conceived  by  mind  in  silence,  such  is  the 
matter  and  the  womb  from  out  which  man  is  born,  and 
the  true  Good  the  seed." 

It  is  hardly  necessary  to  add  that  this  is  the  Yoga 
of  the  Upanishads.  Indeed,  the  first  part  of  §  6  might 
be  taken  word  for  word  from  those  sublime  treatises 
of  Vaidik  theosophy,  and  shows  how  identical  is  the 
thought  of  those  who  have  first-hand  experience  of  the 
higher  consciousness. 

"  For  it  is  possible,  my  son,  that  a  man's  soul  should  be 
made  like  to  God  (aTroOecoOrjvat),  e'en  while  it  still  is  in 
a  body,  if  it  doth  contemplate  the  Beauty  of  the  Good." 

This  is  the  "  deification  "  (aTroOewans),  or  "  apotheosis  " 
of  a  man ;  he  becomes  like  unto  God,  in  that  he  becomes 
a  god.  The  Beauty  of  the  Good  is  the  Cosmic  Order ; 
and  the  mode  of  this  meditation  was  to  bring  the  soul 
into  sympathy  with  the  Cosmic  Soul. 

THE  METAMORPHOSES  OF  THE  SOUL 
7.  The  secret  of  this  divine  operation  (or  theurgy)  is 
based  upon  the  fact  that  the  soul  can  be  transformed 


164  THRICE-GREATEST   HERMES 

into  every  likeness.  The  Great  Likeness  of  God  is  the 
Cosmic  Order,  the  making  oneself  into  this  Likeness  is 
the  supreme  transformation  or  transfiguration  of  the 
soul. 

The  separated  or  individual  soul  is  in  perpetual 
pilgrimage,  revolving  on  the  wheel  of  transformation. 
This  doctrine  was  shared  in  by  many  other  faiths,  and 
it  was  also  Egyptian. 

In  this  connection  we  may  refer  instructively  to  Hippo- 
lytus' quotations  from  the  Naassene  Document  (§  3  S.): 

"And  they1  say  that  the  soul  is  very  difficult  to 
discover,  and  hard  to  understand ;  for  it  never  remains 
of  the  same  appearance,  or  form,  or  in  the  same  state, 
so  that  we  can  describe  it  by  a  general  type,  or  com- 
prehend it  by  an  essential  quality." 

On  this  Hippolytus  comments : 

"These  variegated  metamorphoses  they2  have  laid 
down  in  the  Gospel  superscribed  'According  to  the 
Egyptians.' " 

The  Gospel  according  to  the  Egyptians  is  lost,  with  the 
exception  of  a  few  fragments.  We,  however,  here  learn 
that  it  described  the  metamorphoses  of  the  soul.  It 
was  a  Gospel  having  its  origin  in  Egypt  and  suited  to 
Egyptian  modes  of  thought.  It  follows,  therefore,  that 
the  doctrine  of  the  soul's  transformation  was  Egyptian.3 

1  The  quotation  is  from  the  text  of  the  Hellenistic  Commentator, 
who  is  referring  to  the  Chaldaeans. 

2  The  Gnostics  Hippolytus  calls  the  Naassenes. 

3  Reitzenstein  (p.  22,  2)  says  that  it   was  in  error   that  the 
Greeks  stated  the  Egyptians  believed  in  metempsychosis ;  in 
this  I  believe  that  Reitzenstein  is  himself  in  error.     The  Egyptians 
at  any  rate  demonstrably  believed  in  soul  metamorphosis ;  and 
when  we  find  people  who  lived  in  Egypt  teaching  this  metamor- 
phosis in  connection  with  metempsychosis,  it  is  but  natural  to 
conclude  that  the  Greeks,  who  were  in  touch   with  the  living 
tradition  of  Egypt,  knew  more  about  the  matter  than  modern 
scepticism. 


THE    KEY  165 

THE  LADDER  OF  BEING 

The  Hermetic  doctrine  of  the  evolution  of  the  soul, 
by  means  of  multitudinous  transformations,  is  character- 
ised by  certain  main  moments,  for  in  the  course  of  it  it 
passes  through  definite  stages  of  existence  designated  as 
animal,  human,  daimonic,  and  god-like  ;  there  being, 
further,  two  grades  of  being  within  the  choir  of  gods — 
the  errant  and  inerrant.  The  final  stage  is  the  most 
perfect  glory  (So£a)  or  power  of  the  soul. 

With  all  of  this  there  is  a  strikingly  exact  parallel  of 
ideas  in  the  Pauline  Letters. 

"  But  some  one  will  say :  How  do  the  dead  rise,  and 
with  what  body  do  they  come  [?  back]  ? 

"  Thou  foolish  one  !  That  which  thou  sowest  is  not 
made  quick  unless  it  die. 

"And  that  which  thou  sowest — 'tis  not  the  body 
that  shall  be  thou  sowest,  but  a  naked  grain  of  wheat 
or  of  one  of  the  other  seeds.1 

"  'Tis  God  that  gives  to  it 2  a  body  as  he  will, — yea 
to  every  one  of  the  seeds  its  proper  body. 

"  Not  every  flesh  is  the  same  flesh ;  but  there  is  one 
of  men,  another  flesh  of  beasts,  another  flesh  of  birds, 
and  another  of  fishes. 

"There  are  also  bodies  celestial,  as  well  as  bodies 
terrestrial.  But  the  glory  of  the  celestial  [bodies]  is 
one,  and  the  glory  of  the  terrestrial  is  another. 

"  [And  of  the  former]  the  glory  of  the  sun  is  one,  and 
the  glory  of  the  moon  is  another,  and  [yet]  another  is 
the  glory  of  the  stars ;  for  star  diff ereth  from  star  in 
glory. 

"  So  also  is  the  resurrection  of  the  dead. "  3 

1  The  "  grain  of  mustard  seed  "— "  wheat"  if  a  good  body  comes 
therefrom,  "  tares  "  if  an  imperfect  growth  results. 

2  Sc.  the  soul  as  grain.  3  1  Cor.  xv  35-42. 


166  THRICE-GREATEST   HERMES 

And  by  "  resurrection  of  the  dead,"  I  believe  that 
Paul  meant  what  all  the  instructed  of  the  time  meant — 
namely,  the  "  reaching  the  first  step  of  deathlessness,"  as 
Hermes  has  it  in  our  treatise.  The  death  or  vice  of  the 
soul  is  ignorance,  the  virtue  or  life  of  the  soul  is  Gnosis. 

"  For  he  who  knows,  he  good  and  pious  is,  and  still 
while  on  the  earth,  divine." 


CONCERNING  TRANSMIGRATION 

8.  With  §  8,  however,  we  are  confronted  with 
what  appears  to  be  a  great  difficulty.  Hermes  here 
seems  to  teach  distinctly  that  a  vicious  (that  is,  an 
ignorant)  soul,  one  who  has  not  attained  to  Gnosis,  goes 
back  to  attachment  to  animal  bodies,  while  in  §§  19  ff., 
he  at  great  length  denies  that  a  human  soul  can 
possibly  do  so.  Is  there  any  solution  of  this  apparently 
complete  self-contradiction  in  one  and  the  same  treatise  ? 

Far  as  I  am  from  desiring  to  play  the  apologist  for 
any  scripture,  I  am  prevented  from  appending  an 
impatient  "  No "  to  this  query,  for  the  following 
considerations : 

In  the  first  place,  Hermes  in  §  8  is  speaking  of  the 
vicious  or  ignorant  soul,  while  in  §  19  he  is  speaking 
not  only  of  the  "  human  "  soul,  but  of  the  human  soul 
that  hath  the  Good  Mind  (§  23);  whereas  the  ignorant 
soul  "  doth  not  have  Mind,  and,  therefore,  such  an  one 
should  not  be  called  a  man  "  (§  24).  Here,  then,  we 
have  a  fundamental  distinction  in  souls  incarnated  into 
the  "  body  of  a  man  "  (§  8) ;  they  are  of  two  classes. 

The  doctrine  of  §  8  applies  to  one  class,  the  doctrine 
of  §  19  to  another. 

Metempsychosis,  in  the  sense  of  continued  revolu- 
tion on  the  wheel  of  life  and  death,  is  only  for 
him  who  "persisteth  in  his  vice" — that  is  to  say,  is 


THE    KEY  167 

still  ignorant.  Gnosis  thus  means  the  freedom  from 
samsara,  to  use  a  common  Brahmanical  and  Buddhistic 
term. 

The  ignorant  soul  does  not  see  the  Light,  being 
"  blinded  by  the  body's  passions,  and  tossed  about " ; 
this  is  the  "turmoil"  of  which  Plato  speaks  in  the 
Timceus. 

And  here  I  must  refer  the  reader  to  "  Plato  Con- 
cerning Metempsychosis,"  in  the  "Prolegomena,"  a 
chapter  which  I  have  written  mainly  in  elucidation  of 
the  problems  raised  by  our  treatise. 

GNOSIS  THE  VIRTUE  OF  THE  SOUL 

9.  So  much,  then,  for  the  soul  which  persisteth  in  its 
vice  or  ignorance ;  but  the  virtue  of  the  soul  is  Gnosis. 

"For  he  who  knows,  he  good  and  pious  is,  and 
still  while  on  the  earth,  divine." 

This  is  precisely  the  same  idea  as  that  of  the  Jlvan- 
mukta  in  Indian  theosophy — namely,  the  man  who  has 
reached  Mukti  or  Liberation  while  still  living  in  the 
body. 

Hermes  thus  proceeds  to  distinguish  Gnosis,  the  end 
of  human  science,  from  sense  or  opinion.  Gnosis  is  the 
apotheosis  of  the  mind,  its  immediate  perception  of  the 
things-that-are — namely,  the  Intelligible  Cosmos. 

11.  The  Sensible  or  Hylic  Cosmos  is  then  explained, 
and  also  the  nature  of  man,  and  his  relationship  to 
the  Cosmos  and  God. 

THE  VEHICLES  OF  THE  SOUL 

13.  The  vehicles  of  man's  "  Soul "  are  then  categorized 
(fax*!  $£  avOpwTrov  oxelrai  rov  rpoirov  TOVTOV),  the 
Soul  being  here  used  in  the  sense  of  the  Self,  and  as 
distinguished  from  the  "  soul "  in  the  category.  They  are 


168  THRICE-GREATEST    HERMES 

as  follows,  one  within  the  other,  in  the  sense  of  being 
respectively  more  intimate  to  the  true  nature  of  man : 

Mind  (you?) ;  reason  (Xo'yo?) ;  soul  (^jrvxn)  ',  spirit 
( TTvevjma)  ;  body  (a-co/ma). 

The  remarkable  similarity  of  this  category  with  the 
psychology  of  the  Upanishads  cannot  fail  to  strike  the 
student  of  those  mother-treatises  of  Vaidik  theosophy. 
Thus  we  read  in  the  Kathopanishad,  I.  iii.  10,  11 : 

"  Beyond  the  senses  are  the  rudiments l ;  beyond  the 
rudiments  impulsive  mind;  beyond  the  mind,  the 
reason ;  beyond  the  reason,  the  Great  Self. 

"Beyond  the  Great,  the  Increate2;  beyond  the 
Increate,  the  Man 3 ;  beyond  the  Man,  not  any  thing ; 
That  is  the  goal;  That  is  the  final  end." 

The  analogy  is  striking.  Body  =  gross  elements ; 
spirit  =  subtle  elements ;  soul  =  impulsive  mind 
(manas)',  reason  =  reason  (buddhi*)',  Mind  =  the  Great 
(Mahat);  Source  (axp?i)  =  the  Increate;  the  One  and 
Only  (TO  ev  KCU  juoVoy)  =  the  Man. 

These  so-called  "  vehicles,"  "  envelopes,"  or  "  sheaths  " 
(koshas),  are  elsewhere  given  in  the  Upanishads  as: 
anna-may  a-kosha — that  is,  the  kosha  composed  of,  or 
resulting  from,  food  (body);  prana-maya-k.,  of  life 
(spirit) ;  mano-maya-k.,  of  impulse  (soul) ;  vijnana- 
maya-k.,  of  discrimination  (reason);  ananda-maya-k., 
of  bliss  (Mind). 

"  Spirit "  is  thus  seen  to  correspond  to  life  (prdna) ; 
it  is  that  which  "bestows  upon  the  living  creature 
motion,  and,  as  it  were,  doth  bear  it "  (i.e.  support  it) 
"  in  a  way"  (§  13).  It  is  not  Life,  but  individualized 

1  The  subtler  elements. 

2  Avyakta,  undifferentiated  cosmic  substance. 

3  Purusha,  the  True  Man. 

4  The  manas  and  buddhi  of  the  Upanishads  are  not  to  be  con- 
founded with  these  terms  as  at  present  employed  in  modern 
Theosophical  literature. 


THE   KEY  169 

life,  and  in  the  Aupanishad  literature  is  differentiated 
into  five  modes,  which  may  be  almost  translated  as 
etheric  currents  or  modes  of  motion  in  the  body.1 

The  quotation  from  Proclus  in  "  Plato  Concerning 
Metempsychosis,"  will  have  sufficiently  shown  that 
this  "  life "  is  of  the  same  nature  as  the  animal  life. 
It  is  that  principle  of  soul  which  man  shares  with  the 
animals. 

THE  DUAL  SOUL 

And  here  we  may  refer  to  Jamblichus  (De  Myst., 
viii.  6),  when  referring  to  the  "  Hermaic  writings  "  he 
says  : 

"  Man  has  two  souls,  as  these  writings  say.  The  one 
is  from  the  first  Mind,  and  partakes  also  of  the  power 
of  the  Creator,  while  the  other,  the  soul  under  constraint, 
comes  from  the  revolution  of  the  celestial  [spheres] ;  into 
the  latter  the  former,  the  soul  that  is  the  seer  of  God,2 
insinuates  itself  at  a  later  period. 

"  This  being  so,  the  soul  that  descends  into  us  from 
the  worlds  [or  spheres]  keeps  time  with  the  circuit  of 
these  worlds,  while  the  soul  from  the  Mind  existing  in 
us  in  an  intelligible  fashion  is  free  from  the  whirl  of 
genesis;  by  this  the  bonds  of  Destiny  are  burst 
asunder ;  by  this  the  Path  up  to  the  Gods  whom 
mind  alone  can  see  is  brought  to  birth;  by  such  a 
life  as  this  is  that  Great  Art  Divine,  which  leads  us 
up  to  That  beyond  the  spheres  of  genesis,  brought  to 
its  consummation." 

Hermes  in  our  treatise  is,  however,  more  precise  as  to 
the  so-called  "  vehicles  "  or  "  souls,"  for  he  writes  (§  17) : 

"Mind    taketh,   then,  the   soul   for,  as  it  were,  an 

1  Of.  K.  K.t  44,  45,  Comment. 

2  Of.  C.  H.,  ix.  (x.)  3  :  "The  daimon  who's  illumined  by  God's 
Light." 


170  THRICE-GREATEST    HERMES 

envelope.  And  soul  itself  being,  too,  a  thing  divine,1 
doth  use  the  spirit  as  its  envelope,  while  spirit  doth 
pervade  the  living  creature." 2 


"HE  WHO  STANDS" 

The  Supreme  Principle  of  all,  the  One  and  Only  One, 
who  "  standeth  perpetually "  (§  14),  is  the  Intelligible 
Logos  (jy  vor]T>j  <7Ta.<Ti?,  cf.  §  11),  the  6  e<TTo>?  of  the 
Christianized  Gnosis,  as  seen  especially  in  the  Simonian 
Great  Announcement.  He  is  the  Cause  of  the  perpetual 
motion  of  the  Hylic  Cosmos.  Compare  this  with  the 
following  passage  of  Numenius : 

"  Now  there  are  two  modes  of  life,  the  first  of  the 
First  and  the  second  of  the  Second  God.  For  it  is 
evident  that  the  First  God  should  be  standing  (etrTok), 
and  the  Second,  on  the  contrary,  moved.  The  First, 
then,  is  occupied  about  things  intelligible,  and  the 
Second  about  things  intelligible  and  sensible. 

"  Marvel  not  that  I  say  this ;  for  thou  shalt  hear 
what  is  still  more  marvellous.  For  I  say  that  it  is 
not  the  motion  that  appertains  to  the  Second,  but  the 
rest  that  pertains  to  the  First,  which  is  the  innate 
1  motion '  from  which  both  their  cosmic  order  and  their 
eternal  community  and  their  preservation  [or  salvation] 
is  poured  forth  on  things  universal."  3 

1  That  is,  being  logos,  as  from  the  Creator  or  Second  Mind. 

2  Cf.  Exx.  iv.  2  ;  xv.  2  ;  xix.  3  ;  and  Frag,  xviii. 

Quoted  by  Eusebius,  Prcep.  Evang.,  XI.  xviii.  20,  21  (539  B), 
ed.  Dindorf  (Leipzig,  1867),  ii.  41.  We  do  not  know  Numenius' 
date,  but  it  was  probably  about  the  first  half  of  the  first  century 
A.D.  Though  Numenius  is  almost  invariably  designated  as  a 
Pythagorean,  he  was  rather  a  universalist,  for  his  object  was  not 
only  to  trace  the  doctrines  of  Plato  up  to  Pythagoras,  but  to  show 
that  they  were  not  at  variance  with  the  doctrines  and  mysteries 
of  the  Brahmans,  Jews,  Magi  and  Egyptians. 


THE    KEY  171 

THE  OLYMPIAN  PATH 

15.  In  §  15  the  Gnosis  is  again  declared  to  be  the 
only  Path  of  Salvation  or  Safety.1     It  is  the  Way  Up 
to  the  Mount,2  the  Olympian  Path. 

The  term  Eleusis  was  also  interpreted  as  Anabasis, 
or  the  Way  Up.3  Compare  the  Jewish  commentator 
in  the  Naassene  Document  (§  27): 

"  First  is  the  Mystery  called  '  Eleusis '  and  '  Anak- 
toreion' — Eleusis  because  we  come  from  Above,4 
streaming  down  from  Adamas,5  .  .  .  and  Anaktoreion 
from  '  Eeturning  Above. ' " 

"  WHEN  MIND  BECOMES  A  DAIMON  " 

16.  The   next  main  doctrine  touched  on  is  one   of 
immense  importance,  for  it  gives  us  the  inner  teach- 
ing   which    illuminates    the    "  dark    saying "    in    the 
"Poemandres"  (§  24),  when  treating  of  the  Way  Up 
(avoSo?) : 

"And  thou  surrenderest  thy  way  of  life  unto  the 
daimon." 

For  in  our  treatise  Hermes  tells  us  that  at  death : 

"The  mind  stript  of  its  wrappings,  and  naturally 
divine,  taking  unto  itself  a  fiery  body,  doth  traverse 
every  space,  after  abandoning  the  soul  unto  its 
judgment  and  whatever  chastisement  it  hath  deserved." 

The  key  to  this  is  the  sentence  (§  21) : 

"When  mind  becomes  a  daimon,  the  law  requires 
that  it  should  take  a  fiery  body  to  execute  the  services 
of  God." 

1  Cf.  the  passage  from  Jamblichus  quoted  above. 

2  Cf.  C.  H.,  xiii.  (xiv.)  1 :  "  The  Passing  o'er  the  Mount." 

3  Uf.  C.  H.,  i.  24. 

4  Eleusis  meaning  Coming,  Advent. 

5  The  Man  or  Mind. 


172  THRICE-GREATEST    HERMES 

At  death,  the  mind,  of  its  own  nature,  perforce 
becomes  a  "  servant  of  God,"  a  Therapeut 1 ;  the  man  is 
his  own  judge  and  his  own  chastizer. 

The  "  fire  of  hell "  is  then  but  the  reflection  of  the  light 
of  the  mind  ;  it  is  the  burning  remorse  of  a  mind  that 
now  sees  the  inevitable  results  of  every  selfish  action — 
thought,  word,  and  deed ;  that  each  of  these  comes 
inevitably  back  on  the  sender  forth  of  it. 

The  soul,  thus,  lives  out  (and  that  too  in  the  most 
realistic  fashion,  it  realizes  the  actuality  of  the  law  in 
all  its  most  minute  details)  the  inevitable  consequences 
of  its  past  vicious  deeds  in  body. 

Here  we  have  the  hint  of  a  psychology  and  of  an 
inner  teaching  that  persuades  us  there  was  a  profound 
wisdom  at  the  back  of  the  intermediate  instruction  of 
these  schools. 

Compare  this  most  reasonable  theory  of  after-death 
"illumination"  with  the  crudities  of  the  eternal 
torment  idea  of  popular  religion  with  which  we  are  so 
familiar,  and  reflect  on  what  a  "falling  off"  there  has 
been  from  the  Gnosis  of  the  early  days. 

And  what  is  the  "  fiery  body "  of  the  mind  but  the 
ray-like  or  starry  vehicle  of  the  man,  the  avyoeide?  y 
ao-TpoeiSes  of  Philoponus  ? 2 

This  is  the  true  "  Astral  Body  "  of  a  man,  and  not 
the  "watery  vesture"  which  is  referred  to  under  the 
term  in  modern  nomenclature. 

This  is  the  true  Body  of  Purification,  that  burns  up 
all  impurities,  and  in  the  light  of  the  conflagration 
burns  into  man  the  memory  of  the  Gnosis. 

The  soul  is  thus  "chastised  by  its  own  self";  and 
if  Hermes  had  taught  us  nothing  else,  he  would  have 
amply  deserved  the  gratitude  of  humanity,  and  the  title 

1  Gf.  §  23  :  "  The  mind  in  service." 

2  See  my  Orpheus,  pp.  292  ff. 


THE    KEY  173 

of  Thrice-greatest.     Yet  is  "Hermes"  no  single   man, 
but  a  mind  illuminated  by  the  Mind. 

THE  "SCOURGE"  OF  THE  CHRIST 

21.  So  then  "  the  impious   soul,   scourged   with   its 
own  sins,  is  plunged  in   murders,  outrage,  blasphemy, 
in  violence  of  all  kinds,  and  all  the  other  things  whereby 
mankind  is  wronged." 

This  is  the  "  scourge "  by  which  the  Christ  drives 
the  unworthy  out  of  His  Temple.  It  does  not  mean 
that  the  soul  is  driven  into  doing  these  things,  but  that 
it  is  made  to  realize  or  suffer  them — the  consequences 
of  its  prior  misdeeds.  Whatever  wrong  it  has  done  to 
its  fellows,  such  it  suffers,  in  the  realization  of  its  true 
nature,  whereby  the  Light  of  Gnosis  brings  into  amazing 
contrast  the  darkness  or  ignorance  of  its  past  actions.1 

THE  DISPENSATION  OF  THE  UNIVERSE 

22.  And   so   Hermes   explains    the   nature   of   "  the 
dispensation  of  the  universe" — the  interlinking  of  the 
grades  of  being  from  God  downwards — the  intercourse 
or  communion  of  souls. 

God,  Cosmos  and  Man  are  grades  of  being.  Each  is 
a  sun,  as  it  were,  in  their  operations,  or  powers  or  rays. 
God's  rays  are  His  energies  or  self -realizing  operations  ; 
those  of  Cosmos  are  the  natures  of  things,  those  of 
Man  are  the  arts  and  sciences. 

This  communion  or  intercourse  of  higher  with  lower 
natures  is  to  be  realized  on  the  side  of  man  by  the 
consummation  of  the  sacred  marriage,  whereby  man 
becomes  a  god,  and  finally  God. 

He  only  is  blessed  who  is  filled  with  God — that  is  to 

1  With  this  compare  the  function  of  the  Mind  on  the  soul  in 
incarnation,  as  described  in  C.  H.,  xii.  (xiii.)  4. 


174  THRICE-GREATEST    HERMES 

say,  the  true  Gnostic  who  has  received  the  consecra- 
tion of  the  Fullness  or  Pleroma.1 

Whereas  the  soul  that  is  empty  of  God  is  deprived 
of  that  Fullness,  cut  off  from  it,  and  so  empty  of  the 
Mind.  This  is  the  state  of  Emptiness  (/cewo/za)  or  In- 
sufficiency (lycrre/o^a). 

24.  Such  souls,  says  Hermes,  should  not  be  called 
men.  For  a  true  man  is  not  only  equal  to  a  god,  but 
even  higher  than  the  gods.  Such  a  man  we  should,  in 
Christian  nomenclature,  call  a  Christ — one  animated 
or  illuminated  by  the  Mind  or  Spirit  of  God. 

1  Of.  John  i.  16  :  "Of  His  Fullness  have  we  all  received." 


COEPUS  HEKMETICUM  XL  (XII.) 


MIND  UNTO  HERMES 

(Text :  P.  85-99 ;  Pat.  20b-23.) 

1.  Mind.  Master  this  sermon  (logos)?  then, 
Thrice-greatest  Hermes,  and  bear  in  mind  the 
spoken  words  ;  and  as  it  hath  come  unto  Me  to 
speak,  I  will  no  more  delay. 

Hermes.  As  many  men  say  many  things, 
and  these  diverse,  about  the  All  and  Good,  I 
have  not  learned  the  truth.  Make  it,  then,  clear 
to  me,  0  Master  mine !  For  I  can  trust  the 
explanation  of  these  things,  which  comes  from 
Thee  alone. 

2.  Mind.  Hear  [then],  My  son,  how  standeth 
God  and  All. 

God;  ^Eon2;  Cosmos;  Time;  Becoming.3 

God  maketh  ^Eon ;  ^Eon,  Cosmos ;  Cosmos, 
Time ;  and  Time,  Becoming. 

1  Or  thy  reason. 

2  Eternity  ;  the  ideal  world,  beyond  time.     Gf.  P.  S.  A.t  xxx., 
xxxi. 

3  Genesis. 

175 


176 


THRICE-GREATEST   HERMES 


The  Good,  —  the  Beautiful,  Wisdom,  Blessed- 
ness, —  is  essence,  as  it  were,1  of  God  ;  of  Mou, 
Sameness  2  ;  of  Cosmos,  Order  ;  of  Time,  Change  ; 
and  of  Becoming,  Life  and  Death. 

The  energies  of  God  are  Mind  and  Soul;  of 
Mou,  lastingness  3  and  deathlessness  ;  of  Cosmos, 
restoration  and  the  opposite  thereof4  ;  of  Time, 
increase  and  decrease  ;  and  of  Becoming,  quality. 

Mon  is,  then,  in  God  ;  Cosmos,  in  Mon  ;  in 
Cosmos,  Time  ;  in  Time,  Becoming. 

Mon  stands  firm  round  God  ;  Cosmos  is 
moved  in  .ZEon  ;  Time  hath  its  limits  5  in  the 
Cosmos  ;  Becoming  doth  become  in  Time. 

3.  The  source,6  therefore,  of  all  is  God  ;  their 
essence,  j5Con  ;  their  matter,  Cosmos. 

God's  power  is  ^Eon  ;  .ZEon's  work  is  Cosmos 
—which  never  hath  become,  yet  ever  doth 
become  by  ^Eon. 

Therefore  will  Cosmos  never  be  destroyed,  for 
^Eon's  indestructible  ;  nor  doth  a  whit  of  things 
in  Cosmos  perish,  for  Cosmos  is  enwrapped  by 
Mon  round  on  every  side. 

Her.     But  God's  Wisdom  —  what  is  that  ? 

Mind.  The  Good  and  Beautiful,  and  Blessed- 
ness, and  Virtue's  all,  and 


1  That  is  to  say,  the  term  "  m-ence  "  cannot  really  be  applied 
to  God,  for  He  is  beyond  "  fo-ing." 

2  Or  identity.  3  Or  duration. 

5  Or  is  accomplished. 


MIND    UNTO    HERMES  177 

then,    ordereth1   [Cosmos],    imparting 
deathlessness  and  lastingness  to  matter. 

4.  For  its2  becoming  doth  depend  on  Mon, 
as  ^Eon  doth  on  God. 

Now  Genesis3  and  Time,  in  Heaven  and  on 
the  Earth,  are  of  two  natures. 

In  Heaven  they  are  unchangeable  and  inde- 
structible, but  on  the  Earth  they're  subject  unto 
change  and  to  destruction. 

Further,  the  ^Eon's  soul  is  God  ;  the  Cosmos' 
soul  is  JEon  ;  the  Earth's  soul,  Heaven. 

And  God's  in  Mind ;  and  Mind,  in  Soul ; 
and  Soul,  in  Matter ;  and  all  of  them  through 
.Eon. 

But  all  this  Body,4  in  which  are  all  the  bodies, 
is  full  of  Soul ;  and  Soul  is  full  of  Mind,  and 
[Mind]  of  God. 

It 5  fills  it 6  from  within,  and  from  without 
encircles  it,  making  the  All  to  live. 

Without,  this  vast  and  perfect  Life 7  [encircles] 
Cosmos ;  within,  it  fills  [it  with]  all  lives 8 ; 
above,  in  Heaven,  continuing  in  sameness ;  be- 
low, on  Earth,  changing  becoming. 

5.  And  Mon    doth    preserve    this   [Cosmos], 
or  by   Necessity,  or  by  Foreknowledge,  or   by 

1  Or  adorneth.  2  Sc.  Matter's  Becoming  or  Genesis. 

3  Or  Becoming. 

4  Sc.  Cosmos.  5  Sc.  Soul. 

6  Sc.  Body,  of  Universe  or  Cosmos. 

7  Or  Animal  ;  that  is,  Soul.  8  Or  animals. 

VOL.  II.  12 


178  THRICE-GREATEST    HERMES 

Nature,  or  by  whatever  else  a  man  supposes 
or  shall  suppose.  And  all  is  this,  —  God 
energizing. 

The  Energy  of  God  is  Power  that  naught  can 
e'er  surpass,  a  Power  with  which  no  one  can 
make  comparison  of  any  human  thing  at  all,  or 
any  thing  divine. 

Wherefore,  0  Hermes,  never  think  that  aught 
of  things  above  or  things  below  is  like  to  God, 
for  thou  wilt  fall  from  truth.  For  naught  is  like 
to  That  which  hath  no  like,  and  is  Alone  and 
One. 

And  do  not  ever  think  that  any  other  can 
possibly  possess  His  power ;  for  what  apart  from 
Him  is  there  of  life,  and  deathlessness  and 
change  of  quality?  For  what  else  should  He 
make *  ? 

God's  not  inactive,2  since  all  things  [then] 
would  lack  activity ;  for  all  are  full  of  God. 

But  neither  in  the  Cosmos  anywhere,  nor  in 
aught  else,  is  there  inaction.  For  that  "in- 
action" is  a  name  that  cannot  be  applied  to 
either  what  doth  make  or  what  is  made.3 

6.  But  all  things  must  be  made ;  both  ever 

1  Sc.  than  those  which  are  Himself. 

2  apyts.      There  is  a  word-play  in  the  terms  Zpyov  (work), 
fvepyuv    (working    in,   energizing),    tvepyfis    (active,    energetic), 
fvepyeia  (in-working,  activity),  and  apyts  (not-working,  inactive, 
idle),  apyia  (inactivity,  idleness),  which  it  is  impossible  to  bring 
out  fully  in  English. 

3  Or  what  becomes. 


MIND   UNTO   HERMES  179 

made,  and  also  in  accordance  with  the  influence 
of  every  space.1 

For  He  who  makes,  is  in  them  all ;  not 
stablished  in  some  one  of  them,  nor  making  one 
thing  only,  but  making  all. 

For  being  Power,  He  energiseth  in  the  things 
He  makes  and  is  not  independent  of  them,— 
although  the  things  He  makes  are  subject  to  Him. 

Now  gaze  through  Me2  upon  the  Cosmos 
that's  now  subject  to  thy  sight ;  regard  its 
Beauty  carefully  —  Body  in  pure  perfection, 
though  one  than  which  there's  no  more  ancient 
one,  ever  in  prime  of  life,  and  ever-young,  nay, 
rather,  in  even  fuller  and  yet  fuller  prime ! 

7.  Behold,  again,  the  seven  subject  Worlds3; 
ordered 4  by  ^Eon's  order,5  and  with  their  varied 
course  full-filling  ^Eon ! 

[See  how]  all  things  [are]  full  of  light,  and 
nowhere  [is  there]  fire ;  for  'tis  the  love  and 
blending  of  the  contraries  and  the  dissimilars 

1  This  seems  to  mean,  that  all  things  in  the  world  of  gemesis- 
(making,   creating,   or  becoming)  have  their  root-activity,  first 
from  the  sameness  of  becoming  of  the  one  sphere  or  space,  and 
then  their  differentiated  activity  from  the  seven  spheres,  spaces, 
or  planes,  which  are  the  instruments  of  God  in  the  differentiation 
of  the  Cosmos. 

2  Mind — i.e.  with  the  mind's  eye,  or  spiritual  sight,  or  by  the 
help  of  the  Master's  illuminating  power.      Of.  G.  H.,  i.  7  and 
xiii.  (xiv.)  11. 

3  K^a-fjiovs,  cosmoi  or  world-orders. 

4  Or  adorned,  or  made  beautiful. 

5  The    order  of    the    ^Eon    (Eternity,   the  Spiritual  Space), 
aeonian  or  everlasting  order. 


180  THRICE-GREATEST    HERMES 

that  doth  give  birth  to  light  down  shining  by 
the  energy  of  God,1  the  Father  of  all  good,  the 
Leader  of  all  order,  and  Ruler  of  the  seven 
world-orderings  ! 

[Behold]  the  Moon,  forerunner  of  them  all, 
the  instrument  of  nature,  and  the  transmuter  of 
its  lower  matter ! 

[Look  at]  the  Earth  set  in  the  midst  of  All, 
foundation  of  the  Cosmos  Beautiful,  feeder  and 
nurse  of  things  on  Earth ! 

And  contemplate  the  multitude  of  deathless 
lives,  how  great  it  is,  and  that  of  lives  subject 
to  death ;  and  midway,  between  both,  immortal 
[lives]  and  mortal,  [see  thou]  the  circling 
Moon. 

8.  And  all  are  full  of  Soul,  and  all  are  moved 
by  it,  each  in  its  proper  way ;  some  round  the 
Heaven,  others  around  the  Earth  ;  [see]  how  the 
right  [move]  not  unto  left,  nor  yet  the  left  unto 
the  right;  nor  the  above  below,  nor  the  below 
above. 

And  that  all  these  are  subject  unto  Genesis,2 
My  dearest  Hermes,  thou  hast  no  longer  need 
to  learn  of  Me.  For  that  they  bodies  are,  have 
souls,  and  they  are  moved. 

But  'tis  impossible  for  them  to  come  together 
into  one  without  some  one  to  bring  them  [all] 

1  The  text  from  "  Now  gaze  ..."  to  here  is  given  in  R.  36, 
n.  1.  2  Or  becoming. 


MIND   UNTO    HERMES  181 

together.     It  must,  then,  be  that  such  a  one  as 
this  must  be  some  one  who's  wholly  One. 

9.  For  as  the  many  motions  of  them  [all] 
are  different,  and  as  their  bodies  are  not  like,  yet 
has  one  speed  been  ordered  for  them  all,  it  is 
impossible  that  there  should  be  two  or  more 
makers  for  them. 

For  that  one  single  order  is  not  kept  among 
"the  many";  but  rivalry  will  follow  of  the 
weaker  with  the  stronger,  and  they  will  strive. 

And  if  the  maker  of  the  lives  that  suffer 
change  and  death,  should  be  another,1  he  would 
desire  to  make  the  deathless  ones  as  well ;  just 
as  the  maker  of  the  deathless  ones,  [to  make  the 
lives]  that  suffer  death. 

But  come !  if  there  be  two,2 — if  Matter's  one, 
and  Soul  is  one,  in  whose  hands  would  there  be 
the  distribution3  for  the  making?  Again,  if 
both  of  them  have  some  of  it,  in  whose  hands 
may  there  be  the  greater  part  ? 

10.  But  thus  conceive  it,  then;  that  every 
living  body  doth  consist  of  soul  and  matter, 
whether  [that  body  be]  of  an  immortal,  or  a 
mortal,  or  an  irrational  [life]. 

For  that  all  living  bodies  are  ensouled ; 
whereas,  upon  the  other  hand,  those  that  live 
not,  are  matter  by  itself. 

1  From  the  maker  of  the  immortals.  2  Sc.  makers. 

3  Sc.  of  matter  and  life. 


182  THRICE-GREATEST   HERMES 

And,  in  like  fashion,  Soul  when  in  its  self  is, 
after  its  own  maker,  cause  of  life  ;  but  the  cause 
-of  all  life  is  He  who  makes  the  things  that  can- 
not die. 

Her.  How,  then,  is  it  that,  first,  lives  subject 
unto  death  are  other  than  the  deathless  ones  ? 
And,  next,  how  is  it  that  that  Life  which  knows 
no  death,  and  maketh  deathlessness,  doth  not 
make  animals  immortal? 

11.  Mind.  First,  that  there  is  some  one  who 
does  these  things,  is  clear ;  and,  next,  that  He 
is  also  One,  is  very  manifest.     For,  also,  Soul  is 
one,  and  Life  is  one,  and  Matter  one. 

Her.  But  who  is  He  ? 

Mind.  Who  may  it  other  be  than  the  One 
God  ?  Whom  else  should  it  beseem  to  put  Soul 
into  lives  but  God  alone  ?  One,  then,  is  God. 

It  would  indeed  be  most  ridiculous,  if  when 
thou  dost  confess  the  Cosmos  to  be  one,  Sun 
one,  Moon  one,  and  Godhead l  one,  thou  shouldst 
wish  God  Himself  to  be  some  one  or  other  of  a 
number ! 

12.  All  things,  therefore,  He  makes,  in  many 
[ways].     And  what  great  thing  is  it  for  God  to 
make  life,  soul,  and  deathlessness,  and  change, 
when  thou  [thyself]  dost  do 2  so  many  things  ? 

For  thou  dost  see,  and  speak,  and  hear,  and 

1  Or  Divinity. 

2  Or  make  ;  a  play  on  the  double  meaning  of  the  Greek  verb. 


MIND    UNTO    HERMES  183 

smell,  and  taste,  and  touch,  and  walk,  and  think, 
and  breathe.  And  it  is  not  one  man  who  smells, 
a  second  one  who  speaks,  a  third  who  touches, 
another  one  who  smells,  another  one  who  walks, 
another  one  who  thinks,  and  [yet]  another  one 
who  breathes.  But  one  is  he  who  doth  all  these. 

And  yet  no  one  of  these  could  be  apart  from 
God.  For  just  as,  shouldst  thou  cease  from1 
these,  thou  wouldst  no  longer  be  a  living  thing, 
so  also,  should  God  cease  from  them  (a  thing 
not  law  to  say),  no  longer  is  He  God. 

13.  For  if  it  hath  been  shown  that  no  thing  can 
inactive2  be,  how  much  less  God?  For  if  there's 
aught  He  doth  not  make  (if  it  be  law  to  say), 
He  is  imperfect.  But  if  He  is  not  only  not 
inactive,  but  perfect  [God],  then  He  doth  make 
all  things. 

Give  thou  thyself  to  Me,  My  Hermes,  for  a 
little  while,3  and  thou  shalt  understand  more 
easily  how  that  God's  work  is  one,  in  order  that 
all  things  may  be — that  are  being  made,  or  once 
have  been,  or  that  are  going  to  be  made.  And 
this 4  is,  My  beloved,  Life  ;  this  is  the  Beautiful ; 
this  is  the  Good ;  this,  God. 


1  Lit.  become  inactive  of 

2  A  word  has  here  dropped  out  in  the  text,  which  I  have 
supplied  by  apybv  (inactive),  and  not   by  the  usual  conjecture 
"  apart  from  God." 

3  Of.  P.  S.  A.,  iii.  1 :  "  Now  lend  to  me  the  whole  of  thee." 

4  Sc.  work,  doing,  making,  or  creating. 


184  THRICE-GREATEST    HERMES 

14.  And  if  them  wouldst  in  practice  1  under- 
stand [this  work],  behold  what  taketh  place  with 
thee  desiring  to  beget.     Yet  this  is  not  like  unto 
that,  for  He  doth  not  enjoy. 

For  that  indeed  He  hath  no  other  one  to  share 
in  what  He  works,  for  working  by  Himself,  He 
ever  is  at  work,  Himself  being  what  He  doth.2 
For  did  He  separate  Himself  from  it,3  all  things 
would  [then]  collapse,  and  all  must  die,  Life 
ceasing. 

But  if  all  things  are  lives,  and  also  Life  is 
one  ;  then,  one  is  God.  And,  furthermore,  if 
all  are  lives,  both  those  in  Heaven  and  those  on 
Earth,  and  One  Life  in  them  all  is  made  to  be 
by  God,  and  God  is  it  4  —  then,  all  are  made  by 
God. 

Life  is  the  making-one  of  Mind  and  Soul  ; 
accordingly  Death  is  not  the  destruction  of  those 
that  are  at-oned,5  but  the  dissolving  of  their 
union. 

15.  ^Eon,  moreover,  is  God's  image;  Cosmos 
[is]  ^Eon's  ;  the  Sun,  of  Cosmos  ;  and  Man,  [the 
image]  of  the  Sun. 

The  people  call  change  death,  because  the 
body  is  dissolved,  and  life,  when  it's  dissolved, 
withdraws  to  the  unmanifest.  But  in  this 


,  in  deed,  in  work.  2  Or  makes. 

3  Sc.  His  work,  or  creation.  4  Viz.,  this  Life. 

6  That  is,  Mind  and  Soul,  sc.  the  Logos  and  World-Soul,  or 
ego  and  animal  soul. 


MIND   UNTO    HERMES  185 

sermon  (logos),  Hermes,  my  beloved,  as  thou 
dost  hear,  I  say  the  Cosmos  also  suffers  change, 
—for  that  a  part  of  it  each  day  is  made  to 
be  in  the  unmanifest, — yet  it  is  ne'er  dis- 
solved. 

These  are  the  passions  of  the  Cosmos — revolv- 
ings  and  concealments  ;  revolving  is  conversion 
and  concealment  renovation. 

16.  The  Cosmos   is   all-formed, — not    having 
forms    external    to    itself,    but    changing    them 
itself  within  itself.     Since,  then,  Cosmos  is  made 
to  be  all-formed,  what  may  its  maker  be  ?     For 
that,  on  the  one  hand,  He  should  not  be  void  of 
all  form ;    and,  on  the  other  hand,  if  He's  all- 
formed,  He  will  be  like  the  Cosmos.     Whereas, 
again,  has  He  a  single  form,  He  will  thereby  be 
less  than  Cosmos. 

What,  then,  say  we  He  is? — that  we  may 
not  bring  round  our  sermon  (logos)  into  doubt ; 
for  naught  that  mind  conceives  of  God  is 
doubtful. 

He,  then,  hath  one  idea,1  which  is  His  own 
alone,  which  doth  not  fall  beneath  the  sight, 
being  bodiless,  and  [yet]  by  means  of  bodies 
manifesteth  all  [ideas].2  And  marvel  not  that 
there's  a  bodiless  idea. 

17.  For  it  is  like  the  form  of  reason  (logos)3 

1  The  root  of  form  ;  used  also  loosely  in  Greek  to  denote  form. 

2  Or  forms.  3  Or  idea  of  the  sermon. 


186 


THRICE -GREATEST   HERMES 


and  mountain- tops  in  pictures.1  For  they 
appear  to  stand  out  strongly  from  the  rest,  but 
really  are  quite  smooth  and  flat. 

And  now  consider  what  is  said  more  boldly, 
but  more  truly ! 

Just  as  man  cannot  live  apart  from  Life,  so 
neither  can  God  live  without  [His]  doing  good.2 
For  this  is  as  it  were  the  life  and  motion  as  it 
were  of  God — to  move  all  things  and  make  them 
live. 

18.  Now  some  of  the  things  said 3  should  bear 
a  sense  peculiar  to  themselves.     So  understand, 
for  instance,  what  I'm  going  to  say. 

All  are  in  God,  [but]  not  as  lying  in  a  place. 
For  place  is  both  a  body  and  immovable,  and 
things  that  lie  do  not  have  motion. 

Now  things  lie  one  way  in  the  bodiless, 
another  way  in  being  made  manifest. 

Think,  [then,]  of  Him  who  doth  contain  them 
all ;  and  think,  that  than  the  bodiless  naught  is 
more  comprehensive,  or  swifter,  or  more  potent, 
but  it  is  the  most  comprehensive,  the  swiftest, 
and  most  potent  of  them  all. 

19.  And,  thus,  think  from   thyself,  and   bid 


1  Kal  fr  rats  7pa0cu*  aKpefyeicu.     All  the  translators  talk  of 
"margins"  in  MSS.,  and  make  entire  nonsense  of  the  passage. 
I  can   find    absolutely  no    authority  for   translating    a.Kpd>ptiat 
margins. 

2  Or  making  the  Good  ;  that  is, 

3  Or  points  of  the  sermon. 


MIND   UNTO   HERMES  187 

thy  soul  go  unto  any  land ;  and  there  more 
quickly  than  thy  bidding  will  it  be.  And  bid  it 
journey  oceanwards ;  and  there,  again,  imme- 
diately 'twill  be,  not  as  if  passing  on  from  place 
to  place,  but  as  if  being  there. 

And  bid  it  also  mount  to  heaven  ;  and  it  will 
need  no  wings,  nor  will  aught  hinder  it,  nor  fire 
of  sun,  nor  aether,  nor  vortex-swirl,1  nor  bodies 
of  the  other  stars ;  but,  cutting  through  them 
all,  it  will  soar  up  to  the  last  Body  [of  them  all].2 
And  shouldst  thou  will  to  break  through  this  as 
well,  and  contemplate  what  is  beyond — if  there 
be  aught  beyond  the  Cosmos3;  it  is  permitted 
thee. 

20.  Behold  what  power,  what  swiftness,  thou 
dost  have !  And  canst  thou  do  all  of  these 
things,  and  God  not  [do  them]  ? 

Then,  in  this  way  know 4  God  ;  as  having  all 
things  in  Himself  as  thoughts,  the  whole  Cosmos 
itself. 

If,  then,  thou  dost  not  make  thyself  like  unto 
God,  thou  canst  not  know  Him.  For  like  is 
knowable  to  like  [alone]. 

Make,  [then,]  thyself  to  grow  to  the  same 
stature  as  the  Greatness  which  transcends  all 

1  ^  SIJ/TJ,  presumably  the  vortex  or  "  whorl "  of  the  solar  system 
(cf.  "  Vision  of  Er"). 

2  Sc.  the  body  or  limit  of  the  whole  cosmos. 

3  Cf.  C.  H.,  iv.  (v.)  5  :  "And  things  above  the  heaven— if  there 
be  aught."  *  QT  think. 


188 


THRICE-GREATEST   HERMES 


measure ;  leap  forth  from  every  body ;  tran- 
scend all  Time  ;  become  Eternity l ;  and  [thus] 
shalt  thou  know  God. 

Conceiving  nothing  is  impossible  unto  thyself, 
think  thyself  deathless  and  able  to  know  all, — 
all  arts,  all  sciences,  the  way  of  every  life.2 

Become  more  lofty  than  all  height,  and  lower 
than  all  depth.  Collect  into  thyself  all  senses 
of  [all]  creatures, — of  fire,  [and]  water,  dry  and 
moist.  Think  that  thou  art  at  the  same  time  in 
every  place, — in  earth,  in  sea,  in  sky ;  not  yet 
begotten,  in  the  womb,  young,  old,  [and]  dead, 
in  after-death  conditions.3 

And  if  thou  knowest  all  these  things  at  once,4 
— times,  places,  doings,  qualities,  and  quantities  ; 
thou  canst  know  God.6 

21.  But  if  thou  lockest  up  thy  soul  within  thy 
body,  and  dost  debase  it,  saying :  I  nothing 
know  ;  I  nothing  can ;  I  fear  the  sea ;  I  cannot 
scale  the  sky  ;  I  know  not  who  I  was,  who  I  shall 
be ; — what  is  there  [then]  between  [thy]  God 
and  thee  ? 

For  thou  canst  know  naught  of  things  beauti- 
ful and  good  so  long  as  thou  dost  love  thy  body 
and  art  bad. 

1  Lit.  jEon.          2  ira-vT^s  £(?ov  $dos, — or  nature  of  every  animal, 
s  Cf.  G.  H.,  xiii.  (xiv.)  11. 

4  Or  art  simultaneously  conscious  of. 

5  A  critical  text  from  "Make,  then,  thy  self"  to  here  is  given 
by  R.,  p.  238. 


MIND    UNTO    HERMES  189 

The  greatest  bad  there  is,  is  not  to  know 
God's  Good  l  ;  but  to  be  able  to  know  [Good], 
and  will,  and  hope,  is  a  Straight  Way,  the 
Good's  own  [Path],  both  leading  there  and 
easy.2 

If  thou  but  sett'st  thy  foot  thereon,  'twill 
meet  thee  everywhere,  'twill  everywhere  be  seen, 
both  where  and  when  thou  dost  expect  it  not,  — 
waking,  sleeping,  sailing,  journeying,  by  night, 
by  day,  speaking,  [and]  saying  naught.  For 
there  is  naught  that  is  not  image  of  the  Good. 

22.  Her.  Is  God  unseen  ? 

Mind.  Hush  !  Who  is  more  manifest  than 
He  ?  For  this  one  reason  hath  He  made  all 
things,  that  through  them  all  thou  mayest  see 
Him. 

This  is  the  Good  of  God,  this  [is]  His  Virtue, 
—that  He  may  be  made  manifest  through  all.3 

For  naught's  unseen,  even  of  things  that  are 
without  a  body.  Mind  sees  itself4  in  thinking, 
God  in  making.5 

So  far  these  things  have  been  made  manifest 
to  thee,  Thrice-  greatest  one  !  Reflect  on  all  the 
rest  in  the  same  way  within  thyself,  and  thou 
shalt  not  be  led  astray. 


—  lit.  the  Godly,  or  Divine. 

2  a/.  Ex.  i.  4. 

3  The  preceding  question  and  answer  is  quoted  with  very  slight 
verbal  variants  by  Cyril,  Contra  Julianum,  ii.  52. 

4  Or  is  seen.  5  Or  doing. 


190  THRICE-GREATEST    HERMES 

COMMENTAKY 

TITLE  AND  FORM 

The  title  in  the  MSS.  is  simply  "  Mind  to  Hermes." 
When,  therefore,  Cyril,  in  quoting  the  first  three  para- 
graphs of  §  22  of  our  treatise,  says  that  Hermes  wrote 
these  words  <c  to  his  own  mind," x  he  is  evidently 
either  a  very  careless  reader,2  or  had  not  seen  at  first 
hand  the  treatise  from  which  he  quotes. 

From  its  contents,  moreover,  it  is  very  evident  that 
our  treatise,  as  far  as  its  form  is  concerned,  looks  back 
to  the  "  Poemandres"  as  the  type  of  instruction  to 
Hermes  (or  to  a  Hermes). 

This  highly  authoritative  form  of  enunciating  doctrine 
was  evidently  chosen  because  it  was  desired  to  impart 
a  more  intimate  instruction  than  that  of  the  "  General 
Sermons  "  and  the  like, — to  wit,  the  inculcation  of  the 
^Eon-doctrine,  in  connection  with  the  marvellous 
doctrine  of  At-one-ment  with  all  things  which  con- 
stitutes the  Path  of  the  Good.  The  doctrine  is  no 
longer  "  Become  (or  make  thyself  like)  Cosmos,"  but 
"  Become  ^on"(§  20). 

Now  it  is  remarkable  that  the  instruction  given  in 
our  treatise  by  the  Mind  to  Hermes  is,  almost  point 
for  point,  the  "  esoteric  "  teaching  of  which  the  Sermon 
of  Hermes  to  Tat,  entitled  the  "  Cup  or  Monad  "— G.  H.t 
iv.  (v.) — is  the  "  exoteric  "  form. 

That  the  instruction  in  these  Trismegistic  schools  of 
initiation  was  divided  into  grades  is  manifest  on  all 
sides ;  and,  therefore,  nothing  is  more  natural  than  to 
find  these  two  sermons  standing  in  such  intimate  re- 
lations to  one  another  as  to  doctrine,  the  one  containing 

1  C.  Jul.,  ii.  52  ;  ed.  Migne,  col.  580  B. 

2  Gf.  R.  128,  i. ;  196,  3. 


MIND    UNTO    HERMES  191 

the  more  intimate  and  advanced  explanation  of  the 
more  general  instruction  of  the  other. 

And  that  this  inner  instruction  on  the  "Cup" 
doctrine  must  have  been  thought  to  be  of  very  great 
value,  is  evident  when  we  reflect  that  "  The  Cup " 
sermon  was  one  of  the  most  famous  of  all  the  treatises 
of  Hermes,  for,  as  we  have  seen,  its  title  was  worth 
being  plagiarized,  and  the  Baptism  of  the  Cup,  of  which 
it  treated,  constituted  the  goal  of  the  endeavour  of  the 
disciples  of  the  School,  as  Zosimus  tells  us. 

Mystically,  then,  the  main  interest  of  our  treatise 
centres  in  the  doctrine  of  the  At-one-ment  (as  the 
inner  consummation  of  the  Baptism  in  the  Cup  or 
Monad),  to  which  the  ^Eon-idea  is  but  a  formal  intro- 
duction ;  historically,  however,  the  introduction  of  the 
^Eon-idea  presents  itself  as  a  critical  problem,  for  the 
term  is  not  found  in  the  '•'  Poemandres,"  and,  therefore, 
presumably  was  not  used  in  the  earliest  documents  of 
the  School. 

THE  ^EON-LORE 

When,  then,  did  this  ^Eon-idea  impose  itself  ujton 
the  older  form  of  tradition  of  the  Trismegistic  schools  ? 
This  is  a  most  important  question ;  for  if  we  can  in 
any  way  answer  it,  we  shall  be  in  a  position  to  assign 
a  termimis  ad  quern  for  the  earlier  forms  of  Hermetic 
doctrine. 

The  answer  to  the  question  seems  to  me  to  be 
involved  in  the  supposition  that  the  ^Eon-doctrine 
must  have  influenced  "  Hermeticisrn "  at  more  or 
less  the  same  date  as  that  at  which  it  influenced 
"  Gnosticism." 

Now  "  Gnosticism,"  in  its  Christianized  forms,  is 
practically  never  found  without  the  ^Eon-lore. 

The  earliest  forms  of  Christian   Gnosis  referred   to 


192  THRICE-GREATEST    HERMES 

by  the  later  Patristic  haeresiologists  are  bound  up  with 
^onology.  Not  only  so,  but  the  very  earliest  reference 
to  Gnosticism  by  any  Christian  writer  presupposes 
the  ^Eon-doctrine,  and  uses  it  in  illustration  of  the 
spiritual  state  of  the  writer.1 

The  widespread  influence  of  the  ^Eon-doctrine  can 
thus  be  traced  back  to  at  least  the  origins  of  Christianity. 

Now  as  the  Gnosis  existed  before  any  Christian  form 
of  it  was  developed,  the  question  of  the  date  when 
the  ^Eon-doctrine  was  introduced  into  it  must  be 
referred  to  pre-Christian  times. 

And,  indeed,  the  very  simple  character  of  the  ^Eon- 
lore  in  our  treatise,2  as  compared  with  the  mind- 
bewildering  complexity  and  transcendency  of  first  and 
second  century  Christian  Gnosticism,  is  all  in  favour 
of  an  early  date  for  its  introduction  into  "  Her- 
meticism,"  which  is  only  another  name  for  "  Gnosticism  " 
of  a  preponderatingly  Hellenic  form. 

If  this  line  of  reasoning  holds  good,  we  have  in  it 
a  very  strong  presumption  that  the  older  forms  of  the 
Trismegistic  treatises  were  pre-Christian. 

And  that  this  is  so  may  be  seen  by  the  absolute 
identity  of  the  teaching  of  our  treatise  (§2)  with  that 
of  Philo,  when  he  writes : 

"  But  God  is  the  Artificer  of  Time  as  well.  For  He 
is  Father  of  its  Father;  and  Time's  Father  is  the 
Cosmos,  which  manifests  its  motion  in  the  genesis 
of  Time.  .  .  . 

"  This  [Cosmos]  then,  the  Younger  Son,  the  Sensible, 
being  set  a-moving,  has  caused  Time's  nature  to  appear 

1  Namely,   Paul  in  his  Letters,  which  are  the  earliest  of  all 
Christian    documents.     See  my    article,   "Some  Notes    on  the 
Gnostics,"  in  The  Nineteenth  Century  and  After  (Nov.  1902),  pp. 
822-835  ;  and  D.  J.  L.,  pp.  353  ff. 

2  Perhaps  the  clearest  exposition  is  to  be  found  in  P.  S.  A., 
xxx.  and  xxxi. 


MIND   UNTO    HERMES  193 

and  disappear ;  so  that  there  nothing  is  which  future 
is  with  God,  who  has  the  very  Bounds  of  Time  subject 
to  Him.  For  'tis  not  Time,  but  Time's  Archetype  and 
Paradigm,  Eternity  (or  J£on),  which  is  His  Life.1 
But  in  Eternity  naught  is  past,  and  naught  is  future, 
but  all  is  present  only." 2 

This  passage  of  Philo  is  of  the  utmost  importance 
for  estimating  the  date  of  our  treatises;  for  not  only 
does  it  prove  that  the  oldest  forms  of  the  Trismegistic 
literature  were  pre-Christian,  but  it  further  persuades 
us  that  our  treatise,  which  belongs  to  a  later  type  of 
this  literature,  may  be  dated  as  contemporary  with 
Philo. 

Chapter  xi.  in  the  Prolegomena,  "Concerning  the 
^Eon-Doctrine,"  should  be  taken  in  close  connection 
with  this  treatise,  for  it  is  not  only  introductory  to  it, 
but  frequently  refers  directly  to  it. 

For  the  rest,  it  is  not  necessary  to  attempt  any 
detailed  comments,  since  the  instruction  of  the  writer 
is  clear  enough  for  any  careful  reader  to  follow  with 
ease  after  making  himself  acquainted  with  the  general 
ideas  in  the  preceding  treatises.  One  or  two  notes  on 
special  points,  however,  may  be  attempted. 

THE  BOOT  OF  FORM 

Thus  in  §  16,  the  sentence:  "The  Cosmos  is  all- 
formed  (7ra^To/xo/o0o9), — not  having  forms  external  to 
itself,  but  changing  them  itself  within  itself," — reminds 
us  of  P.  S.  A.,  xix.  3:  "The  'Thirty-six'  who  have 
the  name  of  Horoscopes  are  in  the  self -same  space  as 
the  fixed  stars;  of  these  the  essence-chief,  or  prince, 

1  Cf.  C.  H.,  i.  6  ;  the  Union  of  the  Logos  and  Mind — or  First- 
Born  Son  and  Father — is  Life  ;  they  are  united  in  Mon. 

2  Quod  Deus  Ira.,  §  6  ;  M.  i.  277  ;  P.  298  (Ri.  ii.  72,  73). 
VOL.  II.  13 


194  THRICE-GREATEST    HERMES 

is  he  whom  they  call  Pantomorph,  or  Omniform 
(TravTOfjioptyosiVel  0w7w/brmw),whofashioneth  the  various 
forms  for  various  species  " ;  and  also  of  P.  S.  A.,  xxxv. : 
"  But  they  are  changed  as  many  times  as  there  are 
moments  in  the  hour  of  that  revolving  circle  in  which 
abides  that  God  whom  we  have  called  All-form." 

Compare  also  C.  H.,  xiii.  (xiv.)  12,  where,  speaking 
of  the  "Circle  of  the  types  of  life,"  Hermes  says  it 
is  "composed  of  elements,  twelve  in  number,  but  of 
one  nature,  an  omniform  idea." 

With  this  compare  Hermes-Prayer  iv.,  addressed 
to  Thoth  as  the  Logos: 

"Thee  I  invoke  alone,  thou  who  alone  in  all  the 
Cosmos  dost  impose  order  on  gods  and  men,  who  dost 
transform  thyself  in  holy  forms,  making  to  be  from 
things  that  are  not,  and  from  the  things  that  are, 
making  the  not  to  be." 

But  the  main  interest  of  our  treatise  is  not  that 
the  Intelligible  Cosmos  or  Logos  can  create  and  destroy 
and  transmute  all  forms  at  will,  but  that  man  as  the 
microcosm  has  potential  in  him  this  great  magic  power. 

"BECOME  ALL  THINGS" 

The  daring  instruction  given  to  Hermes  in  §§  19 
and  20  is  distinctly  a  discipline  of  the  Egyptian  Wisdom ; 
for  though  it  is  here  set  forth  plainly  and  without 
circumlocution,  as  a  straightforward  intimate  instruction, 
stripped  of  all  mysterious  hints  or  hesitating  subter- 
fuges,1 it  is  clearly  in  the  same  circle  of  ideas  of  which 
popular  Egyptian  theurgy  had  some  inkling.  But 
whereas  the  philosopher-mystic  was  bidden  to  do  this 
for  himself  of  his  own  volition  and  achievement,  the 
theurgist  had  to  beg  some  god  to  do  it  for  him. 

1  Or,  as  the  writer  of  the  Pistis  Sophia  would  say,  tv  irapp-n o(^ 
"  face  to  face  without  a  parable." 


MIND   UNTO    HERMES  195 

Thus  in  the  same  Prayer,  to  which  we  have  already 
referred,  we  read  (§§  2,  3): 

"0  holy  Thoth,  the  true  sight  of  whose  face  none 
of  the  gods  endures !  Make  me  to  be  in  every  creature's 
name  [or  '  true  form '], — wolf,  dog,  or  lion,  fire,  tree, 
or  vulture,  wall,  or  water,  or  what  thou  will'st,  for 
thou  art  able  so  to  do." 

So  also  in  P.  S.  A.,  vii.,  we  have  the  same  idea,  for 
certainly  the  phrasing  of  the  sentences  suggests  some- 
thing beyond  the  ordinary  powers  of  the  mind  or 
imagination. 

"  He  mingles  with  the  elements  by  reason  of  the 
swiftness  of  his  mind.  He  plunges  into  the  sea's 
depths  by  means  of  its  profundity.  He  puts  his  values 
on  all  things. 

"  Heaven  does  not  seem  too  high  for  him ;  for  it  is 
measured  by  the  wisdom  of  his  mind  as  though  it  were 
quite  near. 

"No  darkness  of  the  air  obstructs  the  penetration 
of  his  mind.  No  density  of  earth  impedes  his  work. 
No  depth  of  water  blunts  his  sight. 

"  Though  still  the  same,  yet  is  he  all,  and  everywhere 
is  he  the  same." 

It  is  indeed  a  marvellous  "yoga"  system  that  is 
sketched  for  us  in  our  treatise.  There  is  no  question 
here  of  abstraction  or  negation,  but  a  courageous  identi- 
fication or  At-one-ment  of  oneself  with  all  that  lives  and 
breathes.  This  is  the  Path  of  the  Gnosis,  the  Way  to 
Know  God. 

In  other  words,  man  is  to  copy  his  prototype,  the  Mind, 
and  just  as  the  Mind  or  Man,  in  the  "Poamandres" 
treatise,  "had  a  mind  to  break  right  through  the 
Boundary  of  the  spheres"  (§  13),  so  is  our  philosopher 
bidden  to  "  soar  up  to  the  Last  Body  of  them  all "  (§  19), 
that  Last  Body  being  the  One  Element  of  Cosmos  itself. 


196  THRICE-GREATEST    HERMES 

"And  shouldst  thou  will  to  break  through  this  as 
well,  and  contemplate  what  is  beyond — if  there  be 
aught  beyond  the  Cosmos;  it  is  permitted  thee." 

That  the  hard  and  fast  distinctions  which  modern 
commentators  would  draw  between  words,  in  con- 
sidering these  mystical  treatises,  would  have  been 
laughed  at  by  the  writers  of  them,  is  amply  manifested 
when  the  writer  with  enthusiastic  fervour  bursts  forth  : 

"  Then  in  this  way  know  God,  as  having  in  Himself 
as  thoughts  the  whole  Cosmos  itself. 

"  If,  then,  thou  dost  not  make  thyself  like  unto  God,1 
thou  canst  not  know  Him.2  For  like  is  knowable  to 
like  [alone].  Make,  then,  thyself  to  grow  to  the 
same  stature  as  the  Greatness  which  transcends  all 
measure;  leap  forth  from  every  body;  transcend  all 
time;  become  Eternity;  and  thus  shalt  thou  know 
God." 

Every  body  or  space  must  be  transcended,  even  the 
Body  of  Cosmos  itself ;  for  the  man  must  grow  into  the 
"  stature  of  the  Greatness  that  transcends  all  measure," 
that  is,  the  intelligible  superspatial  Pleroma,  the  Mon 
as  the  Logos  and  Paradigm  of  Cosmos.  And  every 
time  and  all  Time  must  also  be  transcended;  for  the 
man  must  become  Eternity — that  is,  the  Mon  as  the 
Paradigm  of  Time. 

THE  GOOD'S  OWN  PATH 

In  no  scripture  that  I  know  is  this  Path  more 
admirably  set  forth — the  Good's  own  Path.  All  things, 
all  spaces,  and  all  times  have  to  be  realized  as  being 
within  oneself  simultaneously ;  if  this  is  realized  or 
known,  not  only  imagined,  then  a  man  becomes  a  true 
Knower  of  God,  a  Gnostic. 

1  Sc.  as  Cosmos.  2  Sc.  as  Father  of  this  Only  Son. 


MIND   UNTO    HERMES  197 

Nor  has  ever  a  truer  sentence  been  written  than  the 
wonderful  words  concerning  this  Path  to  the  Supreme : 

"If  thou  but  sett'st  thy  foot  thereon,  'twill  meet 
thee  everywhere,  'twill  everywhere  be  seen,  both 
where  and  when  thou  dost  expect  it  not — waking, 
sleeping,  sailing,  journeying,  by  night,  by  day,  speaking, 
and  saying  naught.  For  there  is  naught  that  is  not 
image  of  the  Good." 

CONCERNING  INDIA 

In  conclusion,  I  would  only  point  out  that  if  for 
the  hopeless  reading  in  the  first  sentence  of  §  19  we 
were  to  take  Patrizzi's  emendation,  which  has  been 
adopted  by  Parthey,  we  should  have  the  interesting 
sentence : 

"  And,  thus,  think  from  thyself,  and  bid  thy  soul  go 
unto  India." 

If  this  should  be  the  original  reading,  it  is  remark- 
able that  India  should  have  been  selected  of  all  places. 
We  know,  however,  from  a  study  of  what  is  known  of 
the  life  of  Apollonius  of  Tyana,  that  this  "Gnostic" 
philosopher  made  an  enormous  propaganda  of  Indian 
ideas  among  the  philosophic  and  mystic  communities 
and  schools  of  the  first  century.  Apollonius  must 
have  known  something,  perhaps  a  great  deal,  concern- 
ing the  siddhis  acquired  by  ?/0#a-practices.  At  any 
rate,  we  find  his  biographer  Philostratus  making  him 
write  the  following  letter  to  his  Eastern  hosts  on  his 
return  from  India : 

"  I  came  to  you  by  land  and  ye  have  given  me  the 
sea ;  nay,  rather,  by  sharing  with  me  your  wisdom  ye 
have  given  me  power  to  travel  through  heaven.  These 
things  will  I  bring  back  to  the  mind  of  the  Greeks,  and 
I  will  hold  converse  with  you  as  though  ye  were 


198  THRICE-GREATEST    HERMES 

present,  if  it  be  that  I  have  not  drunk  of  the  Cup  of 
Tantalus  in  vain."  l 

That  an  intensely  great  interest  was  taken  in  Indian 
ideas  at  Alexandria  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  we  find 
Plotinus  himself  in  242  starting  off  with  the  expedition 
of  Gordian  to  the  East  in  the  hope  of  coming  in  contact 
with  the  Indian  Wisdom. 

But  all  these  considerations,  though  interesting  in 
themselves,  do  not  immediately  concern  us,  unless  we 
are  subjectively  persuaded  that  the  emendation  of 
Patrizzi  is  firmly  established.  Should,  however,  this 
reading  in  any  way  be  confirmed  by  objective  evidence, 
we  should  have  to  reconsider  the  question  of  date  by 
the  light  of  it,  though,  I  fear,  with  little  chance  of  any 
definite  result.  For  though  the  propaganda  of  Indian 
ideas  by  Apollonius  could  not  have  begun  prior  to  the 
middle  of  the  first  century,  we  have  in  this  fact  no 
very  sure  criterion,  for  "  India  "  must  have  been  in  the 
air,  and  strongly  in  the  air,  even  prior  to  Apollonius' 
visit  to  India,  or  why  should  he  have  been  induced  to 
make  so  long  and  dangerous  a  journey  ?  Indeed, 
"  India  "  had  been  in  the  air  ever  since  the  expedition 
of  Alexander — that  is,  from  the  beginning  of  the 
Alexandrian  period — the  second  quarter  of  the  fourth 
century  B.C.  onwards. 

1  Philos.,  Vit.  Ap.,  iii.  51.  Of.  my  Apollonius  of  Tyana,  the 
Philosopher  Reformer  of  the  First  Century  A.D.  (London,  1901), 
p.  88. 


COEPUS  HEEMETICUM  XII.  (XIII.) 

ABOUT  THE  COMMON  MIND 

OF  HERMES  TO  TAT 

(Text:  P.  99-113;  Pat.  23b-25b.) 

1  Hermes.  The  Mind,  0  Tat,  is  of  God's  very 
essence — (if  such  a  thing  as  essence  of  God l 
there  be) — and  what  that  is,  it  and  it  only  knows 
precisely. 

The  Mind,  then,  is  not  separated  off  from 
God's  essentiality,  but  is  united  unto  it,  as  light 
to  sun. 

This  Mind  in  men  is  God,  and  for  this  cause 
some  of  mankind  are  gods,  and  their  humanity  is 
nigh  unto  divinity. 

For  the  Good  Daimon  said  :  "  Gods  are  im- 
mortal men,  and  men  are  mortal  gods." 

2.  But  in  irrational  lives  Mind  is  their  nature. 
For  where  is  Soul,  there  too  is  Mind ;  just  as 
where  Life,  there  is  there  also  Soul. 

1  That  is,  if  we  can  use  such  a  term  with  respect  to  God. 
199 


200  THRICE-GREATEST   HERMES 

But  in  irrational  lives  their  soul  is  life  devoid 
of  mind  l  ;  for  Mind  is  the  in-  worker  of  the  souls 
of  men  for  good  ;  —  He  works  on  them  for  their 
own  good. 

In  lives  irrational  He  doth  co-operate  with 
each  one's  nature  ;  but  in  the  souls  of  men  He 
counteracteth  them. 

For  every  soul,  when  it  becomes  embodied, 
is  instantly  depraved  by  pleasure  and  by 
pain. 

For  in  a  compound  body,  just  like  juices,  pain 
and  pleasure  seethe,  and  into  them  the  soul,  on 
entering  in,  is  plunged.2 

3.  O'er  whatsoever  souls  the  Mind  doth,  then, 
preside,  to  these  it  showeth  its  own  light,  by 
acting  counter  to  their  prepossessions,  just  as 
a  good  physician  doth  upon  the  body  pre- 
possessed by  sickness,  pain  inflict,  burning  or 
lancing  it  for  sake  of  health. 

In  just  the  selfsame  way  the  Mind  inflicteth 
pain  upon  the  soul,  to  rescue  it  from  pleasure, 
whence  comes  its  every  ill. 

The  great  ill  of  the  soul  is  godlessness  3  ;  then 

1  That  is,  of  the  mind  manifested  in  xnan  as  distinguished  from 
the  general  Mind. 


Of.  C.  H.,  x.  (xi.)  8,  9  :  "  And  the  soul's  vice  is  ignor- 
ance "  ;  and  §  20  :  "  What  greater  chastisement  of  any  human  soul, 
can  there  be,  son,  than  lack  of  piety?"  The  only  way  of 
salvation  from  the  bonds  of  Fate  is  thus  "  piety  "  or  "  godliness." 
See  R.  102,  1,  for  references. 


ABOUT  THE  COMMON  MIND        201 

followeth  fancy l  for  all  evil  things  and  nothing 
good. 

So,  then,  Mind  counteracting  it  doth  work 
good  on  the  soul,  as  the  physician  health  upon 
the  body. 

4.  But  whatsoever  human  souls  have  not  the 
Mind   as  pilot,  they  share  in  the  same  fate  as 
souls  of  lives  irrational. 

For  [Mind]  becomes  co-worker  with  them, 
giving  full  play  to  the  desires  towards  which 
[such  souls]  are  borne, — [desires]  that  from  the 
rush  of  lust  strain  after  the  irrational ;  [so  that 
such  human  souls,]  just  like  irrational  animals, 
cease  not  irrationally  to  rage  and  lust,  nor  ever 
are  they  satiate  of  ills. 

For  passions  and  irrational  desires  are  ills  ex- 
ceeding great;  and  over  these  God  hath  set  up  the 
Mind  to  play  the  part  of  judge  and  executioner. 

5.  Tat.  In  that  case,  father  mine,  the  teaching 
(logos)  as  to  Fate,2  which  previously  thou  didst 
explain  to  me,  risks  to  be  over-set. 

For  that  if  it  be  absolutely  fated  for  a  man  to 
fornicate,  or  commit  sacrilege,  or  do  some  other 
evil  deed,  why  is  he  punished, — when  he  hath 
done  the  deed  from  Fate's  necessity  ? 

Her.  All  works,  my  son,  are  Fate's;  and 
without  Fate  naught  of  things  corporal — or  good, 
or  ill — can  come  to  pass. 

1  5<fa.  2  Heimarmene. 


202  THRICE-GREATEST    HERMES 

But  it  is  fated  too,  that  he  who  doeth  ill,  shall 
suffer.  And  for  this  cause  he  doth  it — that  he 
may  suffer  what  he  suffereth,  because  he  did  it. 

6.  But   for   the   moment,    [Tat,]   let   be    the 
teaching  (logos)  as  to  vice  and  Fate,  for  we  have 
spoken  of  these  things  in  other  [of  our  sermons]  ; 
but  now  our  teaching  (logos)  is  about  the  Mind  : 
— what  Mind  can  do,  and  how  it  is  [so]  different, 
— in  men  being  such  and  such,  and  in  irrational 
lives  [so]  changed ;   and   [then]   again  that   in 
irrational  lives  it  is  not  of  a  beneficial  nature, 
while  that  in  men  it  quencheth  out  the  wrathful 
and  the  lustful  elements. 

Of  men,  again,  we  must  class  some  as  led  by 
reason,  and  others  as  unreasoning. 

7.  But   all   men   are    subject    to    Fate,    and 
genesis  and  change,  for  these1  are  the  begin- 
ning and  the  end  of  Fate. 

And  though  all  men  do  suffer  fated  things, 
those  led  by  reason  (those  whom  we  said  the 
Mind  doth  guide)  do  not  endure  like  suffering 
with  the  rest ;  but,  since  they've  freed  them- 
selves from  viciousness,  not  being  bad,  they  do 
not  suffer  bad. 

Tat  How  meanest  thou  again,  my  father? 
Is  not  the  fornicator  bad ;  the  murderer  bad ; 
and  [so  with]  all  the  rest  ? 

Her.  [I    meant    not    that;]    but    that    the 

1  Sc.  genesis  and  change. 


ABOUT  THE  COMMON  MIND        203 

Mind -led  man,  my  son,  though  not  a  fornicator, 
will  suffer  just  as  though  he  had  committed 
fornication,  and  though  he  be  no  murderer,  as 
though  he  had  committed  murder. 

The  quality  of  change  he  can  no  more  escape 
than  that  of  genesis. 

But  it  is  possible  for  one  who  hath  the  Mind, 
to  free  himself  from  vice. 

8.  Wherefore  I've  ever  heard,  my  son,  Good 
Daimon  also  say — (and  had  He  set  it  down  in 
written   words,  He   would   have  greatly  helped 
the  race  of  men ;   for  He  alone,  my  son,  doth 
truly,  as  the  First-born  God,  gazing  upon   all 
things,  give  voice  to  words  (logoi)  divine) — yea, 
once  I  heard  Him  say  : 

"  All  things  are  one,  and  most  of  all  the 
bodies  which  the  mind  alone  perceives.  Our 
life  is  owing  to  [God's]  Energy  and  Power  and 
Mou.  His  Mind  is  Good,  so  is  His  Soul  as  well. 
And  this  being  so,  intelligible  things  know 
naught  of  separation.  So,  then,  Mind,  being 
Kuler  of  all  things,  and  being  Soul  of  God,  can 
do  whate'er  it  wills." 

9.  So  do  thou  understand,  and  carry  back  this 
word  (logos)  unto  the  question  thou  didst  ask 
before, — I  mean  about  Mind's  Fate. 

For  if  thou  dost  with  accuracy,  son,  eliminate 
[all]  captious  arguments  (logoi),  thou  wilt  dis- 
cover that  of  very  truth  the  Mind,  the  Soul 


204  THRICE-GREATEST   HERMES 

of  God,  doth  rule  o'er  all — o'er  Fate,  and  Law, 
and  all  things  else  ;  and  nothing  is  impossible  to 
it, — neither  o'er  Fate  to  set  a  human  soul,1  nor 
under  Fate  to  set  [a  soul]  neglectful  of  what 
comes  to  pass.  Let  this  so  far  suffice  from  the 
Good  Daimon's  most  good  [words].2 

Tat.  Yea,  [words]  divinely  spoken,  father 
mine,  truly  and  helpfully.  But  further  still 
explain  me  this. 

10.  Thou  said'st  that  Mind  in  lives  irrational 
worked   in   them   as  [their]  nature,  co-working 
with  their  impulses. 

But  impulses  of  lives  irrational,  as  I  do  think, 
are  passions. 

Now  if  the  Mind  co-worketh  with  [these] 
impulses,  and  if  the  impulses  of  [lives]  irrational 
be  passions,  then  is  Mind  also  passion,  taking  its 
colour  from  the  passions. 

Her.  Well  put,  my  son !  Thou  questionest 
right  nobly,  and  it  is  just  that  I  as  well  should 
answer  [nobly]. 

11.  All  things  incorporal  when  in  a  body  are 
subject   unto   passion,  and   in  the  proper  sense 
they  are  [themselves]  all  passions. 

For  every  thing  that  moves  [another]  is  in- 
corporal  ;  while  every  thing  that's  moved  is 
body. 

1  Of.  Lack,  D.  /.,  ii.  15. 

2  The  critical  text  of  this  paragraph  is  given  R.  78. 


ABOUT  THE  COMMON  MIND        205 

Incorporate  are  further  moved  by  Mind,  and 
movement's  passion. 

Both,  then,  are  subject  unto  passion — both 
mover  and  the  moved,  the  former  being  ruler 
and  the  latter  ruled. 

But  when  a  man  hath  freed  himself  from 
body,  then  is  he  also  freed  from  passion. 

But,  more  precisely,  son,  naught  is  impassible, 
but  all  are  passible. 

Yet  passion  differeth  from  passibility ;  for 
that  the  one  is  active,  while  the  other's  passive. 

Incorporate l  moreover  act  upon  themselves,  for 
either  they  are  motionless 2  or  they  are  moved ; 
but  whichsoe'er  it  be,  it's  passion. 

Bat  bodies  are  invariably  acted  on,  and  there- 
fore are  they  passible. 

Do  not,  theD,  let  terms  trouble  thee ;  action 
and  passion  are  both  the  selfsame  thing.  To 
use  the  fairer  sounding  term,  however,  does  no 
harm. 

12.  Tat.  Most  clearly  hast  thou,  father  mine, 
set  forth  the  teaching  (logos). 

Her.  Consider  this  as  well,  my  son ;  that 
these  two  things  God  hath  bestowed  on  man 
beyond  all  mortal  lives — both  mind  and  speech 

1  Reading  affca/jLara  for  ff(a/j.ara. 

2  The  words  I  have  translated  by  "  act,"  "  active  "  and  "  action," 
may  be  more  literally  rendered   by  "energize,"   "energic"  and 
"  energy."    The  "  motionless  "  has  "  energy  "  because  it  is  the  cause 
of  motion  to  that  which  it  moves. 


206  THRICE-GREATEST   HERMES 

(logos)  equal  to  immortality.  He  hath  the  mind 
for  knowing  God  and  uttered  speech  (logos)  for 
eulogy  of  Him.1 

And  if  one  useth  these  for  what  he  ought, 
he'll  differ  not  a  whit  from  the  immortals.2 
Nay,  rather,  on  departing  from  the  body,  he 
will  be  guided  by  the  twain  unto  the  Choir  of 
Gods  and  Blessed  Ones. 

13.  Tat.  Why,  father  mine  ! — do  not  the  other 
lives  make  use  of  speech  (logos)  ? 

Her.  Nay,  son ;  but  use  of  voice ;  speech  is 
far  different  from  voice.  For  speech  is  general 
among  all  men,  while  voice  doth  differ  in  each 
class  of  living  thing. 

Tat.  But  with  men  also,  father  mine,  according 
to  each  race,  speech  differs. 

Her.  Yea,  son,  but  man  is  one ;  so  also 
speech  is  one  and  is  interpreted,  and  it  is  found 
the  same  in  Egypt,  and  in  Persia,  and  in  Greece. 

Thou  seemest,  son,  to  be  in  ignorance  of 
Reason's  (Logos) B  worth  and  greatness.  For 
that  the  Blessed  God,  Good  Daimon,  hath  de- 
clared : 

"  Soul  is  in  Body,  Mind  in  Soul ;  but  Reason 
(Logos)  is  in  Mind,  and  Mind  in  God ;  and  God 
is  Father  of  [all]  these." 

1  Following  the  emendation  of  R. 

2  The  critical  text  of  the  above  paragraphs  is  given  R.  156,  n.  6. 

3  It  is  impossible  to  bring  out  the  word-play  of  the  original  in 
English ;  and  so  the  double  meaning  is  lost. 


ABOUT  THE  COMMON  MIND        207 

14.  The  Reason,  then,  is  the   Mind's   image, 
and  Mind  God's  [image];    while   Body  is   [the 
image]  of  the  Form ;   and  Form  [the  image]  of 
the  Soul. 

The  subtlest  part  of  Matter  is,  then,  Air ;  of 
Air,  Soul ;  of  Soul,  Mind  ;  and  of  Mind,  God.1 

And  God  surroundeth  all  and  permeateth  all 2 ; 
while  Mind  surroundeth  Soul,  Soul  Air,  Air 
Matter. 

Necessity3  and  Providence  and  Nature  are 
instruments  of  Cosmos  and  of  Matter's  ordering ; 
while  of  intelligible  things  each  is  Essence,  and 
Sameness  is  their  Essence. 

But  of  the  Bodies4  of  the  Cosmos  each  is 
many ;  for  through  possessing  Sameness,  [these] 
composed  Bodies,  though  they  do  change  from 
one  into  another  of  themselves,  do  natheless  ever 
keep  the  incorruption  of  their  Sameness. 

15.  Whereas    in    all    the    rest   of  composed 
bodies,  of  each  there  is  a  certain  number;  for 
without  number   structure   cannot   be,  or   com- 
position, or  decomposition. 

Now  it  is  units  that  give  birth  to  number  and 
increase  it,  and,  being  decomposed,  are  taken 
back  again  into  themselves. 

1  This  sentence  is  tagged  on  to  the  end  of  (7.  #.,  v.  (vi.)  by  some 
scribe. 

2  a/.  §  20  below. 

3  Beading  avdyicr)  for  avdyKrj  •  see  §  21  below. 

4  Sc.  the  elements. 


208  THRICE-GREATEST   HERMES 

Matter  is  one  ;  and  this  whole  Cosmos  —  the 
mighty  God  and  image  of  the  mightier  One, 
both  with  Him  unified,  and  the  conserver  of 
the  Will  and  Order  of  the  Father—  is  filled  full 
of  Life.1 

Naught  is  there  in  it  throughout  the  whole  of 
Mou,  the  Father's  [everlasting]  Re-establishment,2 
—  nor  of  the  whole,  nor  of  its  parts,  —  which  doth 
not  live. 

For  not  a"  single  thing  that's  dead,  hath  been, 
or  is,  or  shall  be  in  [this]  Cosmos. 

For  that  the  Father  willed  it  should  have 
Life  as  long  as  it  should  be.  Wherefore  it  needs 
must  be  a  God. 

16.  How,  then,  0  son,  could  there  be  in  the 
God,  the  image  of  the  Father,3  in  the  plenitude  4 
of  Life—  dead  things  5  ? 

For  that  death  is  corruption,  and  corruption  is 
destruction. 

How  then  could  any  part  of  that  which  knoweth 
no  corruption  be  corrupted,  or  any  whit  of  him 
the  God  destroyed  ? 

Tat.  Do  they  not,  then,  my  father,  die  —  the 
lives  in  it,  that  are  its  parts  ? 

Her.  Hush,  son  !  —  led  into  error  by  the  term 
in  use  for  what  takes  place. 


1  Lit.  a  Pler5ma  of  Life. 

3  Reading  varp^s  for  vavr6s.  *  Pleroma. 

6  A  critical  text  of  the  last  five  paragraphs  is  given  R.  25,  n.  1. 


ABOUT   THE   COMMON   MIND  209 

They  do  not  die,  my  son,  but  are  dissolved  as 
compound  bodies. 

Now  dissolution  is  not  death,  but  dissolution 
of  a  compound  ;  it  is  dissolved  not  so  that  it  may 
be  destroyed,  but  that  it  may  become  renewed. 

For  what  is  the  activity  of  life?  Is  it  not 
motion  ?  What  then  in  Cosmos  is  there  that 
hath  no  motion  ?  Naught  is  there,  son  ! 

17.  Tat.  Doth  not  Earth   even,  father,  seem 
to  thee  to  have  no  motion  ? 

Her.  Nay,  son ;  but  rather  that  she  is  the 
only  thing  which,  though  in  very  rapid  motion, 
is  also  stable. 

For  how  would  it  not  be  a  thing  to  laugh  at, 
that  the  Nurse  of  all  should  have  no  motion, 
when  she  engenders  and  brings  forth  all  things  ? 

For  'tis  impossible  that  without  motion  one 
who  doth  engender,  should  do  so. 

That  thou  shouldst  ask  if  the  fourth  part l  is 
not  inert,  is  most  ridiculous ;  for  that  the  body 
which  doth  have  no  motion,  gives  sign  of  nothing 
but  inertia. 

18.  Know,  therefore,  generally,  my  son,  that 
all  that  is  in  Cosmos  is  being  moved  for  decrease 
or  for  increase. 

Now  that  which  is  kept  moving,  also  lives ; 
but  there  is  no  necessity  that  that  which  lives, 
should  be  all  same. 

1  Sc.  element. 
VOL.  II.  14 


210  THRICE-GREATEST   HERMES 

For  being  simultaneous,  the  Cosmos,  as  a 
whole,  is  not  subject  to  change,  my  son,  but  all 
its  parts  are  subject  unto  it ;  yet  naught  [of  it] 
is  subject  to  corruption,  or  destroyed. 

It  is  the  terms  employed  that  confuse  men. 
For  'tis  not  genesis  that  constituteth  life,  but  'tis 
sensation ;  it  is  not  change  that  constituteth 
death,  but  'tis  forgetfulness. 

Since,  then,  these  things  are  so,  they  are  im- 
mortal all, — Matter,  [and]  Life,  [and]  Spirit, 
Mind  [and]  Soul,  of  which  whatever  liveth,  is 
composed. 

19.  Whatever   then  doth  live,  oweth  its  im- 
mortality unto  the  Mind,  and  most  of  all  doth 
man,  he  who  is  both  recipient  of  God,  and  co- 
essential  with  Him. 

For  with  this  life  alone  doth  God  consort ;  by 
visions  in  the  night,  by  tokens  in  the  day,  and 
by  all  things  doth  He  foretell  the  future  unto 
him, — by  birds,  by  inward  parts,  by  wind, 
by  tree. 

Wherefore  doth  man  lay  claim  to  know  things 
past,  things  present  and  to  come. 

20.  Observe  this,  too,  my  son ;  that  each  one 
of  the  other  lives  inhabiteth  one  portion  of  the 
Cosmos, — aquatic  creatures  water,  terrene  earth, 
and  aery  creatures  air ;  while  man  doth  use  all 
these, — earth,  water,  air,   [and]   fire  ;    he   seeth 
heaven,  too,  and  doth  contact  it  with  [his]  sense. 


ABOUT  THE  COMMON  MIND        211 

But  God  surroundeth  all,  and  permeateth  all,1 
for  He  is  energy  and  power ;  and  it  is  nothing 
difficult,  my  son,  to  conceive  God. 

21.  But  if  thou  wouldst  Him  also  contemplate, 
behold  the  ordering  of  the  Cosmos,  and  [see]  the 
orderly  behaviour  of  its  ordering ;  behold  thou 
the  Necessity  of  things  made  manifest,  and  [see] 
the   Providence   of    things   become   and   things 
becoming  ;  behold  how  Matter  is  all-full  of  Life  ; 
[behold]  this  so  great  God  in  movement,  with  all 
the  good  and  noble  [ones] — gods,  daimones  and 
men ! 

Tat.  But  these  are  purely  energies,  0  father 
mine ! 

Her.  If,  then,  they're  purely  energies,  my 
son, — by  whom,  then,  are  they  energized  except 
by  God  ? 

Or  art  thou  ignorant,  that  just  as  Heaven, 
Earth,  Water,  Air,  are  parts  of  Cosmos,  in 
just  the  selfsame  way  God's  parts  are  Life 
and  Immortality,  [and]  Energy,  and  Spirit,  and 
Necessity,  and  Providence,  and  Nature,  Soul, 
and  Mind,  and  the  Duration2  of  all  these  that 
is  called  Good  ? 

And  there  is  naught  of  things  that  have  be- 
come, or  are  becoming,  in  which  God  is  not. 

22.  Tat.  Is  He  in  Matter,  father,  then  ? 
Her.  Matter,  my  son,  is  separate  from  God, 

1  Gf.  §  14  above.  2  Sc.  Mon. 


212  THRICE-GREATEST    HERMES 

in  order  that  thou  may'st  attribute  unto  it 
the  quality  of  space.  But  what  thing  else  than 
mass1  think'st  thou  it  is,  if  it's  not  energized? 
Whereas  if  it  be  energized,  by  whom  is  it  made 
so  ?  For  energies,  we  said,  are  parts  of  God. 

By  whom  are,  then,  all  lives  enlivened  ?  By 
whom  are  things  immortal  made  immortal  ?  By 
whom  changed  things  made  changeable  ? 

And  whether  thou  dost  speak  of  Matter,  or  of 
Body,  or  of  Essence,  know  that  these  too  are 
energies  of  God  ;  and  that  materiality  is  Matter's 
energy,  that  corporality  is  Bodies'  energy,  and 
that  essentiality  doth  constitute  the  energy  of 
Essence  ;  and  this  is  God — the  All. 

23.  And  in  the  All  is  naught  that  is  not  God. 
Wherefore  nor  size,  nor  space,  nor  quality,  nor 
form,  nor  time,  surroundeth  God ;  for  He  is  All, 
and  All  surroundeth  all,  and  permeateth  all. 

Unto  this  Reason  (Logos),  son,  thy  adoration 
and  thy  worship  pay.  There  is  one  way  alone 
to  worship  God ;  [it  is]  not  to  be  bad.2 

1  Probably  in  the  sense  of  "quantity." 

2  Lactantius,  D.  I.,  vi.  25,  translates  the  last  two  sentences  into 
Latin,  with  the  strange  remark  that  Hermes  so  spake  in  treating 
"About  Justice."     See  the  following  Commentary  on  §  6,  and 
Ex.  xi. 


ABOUT  THE  COMMON  MIND        213 

COMMENTAKY 

THE  SAYINGS  OF  THE  GOOD  DAIMON 

This  Sermon  has  as  its  subject  the  Common  or  General 
Mind — Great  Mind,  Good  Mind,  Good  Daimon.  For 
Mind,  as  we  are  told  (§  2),  is  the  Benefactor  of  men 
(evepyerns  avOpwTrcw) ;  He  is  the  Good  Shepherd,  the 
Good  Husbandman,  the  Good  Physician,  as  He  is  called 
in  different  tractates. 

From  a  critical  standpoint,  the  point  of  greatest 
interest  is  that  our  Hermes  in  no  less  than  three 
places  (§§  1,  8,  13)  quotes  certain  Sayings  of  the 
Good  Daimon. 

Now  the  first  of  these  quotations  (§  1) — "  Gods  are 
immortal  men,  and  men  are  mortal  Gods " — is  one  of 
the  most  cited  Sayings  of  Heracleitus.1  Hermes,  how- 
ever, does  not  mean  to  say  that  Heracleitus  was 
Agothodaimon,  but  that  Heracleitus  was  the  mouth- 
piece of  the  Good  Mind  when  he  uttered  this  "  word  " 
(logos). 

Nor  was  this  the  opinion  of  Hermes  only ;  it  was 
the  belief  apparently  of  Heracleitus  himself  when  he 
declared : 

"  Not  because  you  hear  me  say  so,  but  because  you 
hear  the  Eeason  (Logos)  so  declare,  is  it  wise  to  confess 
that  All  are  One."2 

At  any  rate  the  term  Logos,  as  used  by  Heracleitus, 
in  connection  with  such  a  declaration,  is  taken  by 
Hippolytus3  to  mean  the  All-pervading  Eeason,  and 
not  the  normal  reason  of  man. 

What,  then,  is  our  surprise  to  find  the  second  of 

1  Diels,  62  ;  Bywater,  67  ;  Fairbanks,  67  (p.  40),  which  see  for 
references  to  ancient  authors  who  quote  it. 

2  Diels,  50 ;  Bywater,  1  ;  Fairbanks,  1  (p.  24). 

3  PMlos.,  ix.  9. 


214  THRICE-GREATEST   HERMES 

Hermes'  quotations  of  a  Saying  of  the  Good  Daimon 
qualified  by  the  words  (§  8)  :  "  And  had  He  set  it  down 
in  written  words  "  or  "  in  writing,"  when  that  quotation 
begins  with  the  words  :  "  All  are  One " 1 — the  root- 
formula  of  Heracleitus. 

Such  Sayings  of  Heracleitus  must  have  been  the 
common  property  of  all  the  philosophers  of  the  time  and 
of  their  pupils.  But  the  quotation  of  Hermes  does  not 
end  with  the  formula  of  Heracleitus ;  it  continues,  how 
far  exactly  it  is  difficult  to  determine.  Eeitzenstein 
(p.  127)  would  apparently  make  it  end  with  the  word 
"  ^Eon, "  but  I  am  inclined  to  think  it  goes  to  the  end 
of  §  8.  In  either  case  it  includes  the  term  "  ^Eon." 

If,  now,  we  turn  to  the  third  quotation  from  the 
Sayings  of  the  Good  Daimon  (§  13),  we  are  at  once 
struck  with  its  remarkable  resemblance  to  the  form  of 
teaching  in  C.  H.}  xi.  (xii.)  4.  Though  there  is  no 
precise  verbal  agreement,  there  is  a  striking  identity  of 
style  of  formula. 

In  our  treatise,  however,  the  Saying  is  used  in 
authoritative  illustration  of  the  meaning  of  the  Eeason 
(Logos),  whereas  in  the  "  Mind  to  Hermes," — that  is,  in 
the  Sermon  of  the  Good  Daimon  Himself  to  Hermes — 
Eeason  is  omitted,  Mind  and  Eeason  being  there  tran- 
scended by  ^Eon  and  Mind. 

Moreover,  the  whole  style  of  what  follows  this  quota- 
tion in  our  treatise  is  exactly  the  same  as  the  style  of 
instruction  in  C.  H.,  xi.  (xii.) — short  categorical 
formulae;  and,  further,  the  previous  quotation  (§  8) 
contains  the  key-word  ^Eon,  which  characterizes  the 
teaching  of  the  "  Mind  to  Hermes." 

I  therefore  conclude  that  our  Hermes  is  using  a  more 

1  Cf.  C.  H.,  x.  (xi.)  25,  and  xvi.  ("Definitions  of  Asclepius")  3  ; 
for  references  to  the  Magical  and  Alchemical  literature,  see  R. 
39, 1  ;  106,  5  ;  127,  3. 


ABOUT   THE  COMMON   MIND  215 

intimate  instruction,  known  only  to  the  Hermes-grade, 
and  not  published*  for  the  Tat-degree;  and  that  this 
is  the  meaning  of  his  saying  that  it  has  not  been 
written  down.  He  means  simply  that  it  has  not 
yet  been  allowed  to  be  published  for  those  in  the 
Tat-stage. 

There  were,  then,  other  treatises  now  lost  of  the  same 
type  as  that  of  the  "  Mind  to  Hermes  " ;  in  them  there 
were  quotations  from  the  Sayings  of  Heracleitus ;  the 
"  Obscure  Philosopher  "  being  regarded  as  one  who  had 
come  into  direct  contact  with  the  Logos  or  Mind,  and 
as  one,  therefore,  who  spoke  with  the  authority  of  direct 
revelation. 

HERMES  AND  BASILIDES 

The  next  point  of  critical  interest  is  the  sentence 
in  §7: 

"  I  meant  not  that,  but  that  the  Mind-led  man,  my 
son,  though  not  a  fornicator,  will  suffer  just  as  though 
he  had  committed  fornication,  and  though  he  be  no 
murderer,  as  though  he  had  committed  murder." 

If  we  now  turn  to  the  quotation  which  Clement  of 
Alexandria l  gives  us  from  Book  XXIII.  of  the  Exegetica, 
of  Basilides,  we  read  : 

"  For  just  as  the  babe,  who,  although  it  hath  done  no 
wrong  previously,  or  actively  committed  any  sin,  yet 
hath  the  capacity  of  sin  in  it, — whenever  it  is  sub- 
jected to  suffering,  is  advantaged  and  reaps  many 
benefits,  which  otherwise  are  difficult  to  gain ;  in  just 
the  selfsame  way  is  it,  that  although  a  perfect  man 
may  not  have  sinned  in  act,  and  yet  doth  suffer  pains, 
he  suffereth  them  in  just  the  selfsame  fashion  as  a 
babe;  having  within  himself  the  tendency  to  sin,  but 
refusing  to  embrace  the  opportunity  to  sin,  he  doth  not 

.,  IV.  xii.,  §  82  (P.  600 ;  S.  217)  :  Dindorf.,  ii.  363. 


216  THRICE-GREATEST   HERMES 

sin.     So  that  even  for  such  a  man  as  this  we  ought  not 
to  suppose  the  incapacity  for  sin. 

"  For  just  as  it  is  the  will  to  commit  fornication  that 
constitutes  the  fornicator,  even  though  he  does  not 
find  the  opportunity  of  actually  committing  fornica- 
tion, and  the  will  to  commit  murder  that  constitutes 
the  murderer,  although  he  may  not  be  actually  able  to 
effect  his  purpose ;  so  also  in  the  case  of  the  '  sinless ' 
man  I  mean,  if  I  see  him  suffering,  even  if  he  has 
actually  done  no  sin,  I  shall  say  he  is  evil  by  his 
will  to  sin.  For  I  will  say  anything  rather  than  that 
Providence  is  evil."  1 

Providence,  as  in  our  treatise,  is  here  the  instrument 
of  the  Good  (§  14),  of  the  Will  of  God ;  it  is  the  will  of 
man  that  is  the  source  of  evil,  as  we  learn  from  C.  H., 
iv.  (v.)  8  :  "  For  'tis  not  God,  'tis  we  who  are  the  cause 
of  evil  things,  preferring  them  to  good." 

In  our  treatise,  then,  the  very  same  problem  is 
treated  as  in  the  Exegetica  of  Basilides.  Hermes 
speaks  of  the  "  Mind-led  man,"  the  "  man  who  has  the 
Logos  in  him  " ;  Basilides  speaks  of  the  "  perfect  man." 
So  also  in  C.  H.,  iv.  (v.)  4,  the  "perfect  man"  is  he 
who  has  "  received  the  Mind." 

The  ideas  of  Hermes  and  of  Basilides  are  practically 
identical ;  the  words  of  both  are  strikingly  similar 
when  they  cite  fornication  and  murder  as  typical 
sins,  and  these  and  no  others. 

Compare  again  with  this  idea  of  the  babe  in  Basilides 
the  words  of  Hermes  in  G.  H.,  x.  >(xi.)  15 : 

<{  Behold  an  infant's  soul,  my  son,  that  is  not  yet  cut 
off,  because  its  body  is  still  small  and  not  as  yet  come 
unto  its  full  bulk.  ...  A  thing  of  beauty  altogether 
is  such  a  soul  to  see,  not  yet  befouled  with  body's 
passions,  still  all  but  hanging  from  the  Cosmic  Soul." 

1  See  F.  F.  F.,  274,  275. 


ABOUT  THE  COMMON  MIND        217 

And  with  this  compare  what  Hippolytus l  tells  us  of 
Valentinus : 

"  Valentinus  says  that  he  once  saw  a  babe  that  had 
only  just  been  born,  and  that  he  proceeded  to  question 
it  to  find  out  who  it  was.  And  the  babe  replied  and 
said  it  was  the  Logos." 

And  also  the  Psalm  of  Valentinus  quoted  by  the 
same  heresiologist 2 : 

All  things  depending  from  Spirit  I  see  ; 

All  things  supported  by  Spirit  I  view  ; 

Flesh  from  Soul  depending  ; 

Soul  by  Air  supported  ; 

Air  from  ^Ether  hanging  ; 

Fruits  borne  of  the  Deep  ; 

Babe  borne  of  the  Womb. 

Here,  then,  as  in  other  instances,  we  have  intimate 
points  of  contact  between  the  Hermetic  and  Christian 
Gnosis.  Is  there,  however,  any  question  of  direct 
plagiarism  ?  I  think  not ;  but  that  the  Christian 
doctors  and  the  Hermetic  philosophers  were  both  in 
contact  with  the  same  body  of  inner  teaching. 

4.  With  the  action  of  the  Mind  on  the  soul  in 
incarnation  (§  4)  compare  C.  JET.,  x.  (XL),  18,  19,  where 
the  office  of  the  Mind  in  respect  to  the  soul  out  of 
incarnation  is  graphically  described. 

THE  SERMONS  ON  FATE 

6.  In  §  6  Hermes  tells  us  that  he  has  already  spoken 
about  Fate  in  others  of  his  Sermons;  while  in  §§14 
and  21  he  three  times  refers  to  Necessity  and  Providence. 

In  this  connection  it  is  to  be  noticed  that  Lactantius 
(D.  /.,  vi.  25),  in  quoting  the  last  two  sentences  of  our 

1  Philos.,  vi.  42  (D.  and  S.,  302)  ;  F.  F.  F.,  p.  306. 

2  Philos.,  vi.  37  (D.  and  S.,  290)  ;  see  emended  text  in  Hilgenfeld 
(A.),    Die  Ketzergeschichte  des    Urchristenthums   (Leipzig,    1884), 
p.  304  ;  F.  F.  F.,  p.  307. 


218  THRICE-GREATEST   HERMES 

treatise,  says  that  he  takes  them  from  a  Sermon  by 
Hermes  "  On  Justice." 

Now,  Stobseus  has  preserved  for  us  an  Extract  (xi.) 
from  a  Sermon  dealing  with  Justice,  Providence, 
Necessity  and  Fate;  also  an  Extract  (x.)  from  a 
Sermon  of  Hermes  to  Tat  dealing  with  Fate,  and 
ending  with  the  words :  "  Such  is  the  Sermon  on  the 
rule  of  Providence,  Necessity  and  Fate."  We  have 
also  an  Extract  (xiii.)  "  Of  Hermes  from  the  Books  to 
Ammon,"  entitled  "  Of  the  General  Economy,"  which 
deals  with  Providence,  Necessity  and  Fate. 

There  were,  then,  according  to  Hermes,  already 
existing  not  one  but  several  Sermons  on  Fate,  and,  as 
we  learn  from  Stobseus,  not  only  in  the  Tat-literature 
but  also  in  the  Ammon-literature.  It  seems,  then, 
probable  that  in  the  collection  used  by  Lactantius  the 
Tat-Sermons  on  Fate  immediately  preceded  our  treatise, 
and  that  one  of  these  sermons  (the  one  immediately 
preceding  our  treatise,  presumably)  was  entitled  "On 
Justice,"  thus  confirming  the  title  I  have  prefixed  to  the 
Stobseus  Extract  xi. 

MATERIALITY  AND  CORPORALITY  ARE  ENERGIES  OF  GOD 

22.  Finally,  in  §  22  it  has  to  be  noticed  that  with  the 
express  teaching  that  Matter  and  Body  are  so  far  from 
being  evil  that  they  are  Energies  of  God — His  materi- 
ality and  corporality — the  charge  of  dualism  against 
our  philosophers  must  for  ever  be  abandoned.  Their 
doctrine  was  that  of  pan-monism ;  and,  therefore, 
wherever  we  find  signs  of  dualism,  or  even  distinct 
statements  of  an  indubitably  dualistic  nature,  we  must 
understand  that  this  was  a  formal  convenience  for  the 
better  insistence  upon  the  need  of  strenuous  exertion 
to  solve  the  mystery  of  the  opposites,  rather  than  an 
essential  doctrine  of  the  Gnosis. 


COEPUS  HEEMETICUM  XIII.  (XIV.) 

THE  SECRET  SEKMON  ON  THE 
MOUNTAIN 

CONCERNING  REBIRTH  AND  THE  PROMISE 
OF  SILENCE 

OF  THRICE-GREATEST  HERMES  UNTO  TAT 
HIS  SON 

(Text:  R.  339-348;  P.  114-128;  Pat.  15b-17b.) 

1.  Tat.  [Now]  in  the  General  Sermons,1  father, 
thou  didst  speak  in  riddles  most  unclear,  con- 
versing on  Divinity  ;  and  when  thou  saidst  no 
man  could  e'er  be  saved  before  Rebirth,2  thy 
meaning  thou  didst  hide. 

Further,  when  I  became  thy  Suppliant,  in 
Wending  up  the  Mount,3  after  thou  hadst  con- 
versed with  me,  and  when  I  longed  to  learn  the 
Sermon  (Logos)  on  Rebirth  (for  this  beyond  all 

1  ev  TO?S  yevtKo'is.     Of.  C.  H.,  x.  (xi.)  1  and  7. 


3  Reading  e*l  rrjs  rov  Zpovs  fAfrapdffews  with  P.,  and  not  Kara- 

with  R.     Gf.  G.  H.,  x.  (xi.)  15  ;  Jamb.,  D.  M.,  viii.  6. 

219 


220  THRICE-GREATEST   HERMES 

other  things  is  just  the  thing  I  know  not),  thou 
saidst,  that  thou  wouldst  give  it  me — "  when 
thou  shalt  have  become  a  stranger  to  the  world." 1 

Wherefore  I  got  me  ready  and  made  the 
thought  in  me  a  stranger 2  to  the  world-illusion. 

And  now  do  thou  fill  up  the  things  that  fall 
short 3  in  me  with  what  thou  saidst  would  give 
me  the  tradition 4  of  Eebirth,  setting  it  forth  in 
speech  or  in  the  secret  way. 

I  know  not,  0  Thrice-greatest  one,  from  out 
what  matter  and  what  womb  Man  comes  to 
birth,  or  of  what  seed.6 

2.  Hermes.  Wisdom  that  understands6  in 
silence 7  [such  is  the  matter  and  the  womb  from 
out  which  Man  is  born],  and  the  True  Good  the 
seed. 

Tat.  Who  is  the  sower,  father  ?  For  I  am 
altogether  at  a  loss. 

Her.  It  is  the  Will  of  God,  my  son. 

Tat.  And  of  what  kind  is  he  that  is  begotten, 
father  ?  For  I  have  no  share  of  that  essence  in 


1    KOfffMOV. 

2  Reading  dirrjAAoTpiWa  with  the  majority  of  the  editors,  and 

not  the  air-fiSpiora  of  R. 

3  T&  vffTfp-fimara  avairK-hpaiffov. 

4  wopaSovj/cu,  the  word  used  for  the  giving  of  this  lesson  or  inner 
instruction  is  the  technical  term  for  the  "handing  on"  of  a 
doctrine  or  being  initiated  into  it. 

5  R.'s  reading  would  make  this  refer  to  Hermes  :  "  I  know  not 
from  what  womb  thou  com'st  to  birth."    But  the  whole  instruc- 
tion seems  to  favour  the  usually  accepted  reading. 

voepd.  7  Cf.  G.  H.t  X.  (XI.)  6. 


THE   SECRET    SERMON   ON   THE   MOUNTAIN      221 

me,  which  doth  transcend  the  senses.1  The  one 
that  is  begot  will  be  another  one  from  God, 
God's  Son  ? 

Her.  All  in  all,  out  of  all  powers  composed. 

Tat.  Thou  tellest  me  a  riddle,  father,  and  dost 
not  speak  as  father  unto  son. 

Her.  This  Kace,2  my  son,  is  never  taught; 
but  when  He  willeth  it,  its  memory  is  restored 
by  God. 

3.  Tat.  Thou  sayest  things  impossible,  0 
father,  things  that  are  forced.  Hence  answers 
would  I  have  direct  unto  these  things.  Am  I 
a  son  strange  to  my  father's  race  ? 

Keep  it  not,  father,  back  from  me.  I  am  a 
true-born  son ;  explain  to  me  the  manner  of 
Kebirth. 

Her.  What  may  I  say,  my  son  ?  I  can  but 
tell  thee  this.  Whene'er  I  see  within  myself  the 
Simple  Vision3  brought  to  birth  out  of  God's 
mercy,4  I  have  passed  through  myself  into  a 
Body  that  can  never  die.  And  now  I  am  not 
what  I  was  before ;  but  I  am  born  in  Mind. 

The  way  to  do  this  is  not  taught,  and  it  can- 
not be  seen  by  the  compounded5  element  by 
means  of  which  thou  seest. 

1  rrjs  ev  e/iol  ovfftas  TTJS  I/OIJTTJS.  2   Cf.  Ex.  i.  3. 

3  &ir\affTov,  that  is  to  say,  not  made  up,  non-fictitious,  not  com- 
pounded ;  that  is,  simple — the  opposite  of  compounded. 

4  Cf.  below,  §  7  :  the  man  "  who  hath  been  taken  pity  on  by 
God "  ;  and  also  §  10. 


222  THRICE-GREATEST   HERMES 

Yea,  I  have  had  my  former  composed  form 
dismembered  for  me.  I  am  no  longer  touched, 
yet  have  I  touch ;  I  have  dimension  too ;  and 
[yet]  am  I  a  stranger  to  them  now. 

Thou  seest  me  with  eyes,  my  son ;  but  what 
I  am  thou  dost  not  understand  [even]  with 
fullest  strain  of  body  and  of  sight. 

4.  Tat.  Into  fierce  frenzy  and  mind-fury  hast 
thou  plunged  me,  father,  for  now  no  longer  do 

vl  see  myself. 

Her.  I  would,  my  son,  that  thou  hadst  e'en 
passed  right  through  thyself,  as  they  who  dream 
in  sleep  yet  sleepless. 

Tat.  Tell  me  this  too !  Who  is  the  author 1 
of  Kebirth  ? 

Her.  The  Son  of  God,  the  One  Man,  by 
God's  Will. 

5.  Tat.  Now  hast  thou  brought  me,  father, 
unto  pure  stupefaction. 

Arrested  from  the  senses  which  I  had  before, 
.  .  .  . 2 ;  for  [now]  I  see  thy  Greatness  identical 
with  thy  distinctive  form. 

Her.  Even  in  this  thou  art  untrue3;  the 
mortal  form  doth  change  with  every  day.  'Tis 
turned  by  time  to  growth  and  waning,  as  being 
an  untrue  thing.4 

6.  Tat.  What  then  is  true,  Thrice-greatest  One  ? 

2  A  lacuna  unfortunately  follows. 


THE   SECRET   SERMON   ON   THE   MOUNTAIN      223 

Her.  That  which  is  never  troubled,  son, 
which  cannot  be  defined ;  that  which  no  colour 
hath,  nor  any  figure,  which  is  not  turned,  which 
hath  no  garment,  which  giveth  light ;  that  which 
is  comprehensible  unto  itself  [alone],  which  doth 
not  suffer  change ;  that  which  no  body  can 
contain.1 

Tat.  In  very  truth  I  lose  my  reason,  father. 
Just  when  I  thought  to  be  made  wise  by  thee,  I 
find  the  senses  of  this  mind  of  mine  blocked  up. 

Her.  Thus  is  it,  son  :  That  which  is  upward 
borne  like  fire,  yet  is  borne  down  like  earth, 
that  which  is  moist  like  water,  yet  blows  like 
air,2  how  shalt  thou  this  perceive  with  sense — 
the  that  which  is  not  solid  nor  yet  moist,  which 
naught  can  bind  or  loose,  of  which  in  power 
and  energy  alone  can  man  have  any  notion, — 
and  even  then  it  wants  a  man  who  can 3  perceive 
the  Way  of  Birth  in  God  *? 

7.   Tat.  I  am  incapable  of  this,  0  father,  then  ? 

Her.  Nay,  God  forbid,  my  son !  Withdraw 
into  thyself,  and  it  will  come ;  will,  and  it 
comes  to  pass ;  throw  out  of  work  the  body's 
senses,  and  thy  Divinity  shall  come  to  birth ; 
purge  from  thyself  the  brutish  torments — things 
of  matter. 

Tat.  I  have  tormentors  then  in  me,  0  father  ? 

1  Of.  P.  S.  A.,  xxxi..3.  2  Of.  0.  H.,  iv.  (v.)  1. 

3  Retaining  the  reading 

4  TV  e'v  0e$  yeveffiv—cf.  §  10. 


224  THRICE-GREATEST   HERMES 

Her.  Ay,  no  few,  my  son;  nay,  fearful  ones 
and  manifold. 

Tat.  I  do  not  know  them,  father. 

Her.  Torment  the  first  is  this  Not-knowing,1 
son;  the  second  one  is  Grief;  the  third,  In- 
temperance ;  the  fourth,  Concupiscence  ;  the 
fifth,  Unrighteousness  ;  the  sixth  is  Avarice  ; 
the  seventh,  Error  2  ;  the  eighth  is  Envy  ;  the 
ninth,  Guile  3  ;  the  tenth  is  Anger  ;  eleventh, 
Eashness  ;  the  twelfth  is  Malice. 

These  are  in  number  twelve  ;  but  under  them 
are  many  more,  my  son  ;  and  creeping  through 
the  prison  of  the  body  4  they  force  the  man  that's 
placed  within  5  to  suffer  in  his  senses.  But  they 
depart  (although  not  all  at  once)  from  him  who 
hath  been  taken  pity  on  by  God6;  and  this  it 
is  which  constitutes  the  manner  of  Rebirth.  And 
.  .  .  .  7  the  Reason  (Logos). 

8.  And  now,  my  son,  be  still  and  solemn 
silence  keep  !  Thus  shall  the  mercy  that  flows 
on  us  from  God  not  cease. 

Henceforth  rejoice,  0  son,  for  by  the  Powers 
of  God  thou  art  being  purified  for  the  articula- 
tion of  the  Reason  (Logos). 


1  Hyvoia.  z  foraTTj.  3  $6\os. 

4  Gf.  C.H.,  XVi.  15.  6 

6  Cf.  above,  §  3  :  "  brought  to  birth  out  of  God's  mercy  "  ;  and 
also  §  10. 

7  A  lacuna  in  the  text. 


THE    SECRET    SERMON    ON   THE    MOUNTAIN      225 

Gnosis  of  God  hath  come  to  us,  and  when 
this  comes,  my  son,  Not-knowing  is  cast  out. 

Gnosis  of  Joy  hath  come  to  us,  and  on  its 
coming,  son,  Sorrow  will  flee  away  to  them 
who  give  it  room.  The  Power  that  follows  Joy 
do  I  invoke,  thy  Self-control.  0  Power  most 
sweet  !  Let  us  most  gladly  bid  it  welcome, 
son  !  How  with  its  coming  doth  it  chase 
Intemperance  away  ! 

9.  Now  fourth,  on  Continence  I  call,  the  Power 
against  Desire. 

.  .  .  .  *  This  step,  my  son,  is  Righteousness' 
firm  seat.  For  without  judgment2  see  how 
she  hath  chased  Unrighteousness  away.  We 
are  made  righteous,  son,  by  the  departure  of 
Unrighteousness. 

Power  sixth  I  call  to  us,  —  that  against  Avarice, 
Sharing-  with-all.  8 

And  now  that  Avarice  is  gone,  I  call  on  Truth. 
And  Error  flees,  and  Truth  is  with  us. 

See  how  [the  measure  of]  the  Good  is  full,  my 

1  Something  has  here  evidently  fallen  out  in  the  text. 

2  x»P^  Kpifffcas,       If,   however,   we  must    read   Kriffews  with 
the  majority  of  the  editors,   I  cannot  understand  the  various 
translations.     Everard  gives  "  without  labour  "  ;  Parthey,  "  nulla 
contentione"  ;    Menard,    "sans    combat";    Chambers,    "without 
contention."    I  would,  therefore,  render  it  :  "  See  how  she  hath 
chased  out  Unrighteousness  without  a  home  "  ;  for  it  seems  to 
me  that  in  x<ap\s  /crierews  we  have  the  exact  antithesis  of  e'Spaer/xo. 
Righteousness  has  here  her  firm  seat  or  abode,  and  Unrighteous- 
ness is  thus  naturally  without  a  home. 


VOL.  II.  15 


226  THRICE-GREATEST    HERMES 

son,  upon  Truth's  coming.  For  Envy  hath  gone 
from  us  ;  and  unto  Truth  is  joined  the  Good  as 
well,  with  Life  and  Light. 

And  now  no  more  doth  any  torment  of  the 
Darkness  venture  nigh,  but  vanquished  [all] 
have  fled  with  whirring  wings. 

10.  Thou  knowest  [now],  my  son,  the  manner 
of  Rebirth.     And  when  the  Ten  is  come,  my  son, 
that  driveth  out  the  Twelve,  the  Birth  in  under- 
standing1 is  complete,  and  by  this  Birth  we  are 
made  into  Gods. 

Who  then  doth  by  His  mercy  gain  this  Birth 
in  God,  abandoning  the  body's  senses,  knows 
himself  [to  be  of  Light  and  Life 2]  and  that  he 
doth  consist  of  these,  and  [thus]  is  filled  with 
Bliss. 

11.  Tat.  By  God  made    steadfast,  father,  no 
longer  with  the  sight  my  eyes  afford  I  look  on 
things,  but  with  the  energy  the  Mind  doth  give 
me  through  the  Powers.3 

In  heaven  am  I,  in  earth,  in  water,  air  ;  I  am 
in  animals,  in  plants  ;  I'm  in  the  womb,  before 
the  womb,  after  the  womb  ;  I'm  everywhere  ! 

But  further  tell  me  this :  How  are  the 
torments  of  the  Darkness,  when  they  are  twelve 
in  number,  driven  out  by  the  ten  Powers  ? 
What  is  the  way  of  it,  Thrice-greatest  one  ? 

1  roep&  yeveffts,  lit.,  intellectual  birth. 

2  Completed  from  C.  H.,  i.  22. 

3  ry  5to  Swdfiewv  vo-rjriKy 


THE   SECRET   SERMON    ON   THE   MOUNTAIN      227 

12.  Her.  This  dwelling-place1  through  which 
we  have  just  passed,  my  son,  is  constituted  from 
the  circle  of  the   types-of-life,  this  being  com- 
posed of  elements,  twelve  in  number,  but  of  one 
nature,  an  omniform  2  idea.     For  man's  delusion 
there  are  disunions 3  in  them,  son,  while  in  their 
action   they  are   one.     Not   only  can  we  never 
part   Rashness  from   Wrath ;   they  cannot  even 
be  distinguished. 

According  to  right  reason  (logos),  then,  they4 
naturally  withdraw  once  and  for  all,  in  as  much 
as  they  are  chased  out  by  no  less  than  ten 
powers,  that  is,  the  Ten. 

For,  son,  the  Ten  is  that  which  giveth  birth 
to  souls.  And  Life  and  Light  are  unified  there, 
where  the  One  hath  being  from  the  Spirit. 
According  then  to  reason  (logos)  the  One  contains 
the  Ten,  the  Ten  the  One. 

13.  Tat.  Father,  I  see  the  All,  I  see  myself  in 
Mind. 

Her.  This  is,  my  son,  Rebirth — no  more  to 
look  on  things  from  body's  view-point  (a  thing 
three  ways  in  space  extended),5  .  .  .6  though  this 
Sermon  (Logos)  on  Rebirth,  on  which  I  did  not 

1  o-KTjj'os, — tent  or  tabernacle  of  the  human  soul.      Cf.  below, 
§15. 

2  Cf.  commentary  on  G".  H.,  xi.  (xii.)  1C. 

3  SiaCvyal — the  opposite  of  avfryiai. 

4  That  is,  the  Twelve. 

5  As  opposed  to  some  other  dimension,  presumably. 

6  Some  words  are  evidently  missing. 


228  THRICE-GREATEST    HERMES 

comment * ; — in  order  that  we  may  not  be 
calumniators  2  of  the  All  unto  the  multitude,  to 
whom  indeed  the  God  Himself  doth  will  we 
should  not. 

14.  Tat.  Tell  me,  0  father :  This  Body  which 
is  made   up  of  the  Powers,  is   it   at   any  time 
dissolved  ? 

Her.  Hush,  [son] !  Speak  not  of  things 
impossible,  else  wilt  thou  sin  and  thy  Mind's  eye 
be  quenched. 

The  natural  body  which  our  sense  perceives  is 
far  removed  from  this  essential  birth. 

The  first  must  be  dissolved,  the  last  can  never 
be ;  the  first  must  die,  the  last  death  cannot  touch. 

Dost  thou  not  know  thou  hast  been  born  a 
God,  Son  of  the  One,  even  as  I  myself  ? 

15.  Tat.  I  would,  0  father,  hear  the  Praise- 
giving  with  hymn  which  thou  didst  say  thou 
heardest  then  when  thou  wert  at  the  Eight  [the 
Ogdoad]  of  Powers. 

Her.  Just  as  the  Shepherd  did  foretell  [I 
should],  my  son,  [when  I  came  to]  the  Eight.3 

Well  dost  thou  haste  to  "  strike  thy  tent," 4  for 
thou  hast  been  made  pure. 

1  See  §  i. 

2  5ia£oA.ot,  compare  §  22.     The  lacuna  probably  contained  some 
reference  to  keeping  silence. 

3  Cf.  G.  H.,  i.  26. 

4  \v<rai  rb  ffKrivos.     Gf.  above,  §  12.     The  meaning  is  generally 
to  free  oneself  from  the  trammels  of  the  body.     Compare  the 
Pythian  Oracle  concerning  Plotinus :  "  But  now  since  thou  hast 


THE   SECRET   SERMON   ON    THE   MOUNTAIN      229 

The  Shepherd,  Mind  of  all  masterhood,1  hath 
not  passed  on  to  me  more  than  hath  been  writ 
down,  for  full  well  did  He  know  that  I  should  of 
myself  be  able  to  learn  all,  and  hear  what  I 
should  wish,  and  see  all  things. 

He  left  to  me  the  making  of  fair  things 2 ; 
wherefore  the  Powers  within  me,  e'en  as  they 
are  in  all,3  break  into  song. 

16.  Tat.  Father,  I  wish  to  hear;  I  long  to 
know  these  things. 

Her.  Be  still,  my  son ;  hear  the  Praise-giving 
now  that  keeps  [the  soul]  in  tune,  Hymn  of 
Re-birth — a  hymn  I  would  not  have  thought 
fit  so  readily  to  tell,  had'st  thou  not  reached 
the  end  of  all. 

Wherefore  this  is  not  taught,  but  is  kept  hid 
in  silence. 

Thus  then,  my  son,  stand  in  a  place  uncovered 
to  the  sky,  facing  the  southern  wind,4  about  the 
sinking  of  the  setting  sun,  and  make  thy  worship ; 
so  in  like  manner  too  when  he  doth  rise,  with 
face  to  the  east  wind. 

Now,  son,  be  still ! 

struck  thy  tent  and  left  the  tomb  of  thy  daimonic  soul"  (y\>v  5' 
#T6  5$;  (T/cfjf oy  nfi>  e\u(Too,  (TTjjua  5'  f\€ityas  tyvxy5  Sai/Aoyfrjj).  Porphyry, 
Plotini  Vita,  xxii. ;  c/.  Ex.  vii.  3  ;  Ex.  iii.  1. 

1  Cf.  C.  H.,  i.  2. 

2  Sc.  psalms  and  praise-giving. 

3  Sc.  prophets. 

4  Also  used  of  the  south-west  quarter.     The  "  south  wind "  is 
thought  to  have  extended  from  SSE.  to  W. 


230  THRICE-GREATEST  HERMES 

THE  SECRET  HYMNODY 

17.  Let  every  nature  of  the  World  receive  the 
utterance  of  my  hymn  ! 

Open  thou  Earth !  Let  every  bolt  of  the 
Abyss  be  drawn  for  me.  Stir  not,  ye  Trees ! 

I  am  about  to  hymn  creation's  Lord,  both  All 
and  One. 

Ye  Heavens  open,  and  ye  Winds  stay  still ; 
[and]  let  God's  deathless  Sphere  receive  my 
word  (logos)  \ 

For  I  will  sing  the  praise  of  Him  who  founded 
all;  who  fixed  the  Earth,  and  hung  up  Heaven, 
and  gave  command  that  Ocean  should  afford 
sweet  water  [to  the  Earth],  to  both  those  parts 
that  are  inhabited  and  those  that  are  not,  for 
the  support  and  use  of  every  man  ;  who  made 
the  Fire  to  shine  for  gods  and  men  for  every  act. 

Let  us  together  all  give  praise  to  Him,  sublime 
above  the  Heavens,  of  every  nature  Lord  ! 

'Tis  He  who  is  the  Eye  of  Mind ;  may  He 
accept  the  praise  of  these  my  Powers ! 

18.  Ye  Powers  that  are  within  me,  hymn  the 
One  and  All ;  sing  with  my  Will,  Powers  all  that 
are  within  me ! 

0  blessed  Gnosis,  by  thee  illumined,  hymning 
through  thee  the  Light  that  mind  alone  can  see,1 
I  joy  in  Joy  of  Mind. 

1  rb  voifrbv  0«*. 


THE   SECRET    SERMON   ON    THE   MOUNTAIN      231 

Sing  with  me  praises  all  ye  Powers  ! 

Sing  praise,  my  Self  -  control ;  sing  thou 
through  me,  my  Eighteousness,  the  praises  of 
the  Righteous ;  sing  thou,  my  Sharing-all,  the 
praises  of  the  All ;  through  me  sing,  Truth, 
Truth's  praises  f 

Sing  thou,  0  Good,  the  Good !  0  Life  and 
Light,  from  us  to  you  our  praises  flow ! 

Father,  I  give  Thee  thanks,  to  Thee  Thou 
Energy  of  all  my  Powers ;  I  give  Thee  thanks, 
0  God,  Thou  Power  of  all  my  Energies  ! 

19.  Thy  Reason  (Logos)  sings  through  me  Thy 
praises.  Take  back  through  me  the  All  into 
[Thy]  Reason — [my]  reasonable  oblation l ! 

Thus  cry  the  Powers  in  me.  They  sing  Thy 
praise,  Thou  All ;  they  do  Thy  Will. 

From  Thee  Thy  Will2;  to  Thee  the  All. 
Receive  from  all  their  reasonable  oblation.  The 
All  that  is  in  us,  0  Life,  preserve ;  0  Light 
illumine  it ;  0  God  in-spirit  it.3 

It  is  Thy  Mind  that  plays  the  Shepherd4  to 
Thy  Word,5  0  Thou  Creator,  Bestower  of  the 
Spirit  [upon  all].6 

1  Cf.  below,  §  21. 

2  Cf.  P.  S.  A.,  Comment,  and  R.  39,  n.  1. 

3  The  Spirit  being  Light  and  Life. 

4  iroipaivfi,  acts  as  a  shepherd  or  feeds  ;  Poemandres  is  thus  the 
Shepherd  of  men  or  the  feeder  of  men,  He  who  gives  them  the 
heavenly  food. 

5  The  Word  or  Reason  or  true  Man  in  man. 

6  Trvtvij.a.To<j>6pe 


232  THRICE-GREATEST   HERMES 

20.  [For]   Thou   art   God;    Thy   Man1   thus 
cries  to  Thee  through  Fire,  through  Air,  through 
Earth,    through    Water,    [and]    through    Spirit, 
through  Thy  creatures. 

'Tis  from  Thy  Mon  I  have  found  Praise-giving  ; 
and  in  Thy  Will,2  the  object  of  my  search,  have 
I  found  rest. 

Tat.  By  thy  good  pleasure  3  have  I  seen  this 
Praise-giving  being  sung,4'  0  father  ;  I  have  set 
it  in  my  Cosmos  too. 

Her.  Say  in  the  Cosmos  that  thy  mind  alone 
can  see,  my  son. 

Tat.  Yea,  father,  in  the  Cosmos  that  the  mind 
alone  can  see  ;  for  I  have  been  made  able  by  thy 
Hymn,  and  by  thy  Praise-giving  my  mind  hath 
been  illumined.  Bat  further  I  myself  as  well 
would  from  my  natural  mind  send  praise-giving 
to  God. 

21.  Her.  But  not  unheedfully,  my  son. 

Tat.  Ay.  What  I  behold  in  mind,  that  do  I 
say. 

To  thee,  thou  Parent  of  my  Bringing  into 
Birth,  as  unto  God  I,  Tat,  send  reasonable  offer- 
ings. 6  0  God  and  Father,  thou  art  the  Lord, 
thou  art  the  Mind.  Keceive  from  me  oblations 


1  Cf.  G.  H.,  i.  32.  2  fiov\4i.  8 

4  Cf.,  for  instance,   The  Ascension  of  Isaiah,  i.  6  :   "  In  the 
twentieth  year  of  the  reign  of  Hezekiah,  Isaiah  had  seen  the 
words  of  this  prophecy."—  Charles'  Trans.  (London,  1900),  p.  5. 

5  Cf.  above,  §  18. 


THE   SECRET   SEEMON   ON   THE   MOUNTAIN      233 

reasonable  as  thou  would'st  wish ;  for  by  thy 
Will  all  things  have  been  perfected. 

Her.  Send  thou  oblation,  son,  acceptable  to 
God,  the  Sire  of  all ;  but  add,  my  son,  too, 
"  through  the  Word  "  (Logos). 

Tat.  I  give  thee,  father,  thanks  for  showing 
me  to  sing  such  hymns. 

22.  Her.  Happy  am  I,  my  son,  that  thou 
hast  brought  the  good  fruits  forth  of  Truth, 
products  that  cannot  die. 

And  now  that  thou  hast  learnt  this  lesson 
from  me,  make  promise  to  keep  silence1  on  thy 
virtue,  and  to  no  soul,  my  son,  make  known  the 
handing  on  to  thee  the  manner  of  Kebirth,  that 
we  may  not  be  thought  to  be  calumniators.2 

And  now  we  both  of  us  have  given  heed 
sufficiently,  both  I  the  speaker  and  the  hearer 
thou. 

In  Mind 3  hast  thou  become  a  Knower  of  thy- 
self and  of  our  [common]  Sire. 

1  Of.  P.  S.  A.,  xxxii.  4. 

2  Sid&oXoi,  slanderers,  calumniators  ;  compare  §  13 ;  also  Ex. 
i.  16. 

3  votpus. 


234  THRICE-GREATEST   HERMES 

COMMENTAKY 

CONCERNING  THE  TITLE 

"The  Secret  Sermon  on  the  Mountain"  is  the  main 
title  given  in  all  the  MSS.,  with  the  exception  of  A ; 
the  subsidiary  contents-title  is  evidently  derived  from 
the  same  edition  to  which  we  owe  the  other  contents- 
titles  preserved  in  our  Corpus.  Eeitzenstein  (p.  193), 
however,  thinks  that  the  main  title  has  arisen  by 
mistake.  What  the  mistake  is  he  does  not  tell  us; 
perhaps  he  means  that  in  our  Sermon  there  is  no 
mention  of  "  On  a  Mountain,"  but  rather,  as  in  §  1,  if 
we  accept  his  reading,  of  "  Down  a  Mountain."  But 
in  this  we  cannot  follow  him ;  for  the  whole  teaching 
is  precisely  "  On  the  Mount " — to  the  top  of  which 
Tat  has  now  come.  For  the  "  Mountain  "  was  symbolic 
of  stages  of  inner  development,  and  in  §  9  we  are  told 
precisely :  "  This  step  (the  fifth)  is  Kighteousness'  firm 
seat," — showing  that  the  Mountain  was  conceived  as  an 
ascent  or  stair  of  steps  as  is  so  often  seen  in  Egyptian 
frescoes. 

THE  TERM  APOCRYPHON 

Again,  with  regard  to  the  title,  the  term  "  Secret " 
(a7roKpv(po$ — apocryphal)  is  used  in  its  original  sense 
of  hidden  away,  meaning  esoteric  or  not  put  into  circu- 
lation, as  applied  to  a  logos  or  sermon,  or  a  collection 
of  logoi  or  sayings. 

A  logos  in  this  sense  had  very  much  the  same  meaning 
for  our  Ancients  as  the  Sanskrit  malici-vakyam  ("  great 
saying")  has  to-day  for  an  Indian  theosophist  who 
applies  the  term  to  the  great  mystical  utterances  of 
the  Upanishads  ;  such  as  :  "  That  art  thou  "  ( Tat  tvam 
asi),  etc. 

In    classical    antiquity   these   logoi    or    logia    were 


THE   SECRET   SERMON   ON   THE   MOUNTAIN      235 

regarded  as  words  of  wisdom,  and  were  the  most  sacred 
legacies  of  the  sages  to  humanity.  These  oracular 
utterances  were  frequently  collected  together,  and  even 
prior  to  the  days  of  syncretism  formed  the  most  sacred 
"  deposits  "  (SiaOrJKai)  of  various  nations ;  the  same 
term  being  subsequently  given  to  the  Christian  Bible. 

Thus  Herodotus  calls  Onomacritus,  the  first  collector 
of  the  archaic  Orphic  Hymns,  a  "  depository  of  oracles  " 
(SiaOeryv  x/owiwi/), — the  word  carrying  the  meaning  of 
"  one  who  arranges,"  corresponding  exactly  to  the  term 
Vyasa  in  Sanskrit,  the  supposed  "  author "  of  the 
Mahabharata. 

Such  collections  of  logoi  or  logia  were  then  generally 
called  "  deposits,"  the  word  also  sometimes  bearing  the 
meaning  of  "  testaments  "  as  containing  the  expression 
of  the  Divine  will  or  dispensation.  The  same  term  is 
used  by  Strabo  (x.  482)  of  the  Laws  of  Lycurgus ;  it 
was  also  applied  by  the  Orphics  and  Pythagoreans  to 
such  sacred  laws l ;  while  Ecclesiastical  writers  subse- 
quently used  it  in  reference  to  the  Canonical  Books. 2 

The  Orphics  and  Pythagoreans  also  called  these 
collections  "  sacred  utterances  "  (lepol  \6yoi) ',  and  even 
Clement  of  Alexandria  refers  to  such  a  saying  of 
Orpheus  as  "that  truly  sacred  utterance"  (TOP  ovrw 
lepov  \6yov). 

That  such  collections  were  kept  secret  is  not  sur- 
prising ;  indeed,  such  must  have  been  the  case  from 
time  immemorial.  But  even  on  the  ground  of  purely 
Greek  and  Eoman  history,  we  are  not  without  infor- 
mation of  collections  of  oracles  carefully  guarded  as  the 
secret  scriptures  or  bibles  of  nations. 

Cicero3  speaks  of  such  a  bible  of  the  Veii.  The 
Athenians,  in  the  time  of  the  Kings,  possessed  a  similar 

1  Grotius,  ap.  Jablonski,  ii.  397  ;  Lobeck,  Aglaoph.,  p.  714. 

2  Euseb.,  Chron. ,  99  A.  3  De  Div.t  i.  44. 


236  THRICE-GREATEST   HERMES 

bible  of  logia1;  and  Dinarchus2  tells  us  that  the 
safety  of  the  State  depended  on  this  secret  scripture 
(cnroppriTOV?  SiaOrJKai)- 

These  occult  sayings  (airoQevTa  eirrj)  are  further 
called  by  Suidas  (s.v.)  "withdrawn  volumes"  (/3iB\la 
avaKexwprjKOTa) — that  is  to  say,  books  withdrawn  from 
public  perusal,  or,  in  other  words,  apocryphal,  hidden  or 
secret  (aTroKpvQa). 

And  not  only  was  this  the  case  with  the  ancient 
writings  themselves,  but  also  with  the  commentaries 
upon  them,  and  by  degrees  with  everything  referring 
to  them,  until  finally  we  find  Themistius  the  rhetorician, 
in  the  fourth  century,  speaking  of  that  "mass  of 
Archaic  wisdom  not  open  to  the  public  or  in  general 
circulation,  but  scarce  and  occult."  3 

We  have,  therefore,  translated  the  term  by  "  secret " 
as  conveying  the  proper  meaning  of  the  epithet  in  the 
title,  and  not  by  "  apocryphal,"  a  word  that  nowadays 
connotes  the  judgment  of  a  theological  canon. 

THE  THREE  STAGES  OF  PROBATION 

1.  In  the  first  paragraph  Tat  definitely  refers  to 
three  Stages  of  Probation,  before  he  is  deemed  fit  to 
hear  the  Sermon  on  Eebirth. 

(i)  First  there  is  the  General  or  Preliminary  In- 
struction contained  in  a  collection  of  discourses  called 
the  General  Sermons  (TcviKol  Aoyot). 

(ii)  Next  is  the  Stage  where  Tat  becomes  the 
Suppliant  of  Hermes,  a  stage  characterized  by  Con- 
versation or  Dialogue  (SioXexOrjvai) ;  that  is  to  say, 
Tat  was  allowed  to  ask  questions.  This  is  further 

1  Herod.,  v.  90. 

2  Or.  c.  Demos.,  91,  20. 

3  Or.,  IV.  60  :    "  ffrtyos  fy>xa2«*  ffo<j>las,  ov  Koivijs  ouSe  cV  /ue'o>  KV\IV- 
Soi/fteVrjs  a\\k  fftraviov  Kal  airoderov." 


THE   SECRET   SERMON   ON   THE   MOUNTAIN      237 

symbolically  described  by  a  phrase,  enl  T??  TOV  opov$ 
juera/Sacrea)?,  which  is  difficult  to  translate,  but  which 
seems  to  mean  either  Passing  up,  or  Wending  up,  the 
Mountain,  or  Wending  over  the  Mountain.  That  is 
to  say,  that  Hermes  was  gradually  leading  Tat  to  the 
top  of  the  Mountain,  in  plain  words,  as  far  as  his 
normal  intellect  could  carry  him ;  the  Top  of  the 
Mountain  representing  the  highest  point  of  unaided 
mental  faculty. 

This  stage  was,  I  believe,  represented  by  the  collec- 
tion of  Sermons  to  Tat,  or  Dialogues  with  Tat,  known 
as  the  AiegoSiicol  Ao'yo* — a  term  somewhat  difficult  to 
translate  precisely. 

The  fundamental  meaning  of  Sie£oSo$  is  a  "way 
through  and  out,"  a  "  pathway "  or  "  passage,"  or 
"  means  of  escape."  It  thus  comes  to  mean  the  course 
of  a  narrative,  or  a  detailed  narrative,  exposition,  dis- 
cussion. Hence  also  a  "  passage  "  of  Scripture.  As  set 
over  against  yeviicos  (General),  therefore,  StegoSucos 
would  mean  Detailed  or  Expository ;  but  at  the  same 
time  it  would  to  the  Greek  ear  suggest  the  meaning 
of  the  Means  of  Escape  or  the  Way  out  of  Ignorance. 

(iii)  The  third  Stage  is  that  of  Moral  and  Mental 
Purification.  "Wherefore  I  got  me  ready  and  made 
the  thought  (TO  <f>povrjfJLa)  in  me  a  stranger  to  the 
world-illusion"  (r/7?  TOV  KOO-JULOV  awards) — the  Error 
that  in  §  7  sums  up  the  first  six  vices,  and  is  in  §  9 
driven  out  by  Truth. 

Stage  ii.  may  have  been  technically  known  as  that 
of  the  Suppliant,  though,  of  course,  of  this  we  cannot 
be  sure.  In  any  case  the  term  must  be  considered  in 
close  connection  with  Philo's  treatise  On  the  Contem- 
plative Life,  which,  as  Conybeare  tells  us,  most  probably 
formed  Book  IV.  of  Philo's  voluminous  work,  or  rather 
apology,  De  Legatione.  The  alternative  title  of  this 


238  THRICE-GREATEST   HERMES 

work  was  The  Suppliants.  By  "  Suppliant "  Philo  tells 
us  he  means  "  one  who  has  fled  to  God  and  taken  refuge 
with  Him." l 

Here,  however,  the  term  is  used  in  a  narrower  sense, 
as  adapted  to  the  personal  relationship  of  disciple  to 
master,  who,  during  the  time  of  probation,  stands  to 
him  as  the  representative  of  God.  The  master  is  his 
spiritual  father,  the  image  of  God  the  Father.2 

THE  HOLY  MOUNT  OF  INITIATION 

As  to  the  symbolic  use  of  the  term  Mountain,  I 
need  hardly  remind  my  readers  that  it  was  perhaps 
the  most  common  figure  employed  in  the  apocalypses 
of  the  time.  Instances  come  immediately  crowding 
into  the  mind,  such  as  the  "  Mount  of  Galilee  "  in  the 
Askew  and  Bruce  Gnostic  Codices,  on  which  all  the  great 
initiations  and  rites  are  performed  by  the  Kisen  Lord ; 
or  the  Mount  Tabor3  of  The  Gospel  according  to  the 
Hebrews,  "  My  Mother  the  Holy  Spirit  took  me  by  one 
of  the  hairs  of  the  head  and  carried  me  unto  Mount 
Tabor " ;  or  in  the  Acts  of  John,  where  the  Vision 
of  the  Spiritual  Crucifixion  is  shown  to  John  on  the 
Mount;  or  in  The  Gospel  of  Eve,  where  the  Vision  of 
the  Great  and  Little  Man  is  seen  on  the  Mount  ;  or 
in  The  Shepherd  of  Her  mas,  where  the  Angel  of  Repent- 
ance bears  off  Hermas  to  the  Mount  of  Arcadia,  etc. 
In  every  case  the  Mountain  is  no  physical  mountain, 
but  the  height  of  contemplation,  an  interior  state  of 
spiritual  consciousness. 

Stage  in.,  again,  is  of  interest  because  of  the  terms  in 

1  De  Sac.  Ab.  et  G.,  i.  186,  33. 

2  See  the  praise-giving  of  Tat,  §  21. 

3  "  The  Mountain  of  Light,"  the  traditional  scene  of  the  Trans- 
figuration. 


THE   SECRET   SERMON   ON   THE    MOUNTAIN      239 

which  it  is  described ;  they  may  be  compared  with  the 
same  teaching  in  the  Behnesa  logos : 

Jesus  saith :  "  Except  ye  fast  to  the  world,  ye  shall 
in  nowise  find  the  Kingdom  of  God." 

Again,  in  Tat's  prayer  for  the  consummation  of  his 
probation :  "  And  now  do  thou  fill  up  the  things  that 
fall  short  in  me "  (TCI  v(rT€prj/maTa  avaTrXijpcoarov),  it 
should  be  noticed  that  we  have  the  well-known  technical 
terms  of  the  Christianized  Gnosis,  the  Pleroma  and 
Hysterema,  or  Fullness  and  Insufficiency. 

THE  BIRTH  FKOM  ABOVE 

The  time  has  come  for  Tat  to  receive,  through  his 
master,  the  touch  of  the  true  Mind-consciousness,  the 
Christ  is  to  be  born  in  his  heart,  the  light  of  the  Pleroma 
is  to  shine  into  his  inmost  being.  It  is  to  be  a  New 
Birth,  a  Regeneration  (TraAiyyeVo-/?),  or  Ee-birth  (di/a- 
yevvrjcris),  in  the  sense  of  being  born  from  Above  (avcoOev). 

Compare  John  iii.  3:  "Amen,  Amen,  I  say  unto 
thee;  Except  a  man  be  born  from  Above,  he  cannot 
see  the  Kingdom  of  God."  And  also  7 :  "  Marvel 
not  that  I  said  unto  thee,  Ye  (pi.)  must  be  born 
from  Above," — where  the  comment  on  a  prior  saying, 
"  Ye  must  be  born  from  Above,"  formally  unsuited  to 
the  scheme  of  a  dialogue  between  Jeschu  and  Eabbi 
Nakdimon,  reveals  the  work  of  the  Haggadist. 

So  also  in  1  Pet.  i.  22,  23 :  "  Having  made  your 
souls  holy  by  hearkening  to  the  Truth l  .  .  .  being 
Re-born  (avayeycvvrjfjLevoi)  not  from  the  seed  of  destruc- 
tion, but  from  the  Seed  that  cannot  be  destroyed,  through 
the  Word 2  (Logos)  of  God,  who  lives  and  endures."  3 

1  Precisely  as  did  Tat. 

2  Cf.  precisely  the  same  formula  in  our  treatise,  §  21 . 

3  That  is,  of  God  as  Mon  and  God  as  Life,  which  is  the  union 
of  God  as  Mind  and  Logos. 


240  THRICE-GREATEST   HERMES 

These  passages  from  the  New  Testament  Scriptures 
are  not,  of  course,  cited  to  show  any  dependence  of  our 
Hermetic  authors  on  the  New  Testament  writers ;  but 
simply  to  show  how  they  mutually  explain  one  another. 
For  indeed  the  doctrine  of  the  New  Birth  and  of  the 
Sacred  Marriage  was  beyond  all  else  the  crowning 
mystery  of  the  Spiritual  Way  for  all  the  mystic  schools 
of  the  time.1 

THE  VIRGIN  BIRTH 

2.  The  secret  that  Tat  would  learn  is  the  Mystery 
of  the  Birth  from  the  Virgin  Womb — the  Birth  of 
Man,  the  Great  Mystery  of  Eegeneration.  Many 
illustrations  of  the  meaning  of  this  pivot-doctrine  of 
the  Christian  teaching  might  be  quoted  from  Gnostic 
writings,  but  it  will  be  sufficient  to  remind  the  reader 
of  what  the  Jewish  Commentator  in  the  Naassene 
Document  (§  28)  has  written  in  contrasting  the  Great 
Mysteries  (or  the  heavenly  ones)  with  the  Little 
Mysteries  (those  of  fleshly  generation).  Speaking  of  the 
Mysteries  of  Eegeneration,  he  writes  : 

"  For  this  is  the  Gate  of  Heaven,  and  this  is  the 
House  of  God,  where  the  Good  God  dwells  alone ;  into 
which  no  impure  [man]  shall  come,  but  it  is  kept  under 
guard  for  the  spiritual  alone, — where  when  they  come, 
they  must  cast  away  their  garments,  and  all  become 
bridegrooms,  obtaining  their  true  manhood,  through  the 
Virginal  Spirit.  For  this  is  the  Virgin  big  with  child, 


conceiving  and  bearing  a  Son. 

And  to  this  the  Christian  Commentator  adds : — 
"  not  psychic,  not  fleshly,  but  a  blessed  Mon  of  JSons." 

1  The  antiquity  of  the  ideas  connected  with  this  spiritual 
mystery  may  be  seen  from  what  Reitzenstein  (pp.  227  ff.)  has  to 
say  concerning  mystic  ffwov<rla  or  congress ;  of  it,  as  perhaps  of 
nothing  so  much  in  the  world,  may  it  be  said  corruptio  optimipessima. 


THE    SECRET    SERMON    ON   THE    MOUNTAIN      241 

The  Jewish  Commentator  uses  the  language  of  Philo, 
who,  as  we  have  shown,  centred  his  ideas  round  the 
conception  of  the  Sacred  Marriage  and  the  Virginal 
Spirit. 

So,  too,  does  our  treatise.  The  Womb  is  Silence,  the 
silence  of  contemplation,  the  image  of  the  Great  Silence 
the  Mother  of  the  ^Eons  in  many  a  Christianized 
Gnostic  System ;  the  Matter  is  Wisdom ;  the  ^Eon's 
coming  to  consciousness  in  man  is  the  Birth  of  Man 
the  Son  of  God ;  and  the  Seed  is  the  Good  or  Logos 
sown  by  the  Will  of  the  Father.  This  is  the  Birth  of  the 
Christ  in  man,  the  Great  Mystery  that  awaits  us  when 
we  have  made  ourselves  strangers  to  the  world-illusion. 

Is  this  Son  then,  asks  Tat,  other  than  God  ?  No, 
answers  Hermes ;  it  is  the  Mystery  of  Sameness,  not 
of  Difference ;  it  is  the  Pleroma,  not  the  Insufficiency, — 
"  All  in  all,  out  of  all  powers  composed,"  the  Common 
Fruit  of  the  Pleroma,  as  the  Valentinians  would  have 
expressed  it. 

THE  KACE  OF  THE  LOGOS 

It  is  a  Eace,  not  an  individual ;  it  is  We  and  no  longer 
I.1  This  is  the  Eace  of  the  Logos ;  the  Self-taught  Eace 
of  Philo ;  or,  as  Hermes  says  :  "  This  Eace,  my  son,  is 
never  taught,  but  when  He  willeth  it,  its  memory  is 
restored  by  God." 

This  is  the  avd/uLvrja-is  of  Pythagoras  and  Plato, — the 
regaining  of  the  consciousness  of  the  Divine  State ;  it 
must  be  self -perceived.  And  so  Philo  tells  us : 

"  But  as  for  the  Eace  of  Devotees  who  are  taught  ever 
more  and  more  to  see,  let  them  strive  for  the  intuition 
of  That-which-is ;  let  them  transcend  the  sun  which 
men  perceive  [and  gaze  upon  the  Light  beyond,  the 

1  Compare  the  Song  of  tlie  Powers  in  Pistis  Sophia  (pp.  16,  17), 
where  the  "  We  "  alternates  with  the  "  I." 

VOL.  II.  16 


242  THRICE-GREATEST   HERMES 

True  Sun  or  Logos],  nor  ever  leave  this  rank  which 
leads  to  Perfect  Blessedness.  Now  they  who  betake 
themselves  to  the  [Divine]  Service,  [do  so]  not  because 
of  any  custom,  or  some  one's  advice  or  appeal,  but  are 
carried  away  by  Heavenly  Love." * 

They  are  of  the  Eace  of  Elxai,  the  Hidden  Power 
or  Holy  Spirit,  the  Spouse  of  lexai,  the  Hidden  Lord  or 
Logos.2 

THE  SELF-TAUGHT 

3.  Hermes  cannot  teach  to  Tat  this  Birth  in  words, 
even  as  Isis  is  not  permitted  to  declare  it  openly  to 
Horus  (K.  K.,  36)  : 

"  I  may  not  tell  the  story  of  this  Birth  ;  for  it  is  not 
permitted  to  describe  the  origin  of  thy  descent,  0 
Horus,  son  of  mighty  power,  lest  afterward  the  Way-of- 
Birth  of  the  immortal  Gods  should  be  known  unto  men  " 
— that  is,  the  Mystery  of  the  Birth  of  Horus. 

Hermes  can  only  guide  Tat  towards  the  realisation  of 
the  Blessed  Sight,  by  putting  himself  into  that  sublime 
state  of  consciousness,  so  that  Tat,  so  to  speak,  bathes,  or 
is  baptized  in,  his  master's  spiritual  presence,  the  Cup 
of  the  Mind.  This,  as  we  have  seen  already  from 
several  treatises,  was  the  way  of  transmission  of  the 
Power  of  the  powers,  the  true  Laying-on  of  Hands. 

Hermes  describes  the  change  that  takes  place  in 
himself  when  he  passes  into  the  higher  spiritual  con- 
sciousness. He  seems  to  "pass  through  himself" — to 
"involve"  himself,  as  it  is  said  somewhere  in  the 
Mahabharata  of  the  Eishis — "into  a  Body  that  can 
never  die,"  that  is,  into  a,  or  rather  the,  Essential  or 
Cosmic  Body,3  that  embraces  the  cosmos  within  it.  The 

1  D.  V.  ft,  M.  473,  10 ;  P.  891. 

2  See  D.  J.  L.t  pp.  374,  375. 

3  Of.  R.  52.     But  compare  especially  §  6,  and  C.  H.t  iv.  (v.)  1. 


THE   SECRET   SERMON    ON    THE   MOUNTAIN      243 

way  to  do  this  is  not  taught,  for  it  cannot  be  under- 
stood from  any  sensible  experience,  the  outer  physical 
form  of  the  adept  remaining  as  it  was  before.  It  is 
an  inner  change.  The  Birth  of  a  Christ  is  the  striking 
of  a  new  keynote ;  everything  remains  apparently  as  it 
was  before,  but  all  things  receive  a  new  interpretation. 

No  physical  sight,  even  of  the  greatest  intensity, 
can  penetrate  the  Veil  of  this  Mystery. 

"  Thou  seest  me  with  eyes,  my  son ;  but  what  I  am 
thou  dost  not  understand." 

With  this  compare  the  marvellous  Ritual  of  Initia- 
tion in  The  Acts  of  John : 

"  Who  I  am  thou  shalt  know  when  I  depart.1  What 
I  am  seen  to  be,  that  am  I  not ;  but  what  I  am,  thou 
shalt  see  when  thou  comest." 2 

None  but  those  who  have  reached  the  Christ-state 
can  know  it ;  no  teaching  will  avail  to  explain  its 
manner  and  its  mysteries.  It  must  be  realized. 

THE  NEW  CREATION 

4.  But  Tat,  who  has  "made  himself  ready,"  is 
becoming  quickened  by  the  power  of  his  master.  His 
spiritual  senses  are  being  born ;  already  he  is  losing 
touch  with  the  physical;  he  no  longer  sees  himself. 
But  this  is  not  enough ;  he  must  not  only  be  able  to 
lose  consciousness  of  his  physical  body,  and  see  and 
hear  as  though  with  the  mind  alone,  but  he  must 
"invert"  himself,  pass  right  through  himself,  and  no 
longer  see  things  as  without  him,  but  all  things  as 
within  him. 

All  this  is  a  New  Creation  to  be  accomplished  in  the 
man  himself.  The  Author  or  Genesiurge  of  Ee-birth,  as 

1  That  is,  when  the  Presence  is  withdrawn, — by  contrast. 

2  Texts  and  Studies,  V.  i.  14. 


244  THRICE-GREATEST    HERMES 

contrasted  with  the  Maker  or  Demiurge  of  Birth,  is 
the  One  Man,  the  Logos,  the  Energic  Reason  and  Will 
of  God ;  the  one  is  the  Creator  of  the  Immortal  Body, 
the  other  is  the  Maker  of  the  mortal  frame. 

THE  WAY  OF  BIRTH  IN  GOD 

5.  The  reading  of  the  next  sentence  is  faulty,  and 
it  is  impossible  to  extract  the  correct  meaning.     The 
"Greatness"    (TO     ueyeOoi)    and    "distinctive    form" 
(yapaKTYip)  are  terms  familiar  enough  to  us  in  Christian 
Gnostic  writings.1     Greatness  connotes  the  same  idea 
as  Mon ;  "  character  "  or  "  distinctive  form  "  or  "  rank  " 
is   generally  the   impression   from   a  typical  original, 
and   here   stands   for   the   form   by   which    a   man   is 
recognised. 

6.  Hermes  then  proceeds  to  describe  the  nature  of 
this  Greatness  or  Mon,  or  Sameness,  manifested  in  differ- 
ence.    It  is,  alchemically  speaking,  the  One  Element, 
which  can  only  be  comprehended  by  one  Born  in  God — 
that  is,  by  a  God. 

7.  The  way  of   this  Birth   is   then   described   as   a 
de-energizing,  or  throwing  out  of  work  of   the  body's 
senses,  with   a  corresponding   energizing  of   the   One 
Sense,  the  Momc  Consciousness ;  or  as  a  purging  out  of 

1  The  term  "Greatness,"  however,  is  probably  of  Egyptian 
derivation.  In  the  Papyrus  Insinger,  written  somewhere  during 
the  last  half  of  the  first  century  B.C.  and  first  half  of  the  first 
century  A.D.,  according  to  Spiegelberg,  God's  Wisdom  and  Provi- 
dence are  praised  (coll.  xxxv.,  xxxvi.).  The  superscription  of 
this  section  runs  :  "  The  Four-and-Twentieth  Teaching :  The 
Instruction  :  Learn  the  Greatness  of  God,  that  thou  mayest  let 
it  come  into  thine  heart "  (xxxv.  17) ;  and  later  on  :  "  He  knoweth 
the  Blasphemer  who  thinketh  wickedness,  He  knoweth  the  Pious 
with  the  Greatness  of  God  in  his  heart.  The  tongue,  before  even 
it  is  questioned — its  words  God  knoweth "  (xxxvi.  3-5).  This  is 
further  explained  by  the  sentence  :  "  Thoth  is  heart  and  tongue 
of  the  Pious  ;  lo  !  his  house  is  God  ! "  (xxxv.  19).  R.  237. 


THE   SECRET   SERMON   ON   THE   MOUNTAIN      245 

the  tendencies  of  the  lower  nature,  and  replacing  them 
by  the  energies  of  the  Divine  Powers. 

This  is  the  Mystery  of  Kepentance  (pera-vola),  not  a 
change  of  mind  only,  but  a  change  throughout  the 
whole  nature ;  all  things  in  the  man  turn  towards  God. 

The  forces  or  energies  of  the  soul  have  no  direction 
in  themselves ;  it  is  the  will  of  man  that  can  turn  them 
"  downwards  "  or  "  upwards,"  so  that  they  become  vices 
or  virtues. 

OF  THE  TEN  AND  THE  TWELVE 

8.,  But  not  only  does  Hermes  set  forth  a  formal 
exposition  of  this  Eepentance  in  terms  of  the  conquest 
and  driving  out  of  the  Horde  of  Vices  by  the  Company 
of  Virtues,  but  at  the  same  time  he  performs  an 
efficacious  theurgic  rite  of  invocation  whereby  he 
enables  Tat  to  realize  the  instruction  in  immediate 
experience. 

The  Virtues  that  Hermes  invokes  are  not  abstractions, 
but  definite  substantial  powers ;  they  are,  in  fact,  the 
"  filling  up  "  of  Tat's  "  insufficiency  " ;  in  other  words, 
they  are  what  the  Christian  Gnostics  would  have  called 
the  ^Eons  of  the  Pleroma. 

Behind  all  there  is  a  definite  scheme  of  numbering. 
There  is  a  Twelve  and  a  Ten  and  a  Seven  and  a  Three 
and  a  One. 

The  Torments  of  the  Darkness  are  the  Twelve  ;  they 
are  not  torments  in  themselves,  but  only  for  him  who 
is  in  Error.  They  are  Twelve  yet  are  they  one,  for 
though  they  are  "  pantomorph  "  or  "  omniform,"  yet  are 
they  of  one  nature;  the  Twelve  are  thus  conditioned 
by  the  main  irrational  "types  of  life,"  or  animal 
natures, — the  so-called  zodiac. 

These  divisions  are  not,  however,  fundamental,  they 
are  solely  for  man's  delusion  or  error ;  in  action  they 


246  THRICE-GREATEST    HERMES 

are  one — that  is,  they  keep  man  in  Error  or  Ignorance. 
Thus  they  can  be  regarded  as  one,  or  two,  or  three,  or 
four,  or  six ;  and  so  combined  and  recombined. 

Twelve,  then,  is  the  nature  of  the  "  animal  soul "  in 
man — the  number  of  his  going-forth  into  externality. 
This  out-going  is  arrested  when  man  repents,  and  turns 
himself  to  return,  to  go  within;  the  cosmogonical  is 
transformed  by  the  soteriological ;  the  "enformation 
according  to  substance  "  gives  place  to  the  "  enformation 
according  to  gnosis."  As  Ignorance  characterized  the 
Twelve,  so  does  Gnosis  characterize  the  Ten,  the  Perfect 
Number  or  Number  of  Perfection. 

The  Going-forth  was  that  of  the  multiplication  of 
species — Twelve  (3x4  or  2x6);  the  Eeturn  is  Ten, 
that  is  the  Seven  and  the  Three ;  and  Seven  is  addition 
(3  +  4)  and  not  multiplication. 

Multiplication  seems  here  to  mean  the  generation,  by 
two  parents,  of  things  of  the  same  kind  and  power; 
while  addition  signifies  the  intensification  of  the  same 
nature  to  a  higher  power. 

The  Ten  is  "  that  which  giveth  birth  to  souls  " — that 
is,  human  souls  ;  and  not  only  human  souls,  but,  in  its 
consummation,  to  divine  souls. 

It  may,  perhaps,  be  of  interest  here  to  set  down 
simple  lists  of  the  vices  and  virtues  as  given  in  our 
treatise,  and  to  append  to  them  the  list  of  vices  in  C.  H., 
i.  24  and  26. 

1.  Not-knowing.  1.  Gnosis. 

2.  Grief.  2.  Joy. 

3.  Intemperance.  3.  Self-control. 

4.  Concupiscence.  4.  Continence. 

5.  Unrighteousness.  5.  Eighteousness. 

6.  Avarice.  6.  Sharing-with-all. 

7.  Error.  7.  Truth. 

8.  Envy. 


THE   SECRET   SERMON    ON   THE   MOUNTAIN       247 

9.  Guile.  8.  The  Good. 

10.  Anger.  9.  Life. 

11.  Eashness.  10.  Light. 

12.  Malice. 

1.  Growth  and  Waning.  First  Zone. 

2.  Device  of  Evils.  Second  Zone. 

3.  Guile  of  the  Desires.  Third  Zone. 

4.  Arrogance.  Fourth  Zone. 

5.  Daring  and  Rashness.  Fifth  Zone. 

6.  Getting  Wealth.  Sixth  Zone. 

7.  Falsehood.  Seventh  Zone. 

8.  Those-that-are.  Eighth. 

9.  The  Powers  in  a  band.          Ninth. 
10.  The  Father.  Tenth. 

It  is  at  once  seen  that  the  first  seven  virtues  are 
arranged  so  as  to  be  the  direct  antitheses  of  the  first 
seven  vices.  The  root  of  the  Twelve  is  Ignorance ; 
indeed,  all  the  Twelve  are  permutations  of  Ignorance. 
They  seem  to  be  twelve,  whereas  they  are  but  one  in 
nature ;  again,  not  only  are  they  twelve,  but  manifold 

(§  12). 

Thus,  for  instance,  Eashness  and  Wrath  or  Anger 
are  but  one,  and  so  of  the  rest ;  the  permutations  are 
infinite.  This  may  be  seen  from  the  septenary  classifi- 
cation in  "  The  Shepherd "  treatise,  where  we  have : 
Guile  of  the  Desires  (3),  a  combination  of  Guile  (9) 
and  Desire  or  Concupiscence  (4) ;  Device  of  Evils  (2),  a 
combination  of  Guile  (9)  and  Malice  (12) ;  Unholy 
Daring  and  Eashness  (5),  a  combination  of  Unrighteous- 
ness (5)  and  Eashness  (11) ;  Getting  Wealth  by  evil 
means  (6),  a  combination  of  Guile  (9)  and  Avarice  (6). 
So  also  just  as  Anger  (10)  and  Eashness  (11)  are  one, 
so  are  Envy  (8)  and  Avarice  (6)  but  aspects  of  the  same 


248  THRICE-GREATEST    HERMES 

thing ;  and  so  again  Intemperance  (3)  and  Concu- 
piscence or  Desire  (4),  Grief  (2)  and  Ignorance  (1),  etc. 

All  are  summed  up  in  Ignorance,  or  Error,  just  as 
the  seven  virtues  are  summed  up  in  Gnosis  or  Truth.1 
And  just  as  Ignorance  is  the  source  of  vice,  so  is  Know- 
ledge or  Gnosis  the  beginning  of  Truth.  Gnosis  is 
not  the  end  but  the  beginning  of  the  Path,  the  end  of  it 
is  God  or  the  Good. 

The  difference  between  the  "  Poemandres "  arrange- 
ment and  the  categories  of  our  treatise  is  conditioned 
by  the  fact  that  in  the  former  the  process  of  transforma- 
tion in  the  case  of  a  good  man  after  death  is  described, 
whereas  in  the  latter  the  Way  of  Rebirth  in  a  living 
man  is  set  forth. 

That  the  Virtues  (and  Vices,  therefore)  were  cate- 
gorized according  to  the  fundamental  numbers  of  the 
Gnosis  may  be  seen  in  most  systems  of  Christian 
Gnostic  aeonology ;  indeed,  it  was  a  common  plan  of 
the  general  Gnostic  theosophy  of  the  time.  In  our 
treatise  we  have  set  forth  the  manner  of  the  immediate 
practical  ethical  realization  of  what  might  be  taken  by 
a  superficial  student  of  Gnostic  seonology  as  an  empty 
schematology  of  purely  metaphysical  abstractions.2 
These  things,  however,  meant  everything  to  the 
Gnostic;  they  were  fullnesses — no  abstractions,  but 
transcendent  realities. 

So  also  in  the  Shepherd  of  Hermas  (Vis.  iii.  8,  7),  just 
as  in  our  treatise,  we  are  presented  with  the  Vision  of 
a  Band  of  seven  Women,  each  the  mother  of  the  next, 
seven  Virtues,  called :  Faith,  Continence,  Simplicity, 
Freedom-from-malice,  Seriousness,  Gnosis  (eTaem}/*^), 
Love. 

And  not  only  do  we  have  the  Seven,  but  also  the 

1  Cf.  P.  S.  A.,  xxix.  2. 

2  The  usual  way,  indeed,  in  which  it  is  taken. 


THE   SECRET    SERMON   ON   THE    MOUNTAIN      249 

Twelve,  twelve  Maidens  (Sim.  xv.  1-3):  Faith,  Con- 
tinence, Power,  Long-suffering,  Simplicity,  Freedom- 
from-malice,  Chastity,  Joyfulness,  Truth,  Understanding, 
Concord,  Love. 

To  these  are  opposed  twelve  Women  in  dark  robes : 
Infidelity,  Incontinence,  Disobedience,  Error,  Grief, 
Depravity,  Wantonness,  Quickness-to-wrath,  Falsehood, 
Folly,  Slander,  Hate. 

Zosimus  also  speaks  of  the  Twelve  Fates  (Moi/oat) 
of  Death,  and  associates  them  with  the  Passions.1 

But,  indeed,  the  subject  is  infinite,  for  it  is  the  con- 
summation of  all  right  endeavour  and  all  true  progress 
in  humanity.  We  must,  then,  leave  it  for  the  present, 
to  avoid  running  to  too  great  length  in  these  comments. 
Sufficient  for  the  moment  to  point  to  the  fact  that  the 
Ten  is  not  only  the  Wedding  Garment  of  Purity,  but 
also  the  Eobe  of  Power  or  Glory.  In  its  consummation 
also  it  is  the  Garment  of  the  Christ,  the  One  Eobe 
without  seam  throughout,  for  the  Ten  contains  the  One, 
and  the  One  contains  the  Ten. 

THE  DAWN  OF  COSMIC  CONSCIOUSNESS 

13.  The  result  of  this  Potent  Invocation  of  the  Powers, 
—that  is  to  say,  the  realization  of  the  full  meaning  of 
the  sacred  rite  which  consummates  itself  in  the  con- 
sciousness of  Hermes,  and  so  communicates  itself  in 
some  measure  to  Tat,2 — is  that  Tat  begins  to  "  see  " ;  "I 
see  the  All,  I  see  myself  in  Mind." 

"  In  heaven  am  I,  in  earth,  in  water,  air ;  I  am  in 
animals,  in  plants  ;  I'm  in  the  womb,  before  the  womb, 
after  the  womb, — I'm  everywhere  "  (§  11). 

Compare  this  with  G.  H.,  xi.  (xii.)  22,  where  Hermes 
is  himself  being  taught  by  Mind : 

"  Collect  into  thyself  all  senses  of  all  creatures, — of 

1  Berthelot,  244 ;  R.  214.  2  Cf.  G.  H.,  i.  7  ;  xi.  (ixi.)  6. 


250 


THRICE-GREATEST   HERMES 


fire,  and  water,  dry  and  moist.  Think  that  thou  art  at 
the  same  time  in  every  place,  in  earth,  in  sea,  in  sky ; 
not  yet  begotten,  in  the  womb,  young,  old  and  dead, 
in  after-death  conditions." 

This  is,  as  we  have  seen,  a  pure  Egyptian  formula, 
and  connotes  the  opening  of  the  "  cosmic  conscious- 
ness/' 

This  consciousness,  whatever  else  it  may  be,  is  a 
transcending  of  our  three-dimensional  limitation  of  con- 
sciousness,— that  of  the  "body's  view-point, — a  thing 
three  ways  in  space  extended." 

THE  Vow  OF  SILENCE 

The  mystery  of  this  New  Birth  in  consciousness  is 
to  be  kept  secret;  therefore  Hermes  has  not  com- 
mented on  it,  presumably  in  the  Expository  Sermons ; 
moreover,  it  must  even  now  be  kept  secret  (§  22),  and 
therefore  is  the  treatise  a  Secret  Sermon.  The  reason 
for  this  is  given  both  here  and  in  §  22 :  "  That  we 
may  not  be  thought  to  be  calumniators"  (8id/3o\ot), 
by  the  Many  or  Unknowing.  What  may  be  the  precise 
meaning  of  this  phrase  I  do  not  know,  and  can  only 
speculate. 

Those  who  had  reached  the  full  grade  of  Hermes 
are  to  keep  silence  on  their  "  virtue  "  or  power  (§  22) ; 
they  were  never  to  boast  of  their  Gnosis.  If  they  did, 
it  would  only  bring  the  G-nosis  into  contempt ;  for  they 
would  still  appear  as  ordinary  men,  would  probably 
often  say  and  do  things,  when  they  were  not  in  the 
higher  state  of  consciousness,  which  fell  below  the 
standard  of  their  high  ideals,  and  so  they  would  be 
slanderers  or  calumniators  of  the  Gnosis  before  the 
world. 

14.  The  New  Birth  is  further  characterized  as  the 
Essential  Birth  (>}  ova-Mrjg  yeW*?) ;  it  was  the  birth  of 


THE    SECRET    SERMON   ON    THE    MOUNTAIN       251 

the  Essential  Man,  the  God,  Son  of  the  One,  to  which 
other  treatises  refer.1 

OF  THE  OGDOAD 

15.  Tat  now  desires  to  hear  the  Praise-giving  of  the 
Powers,  which  only  those  can  sing  who  have  reached 
the  stage  called  Eighth,  or  the  Ogdoad;  this  is  the 
state  above  the  Harmony  or  the  Hebdomad  of  Fate 
(C.  H.,  i.  26).  The  man  is  now  free  and  no  longer  a 
slave.  It  is  the  power  of  prophetic  hymnody,  for  the 
man  now  hears  the  True  Harmony  of  things  and  is 
above  the  Concatenation  of  Difference ;  it  is  the  state 
"  that  keeps  the  soul  in  tune."  He  who  has  reached 
this  height  can  ever  sing  in  tune ;  it  is  the  state  of  the 
Hearer  of  the  Eternal  Praise-giving,  and  those  who 
reach  it  can  express  it  infinitely,  each  in  his  own 
fashion. 

The  idea  of  the  Ogdoad  is  represented  in  many  a 
Christian  Gnostic  system,  especially  in  the  Valentinian 
tradition,  which  has  many  Egyptian  elements  in  it. 

So  we  read  in  the  Excerpts  from  Theodotus  appended 
to  the  writings  of  Clement  of  Alexandria: 

"  Him  whom  the  Mother 2  brings  to  birth,  she  leadeth 
unto  Death  and  to  the  world  ;  but  him  whom  Christ 
brings  to  rebirth,  He  change th  into  Life,  unto  the 
Ogdoad."3 

Many  were  the  names  given  to  the  Ogdoad  by  the 
Christian  Gnostics, — such  as  the  Jerusalem  Above, 
Wisdom,  the  Land  flowing  with  milk  and  honey,  the 
Holy  Spirit,  the  Land  of  the  Lord,  the  Mesotes. 

These  terms  were,  however,  with  the  exception  of 
the  last,  Jewish  synonyms;  the  term  Ogdoad  itself 

1  Cf.  P.  8.  A.,  vii.  2. 

2  Sc.  the  Lower  Mother,  Nature. 

3  Exx.  ex  Theodot.,  §  80  (ed.  Dindorf,  iii.  453). 


252  THRICE-GREATEST   HERMES 

was  in  all  probability  Egyptian.     Thus  in  one  of  the 
Magic  Papyri  we  read : 

"Having  known  the  power  of  the  book,  thou  shalt 
hide  it,  my  son.  For  in  it  there  is  stored  the  Authentic 
Name,  which  is  the  Name  Ogdoad, — He  who  doth  order 
and  doth  regulate  all  things." l 

A  HYMN  FOR  MORNING  AND  FOR  EVENING  PRAYER 

16.  The  Hymn  that  follows  is  to  be  kept  secret — that 
is  to  say,  it  is  to  be  taken  by  Tat  as  an  example  of  the 
form  of  prayer  he  is  now  to  use  in  his  private  devotions, 
and  is  therefore  probably  intended  to  replace  some 
other  form  of  prayer  which  he  had  hitherto  been  using, 
as  was  the  custom  in  such  communities. 

The  instruction  to  use  it  at  sunset  and  sunrise,  in  the 
open  air,  reminds  us  of  the  appended  passages  to  "  The 
Shepherd  "  treatise,  where  we  read  (§  29) : 

"And  when  even  was  come  and  all  sun's  beams 
began  to  set,  I  bade  them  all  give  thanks  to  God." 2 

Compare  also  what  Philo  tells  us  of  the  Therapeuts : 

"  Twice  a  day,  at  dawn  and  even,  they  are  accustomed 
to  offer  up  prayers;  as  the  sun  rises  praying  for  the 
sunshine,  the  real  Sunshine,  that  their  minds  may  be 
filled  with  Heavenly  Light,  and  as  it  sets  praying  that 
their  soul,  completely  lightened  of  the  lust  of  the  senses 
and  sensations,  may  withdraw  to  its  own  Congregation 
and  Council-chamber,  there  to  track  out  Truth."  3 

So  also  Apollonius  of  Tyana  is  said  to  have  prayed 
and  meditated  three  times  a  day :  at  daybreak  (Phil., 
V.  A.,  vi.  10,  18 ;  vii.  31),  at  mid-day  (vii.  10),  and  at 

1  Leyden  Papyrus  W.  8.,  139,  45  (Leemans) ;  cf.  also  ibid.,  141, 
5  ;  R.  54.     For  further  comments  on  the  Ogdoad,  see  Commentary 
on  C.  if.,  i.  26. 

2  Of.  also  P.  8.  A.,  xli.  1. 

s  D.  V.  a,  M.  ii.  475  ;  P.  893. 


THE    SECRET    SERMON   ON    THE    MOUNTAIN      253 

sundown  (viii.  13);  and  with  regard  to  "keeping 
silence  on  their  virtue,"  we  are  told  of  the  Later 
Pythagoreans,  of  whom  he  was  so  conspicuous  an 
example : 

"  In  particular  they  kept  the  rule  of  silence  regarding 
the  Divine  Service  [that  is,  the  Gnosis].  For  they 
heard  within  them  many  Divine  and  unspeakable 
things  on  which  it  would  have  been  difficult  for  them 
to  keep  silence,  had  they  not  first  learned  that  it  was 
just  this  Silence  which  spoke  to  them  "  (i.  I).1 

And  so  the  Hymn  has  to  be  heard  in  silence;  all 
earthly  sounds  must  be  stilled  for  the  Heavenly 
Harmony  to  be  heard. 

17.  It  is  to  be  noticed  that  in  four  out  of  the  five 
MSS.  the  title  "Secret  Hymnody"  is  followed  by  the 
indication  "  Logos  IV." 

Eeitzenstein  (p.  345,  n.  21)  thinks  that  the  three 
prior  "  Logoi "  were : 

I.  "Holy  art  Thou,  0  God"— C.  H.,  i.  31,  32. 

II.  "  The  Glory  of  all  things  is  God  "— 0.  H.,  iii.  (iv.). 

III.  "  Whither  stumble  ye,  sots  ?  "—0.  H.y  vii.  (viii.). 

The  latter  two,  however,  are  not  hymns;  the  only 
other  hymn  in  our  Corpus  being : 

"  Who  then  may  sing  Thee  praise  of  Thee  ?  "—(7.  H.y 
v.  (vi.)  10,  11. 

Our  Hymn  is  a  Hymn  to  the  Sun,  it  is  true,  but  to 
the  Spiritual  Sun,  not  the  physical  orb  of  day.  It  is  to 
the  Eye  of  Mind  that  these  orisons  are  addressed — to 
the  All-seeing  Light. 

Nor  is  this  Eulogy  a  formal  Te  Deum,  but  a  potent 
theurgic  Praise-giving.  All  nature  is  to  thrill  with  the 
joy  of  this  thankfulness. 

Most  beautiful  is  this  Song  of  Praise,  all  of  it,  but 
we  would  specially  call  attention  to  the  words  : 
1  See  my  Apollonius  of  Tyana,  pp.  123  and  120. 


254  THRICE-GREATEST    HERMES 

"  Thy  Reason  sings  through  me  Thy  praises.  Take 
back  through  me  the  All  into  Thy  Reason — my  reason- 
able oblation * !  From  Thee  Thy  Will ;  to  Thee  the  All !  " 

The  Outbreathing  of  the  Universe  through  the 
Reason  or  Logos 2  is  the  manifestation  or  realisation  of 
the  Will  of  God.  The  Logos  is  Son,  Will  is  Mother 
and  God  Father. 

The  Inbreathing  of  the  Universe  is  through  Man 
("  Thy  Man  thus  cries  to  Thee,"  §  20) :  "  Take  back 
through  Me  the  All."  This  is  accomplished  in  the  first 
instance  by  the  sacrifice  of  the  reason,  of  man's  small 
limited  reason,  to  the  Great  Reason  of  things. 

And  yet  the  All,  the  Universe  itself,  is  not  some- 
thing other  than  God ;  it  is  all  God. 

"  From  Thee  Thy  Will " ;  Thou  art  the  Source  of  all. 
"  To  Thee  the  All";  Thou  art  the  End  of  all,  the  Desirable 
One,  The  Good. 

Compare  with  this  the  Hymn  in  the  Jewish  deposit 
of  the  Naassene  Document : 

"  From  Thee  is  Father,  and  Through  Thee  Mother, — 
the  two  Immortal  Names,  Parents  of  ^Eons,  0  Thou 
who  hast  the  Heaven  for  thy  City,  0  Man  of  Mighty 
Names ! " 

Also  notice :  "  The  All  that  is  in  us,  0  Life,  preserve  ; 
0  Light,  illumine  it ;  0  God,  in-spirit  it ! "  And  com- 
pare it  with  §  12,  where  we  are  told :  "  While  Life  and 
Light  are  unified  there,  where  the  One  hath  being  from 
the  Spirit." 

1  Of.  1  Pet.  ii.  5 :   "Ye  also  as  living  stones  are  built  up,  a 
spiritual  house  for  holy  service,  to  offer  up  spiritual  oblations 
acceptable  to  God  through  Jesus  Christ,"     And  also  Rom.  xii.  1  : 
"  I  beseech  you,  therefore,  brethren,  to  present  your  bodies  as  a 
living  oblation,  holy,  well-pleasing  unto  God, — your  reasonable 
service." 

2  Hesychius  in  his  Lexicon  defines   Logos  as  the   "Cause  of 
Activity,"  or  that  which  underlies  action, — y  rov  Spd/j.a.ros 


THE    SECRET    SERMON    ON    THE    MOUNTAIN      255 

The  Prayer  is  for  the  Baptism  of  Light — Illumination 
by  the  Gnosis l ;  this  was  the  Dowsing  in  the  Mind  of 
"  The  Cup  "  treatise,  even  as  true  Baptism  in  primitive 
Christianity  was  called  Illumination  or  ^omovAoV 

"THROUGH  THE   WORD " 

21.  Tat  now  feels  himself  impelled  to  utter  praises 
himself.  He  says  what  he  feels.  His  master  has  given 
him  the  impulse,  has  made  the  conditions  for  him 
whereby  he  is  conceived  as  a  Child  of  God,  a  Prophet. 
But  as  yet  he  is  not  grown  into  the  stature  of  a  true 
Seer.  His  higher  nature  has  received  the  germ,  but  this 
must  have  time  to  develop,  and  only  gradually  will  its 
power  descend  into  his  lower  mind. 

At  present  his  thankfulness  is  poured  forth  to  his 
master,  who  has  performed  the  theurgic  rite  of 
initiation  ("  All  things  have  been  perfected ")  for 
him. 

But  Hermes  restrains  him ;  it  is  not  to  the  master 
that  his  thanks  are  due,  but  to  God.  And  if  he  cannot 
as  yet  give  thanks  direct  to  God,  then  let  him  send 
those  thanks — "acceptable  oblations" — to  God  "Through 
the  Word." 

And  that  this  was  and  is  the  practice  of  universal 
Christendom  requires  no  pointing  out;  —  the  most 
striking  parallel  to  the  wording  of  our  treatise  being 
1  Pet.  ii.  5 :  "  Spiritual  oblations  acceptable  to  God 
through  Jesus  Christ." 

Tat  has  now  passed  from  the  rank  of  Hearer  to  that 
of  Knower ;  he  is  now  a  true  Gnostic :  "  Thou  hast 
become  a  Knower  of  thyself,  and  of  our  Sire." 

Compare  logos  2  of  the  latest  found  Sayings  at 
Oxyrhynchus : 

1  Compare  yviaa-is  ayia,  <JHi>Ti<rQth  avit  <rov  (§  18)  ;  0wTi£e  <f>d>s  (§  19)  ; 
d  vovs  (§  21). 


256  THRICE-GREATEST   HERMES 

"(Strive  therefore?)  to  know  yourselves,  and  ye 
shall  know  ye  are  Sons  of  the  (almighty?)  Father; 
(and?)  ye  shall  know  that  ye  are  in  (the  City  of 
God?1),  and  ye  are  (the  City?2)." 

1  Sc.  the  Ogdoad. 

2  Cf.  1.  Pet.  ii.  5  :  "Ye  are  built  up  as  living  stones,  a  spiritual 
house  for  service." 


CORPUS  HEEMETICUM  XIV.  (XV.) 


[A  LETTER]  OF  THRICE- 
GREATEST  HERMES  TO  ASCLEPIUS 

UNTO  ASCLEPIUS  GOOD  HEALTH  OF  SOUL  I1 

(Text:  P.  128-134;  Pat.  49,  50.) 

1.  SINCE  in  thy  absence  my  son  Tat  desired 
to  learn  the  nature  of  the  things  that  are,  and 
would  not  let  me  hold  it  over,  as  [natural  to] 
a  younger  son  fresh  come  to  gnosis  of  the 
[teachings]  on  each  single  point,  —  I  was  com- 
pelled to  tell  [him]  more,  in  order  that  the 
contemplation2  [of  them]  might  be  the  easier 
for  him  to  follow. 


1  el  (ppovt'iv.  I  do  not  know  the  exact  meaning  of  this  ex- 
pression. Everard  translates  "to  be  truly  wise  "  ;  Parthey, 
"  rede  sapere"  following  Patrizzi  ;  Menard,  "  sagesse  "  ;  Chambers, 
"to  be  rightly  wise."  I  would  suggest  that  €<5  Qpovtlv  was  the 
form  used  among  these  disciples  of  the  Inner  Way  for  the  usual 
xaipeiv.  Instead  of  wishing  one  another  happiness,  they  wished 
each  other  wisdom,  good  thought,  right  thinking,  good  health 
of  soul. 


VOL.  II.  257  17 


258  THRICE-GREATEST   HERMES 

I  would,  then,  choosing  out  the  chiefest  heads 
of  what  was  said,  write  them  in  brief  to  thee, 
explaining  them  more  mystic-ly,1  as  unto  one  of 
greater  age  and  one  well  versed  in  Nature. 

2.  If  all  things  manifest  have  been  and  are 
being  made,  and  made  things  are  not  made  by 
their   own   selves    but    by   another ;   [if]  made 
things  are  the  many, — nay  more,  are  all  things 
manifest  and  all  things  different  and  not  alike ; 
and  things  that  are  being  made  are  being  made 
by  other  [than  themselves]  ; — there  is  some  one 
who  makes  these  things  ;  and  He  cannot  be  made, 
but  is  more  ancient  than  the  things  that  can. 

For  things  that  can  be  made,  I  say,  are  made 
by  other  [than  themselves] ;  but  of  the  things 
that  owe  their  being  to  their  being  made,  it  is 
impossible  that  anything  should  be  more  ancient 
than  them  all,  save  only  That  which  is  not  able 
to  be  made. 

3.  So   He   is   both    Supreme,  and   One,  and 
Only,  the  truly  wise  in  all,  as  having  naught 
more  ancient  [than  Himself]. 

For  He  doth  rule  o'er  both  the  number,  size 
and  difference  of  things  that  are  being  made, 
and  o'er  the  continuity  of  their  making  [too]. 

Again,  things  makeable  are  seeable;  but  He 
cannot  be  seen. 

1  That  is  to  say,  more  fully  and  profoundly,  as  to  one  more 
advanced  in  the  mystic  science. 


LETTER  OF  HERMES  TO  ASCLEPIUS    259 

For  for  this  cause  He  rnaketh, — that  He  may 
not  be  able  to  be  seen. 

He,  therefore,  ever  maketh l ;  and  therefore 
can  He  ne'er  be  seen. 

To  comprehend  Him  thus  is  meet ;  and  com- 
prehending, [it  is  meet]  to  marvel;  and  mar- 
velling, to  count  oneself  as  blessed,  as  having 
learnt  to  know  one's  Sire. 

4.  For  what  is  sweeter  than  one's  own  true 
Sire  ?      Who,   then,   is  He ;  and  how  shall  we 
learn  how  to  know  Him  ? 

Is  it  not  right  to  dedicate  to  Him  alone  the 
name  of  God,  or  that  of  Maker,  or  of  Father, 
or  rather  [all]  the  three ; — God  for  His  Power, 
and  Maker  for  His  Energy,  and  Father  for 
His  Good? 

Now  Power  doth  differ  from  the  things  which 
are  being  made ;  while  Energy  consisteth  in 
all  things  being  made. 

Wherefore  we  ought  to  put  away  verbosity 
and  foolish  talk,  and  understand  these  two — 
the  made  and  Maker.  For  that  of  them  there 
is  no  middle  [term] ;  there  is  no  third. 

5.  Wherefore  in  all  that  thou  conceivest,  in 
all  thou  nearest,  these  two  recall  to  mind ;  and 
think  all  things  are  they,  reckoning  as  doubtful 
naught,  nor   of  the  things   above,   nor   of  the 
things  below,  neither  of  things  divine,  nor  things 

1  Cf.  C.  H.,  xvi  is. 


260  THRICE-GREATEST   HERMES 

that  suffer  change  or  things  that  are  in 
obscuration.1 

For  all  things  are  [these]  twain,  Maker  and 
made,  and  'tis  impossible  that  one  should  be 
without  the  other  ;  for  neither  is  it  possible 
that  "  Maker  "  should  exist  without  the  "  made," 
for  each  of  them  is  one  and  the  same  thing. 

Wherefore  'tis  no  more  possible  for  one  from 
other  to  be  parted,  than  self  from  self. 

6.  Now  if  the  Maker  is  naught  else  but  That 
which  makes,  Alone,  Simple,  Uncompound,  it 
needs  must  do  this  [making]  to  Itself,  —  to  Which 
its  Maker's  making  is  "  its  being  made." 

And  as  to  all  that's  being  made,  —  it  cannot  be 


1  ruv  4v  pvxv-    I  do  not  know  what  is  the  exact  meaning  of 
this  expression.     Everard  translates  "  things  that  are  in  darkness 
or  secret  "  ;  Parthey,  "  qua  sunt  in  dbdito  "  ;  Me"nard,  "  dans  Us 
profondeurs  "  ;  Chambers,  "  those  in  secrecy."    I  suggest  that  the 
technical  term  juux<k,  signifying  generally  a  shut-in  or  locked-up 
place  (conclave,  as  Damascius  translates  it),  is  to  be  referred, 
along  the  line  of  Platonic  and  Pythagorean  tradition,  to  Phere- 
cydes.     Porphyry  (De  Antro  Nymph.,  c.  31)  tells  us  that  the 
synonyms  "/*ux<>£  (chambers?),  recesses  (or  pits),  caverns,  doors, 
gates"  were  used  by  Pherecydes  as   symbolical  expressions  to 
signify  "  the  geneses  and  apogeneses  of  souls,"  whatever  these  terms 
may  mean  exactly.    The  "birth"  and  "decease"  of  a  soul,  in 
this  connection,  presumably  mean  its  coming  into  the  world  of 
genesis  out  of  the  womb  of  the  World-soul,  and  its  reception 
back  again  into  the  bosom  of  the  great  Mother.     If  this  be  so, 
our  text  would  seem  to  indicate  that  things  are  in  two  states,  — 
in  a  state  of  change  (that  is,  in  the  active  condition),  and  again 
in  a  passive  condition,  in  the  state  which  Indian  philosophers 
call  laya  or  pralaya.     See  for  the  pvxoi  of  Pherecydes  Sturz's 
Pherecydis  Fragmenta,  pp.  43  ff.  (Leipzig,  1824). 

2  Or  genesis. 


LETTER   OF   HERMES   TO   ASCLEPIUS          261 

[so  made]  by  being  made  by  its  own  self ;  but  it 
must  needs  be  made  by  being  made  by  other. 
Without  the  "Maker"  "made"  is  neither  made 
nor  is ;  for  that  the  one  without  the  other  doth 
lose  its  proper  nature  by  deprivation  of  that 
other. 

If,1  then,  all  things  have  been  admitted  to  be 
two, — the  "  that  which  is  being  made  "  and  "  that 
which  makes," — [all  then]  are  one  in  union  of 
these, — the  "  that  which  leadeth  "  and  the  "  that 
which  folio weth." 

The  making  God  is  "  that  which  leadeth " ; 
the  "  that  which  is  being  made,"  whatever  it  be, 
the  "that  which  followeth." 

7.  And  do  not  thou  be  chary  of  things  made 
because  of  their  variety,  from  fear  of  attribution 
of  a  low  estate  and  lack  of  glory  unto  God. 

For  that  His  Glory's  one, — to  make  all  things  ; 
and  this  is  as  it  were  God's  Body, — the  making 
[of  them].2 

But  by  the  Maker's  self  naught  is  there 
thought  or  bad  or  base. 

These  things  are  passions  which  accompany 
the  making  process,  as  rust  doth  brass  and  filth 
doth  body;  but  neither  doth  the  brass-smith 

1  From  here  to  the  end  of  the  sermon,  with  the  exception  of  the 
final  sentences  of  §  7  and  §  10,  and  the  third  sentence  of  §  9,  and 
with  a  few  very  slight  verbal  variants,  is  quoted  by  Cyril,  Gontra 
Julianum,  ii.  64  (Migne,  col.  598  D). 

2  Cf.  C.  H.,  xvi.  18. 


262  THRICE-GREATEST   HERMES 

make  the  rust,  nor  the  begetters  of  the  body 
filth,  nor  God  [make]  evil. 

It  is  continuance  in  the  state  of  being  made l 
that  makes  them  lose,  as  though  it  were,  their 
bloom ;  and  'tis  because  of  this  God  hath  made 
change,  as  though  it  were  the  making  clean  of 
genesis. 

8.  Is  it,  then,  possible  for  one  and  the  same 
painter  man  to  make  both  heaven,  and  gods,  and 
earth,  and  sea,  and  men,  and  all  the  animals,  and 
lifeless  things,  and  trees,  and  yet  impossible  for 
God  to  make  all  things  ? 

What  monstraus  lack  of  understanding  ;  what 
want  of  knowledge  as  to  God  ! 1 

For  such  the  strangest  lot  of  all  do  suffer ;  for 
though  they  say  they  worship  piously  and  sing 
the  praise  of  God,  yet  by  their  not  ascribing  unto 
Him  the  making  of  all  things,  they  know  not  God  ; 
and,  added  unto  this  not-knowing,  they're  guilty 
even  of  the  worst  impiety  to  Him — passions  to 
Him  attributing,  or  arrogance,  or  im potency. 

For  if  He  doth  not  make  all  things,  from 
arrogance  He  doth  not  make,  or  not  being  able, 
— which  is  impiety  [to  think]. 

9.  One  Passion  hath  God  only — Good ;  and 
He  who's  Good,  is  neither  arrogant  nor  impotent. 

For  this  is  God — the  Good,  which  hath  all 
power  of  making  all. 

1  Or  genesis. 


LETTER  OF  HERMES  TO  ASCLEPIUS    263 

And  all  that  can  be  made  is  made  by  God, — 
that  is,  by  [Him  who  is]  the  Good  and  who  can 
make  all  things.1 

But  would'st  thou  learn  how  He  doth  make, 
and  how  things  made  are  made,  thou  may'st  do  so. 

10.  Behold  a  very  fair  and  most  resemblant 
image — a  husbandman  casting  the  seed  into  the 
ground;  here  wheat,  there  barley,  and  there 
[again]  some  other  of  the  seeds ! 

Behold  one  and  the  same  man  planting  the 
vine,  the  apple,  and  [all]  other  trees  ! 

In  just  the  selfsame  way  doth  God  sow 
Immortality  in  Heaven,  and  Change  on  Earth, 
and  Life  and  Motion  in  the  universe. 

These  are  not  many,  but  few  and  easy  to  be 
numbered ;  for  four  in  all  are  they, — and  God 
Himself  and  Genesis,  in  whom  are  all  that  are. 


COMMENTAKY 

ASCLEPIUS  AND  TAT 

Fabricius,  in  his  BiUiotJieca  G-rceca?  says  that  the 
title  should  be  "  On  the  Nature  of  the  All,"  and  that  he 
has  recovered  it  from  Cyril,  C.  Jul.,  ii.,  but  I  cannot 
verify  this  statement. 

The  form  of  this  treatise  is  different  from  any  of  the 

1  This  sentence,  which  appears  to  be  very  tautological,  is  omitted 
by  Cyril. 

2  Ed.  Harles  (4th  ed.),  vol.  i.  lib.  i.  cap.  vii. 


264  THRICE-GREATEST    HERMES 

preceding,  being  that  of  a  letter.  It  evidently  belongs 
to  the  Asclepius-Tat  type  of  tradition,  as  in  G.  ff.,  x. 
(xi.) :  "  My  yesterday's  discourse  I  did  devote  to  thee, 
Asclepius,  and  so  'tis  only  right  I  should  devote 
to-day's  to  Tat." 

The  distinction  drawn  between  Tat  and  Asclepius  is 
of  interest;  Tat  is  the  younger, — who  has  only  "just 
come  to  Gnosis  of  the  teaching  on  each  single  point." 
Can  this  mean  that  he  has  only  just  been  permitted 
to  share  in  the  "  Expository  Sermons "  or  "  Detailed 
Discourses "  ?  It  is  probable,  for  C.  H.,  x.  (xi.)  1, 
continues :  "  And  this  the  more  because  'tis  the  abridg- 
ment (epitome)  of  the  General  Sermons  which  he  has 
had  addressed  to  him." 

Asclepius  is  older,  and  already  eTrio-Ttjimcw  r??  (ftvcrewg 
— well- versed  in  the  study  of  Nature. 

What  may  be  the  exact  significance  underlying  these 
personifications  it  is  very  difficult  to  say ;  but  the  same 
facts,  whatever  they  may  have  been,  are  clearly 
referred  to  in  K  K.  (Stob.,  Eel,  i.  49 ;  p.  386,  24  W.) ; 
especially  the  later  accession  of  "  Asclepius "  to  the 
School,  -and  the  fact  that  "  Tat,"  because  of  his  too 
great  "youth,"  could  not  have  handed  on  to  him  the 
tradition  of  the  complete  or  all-perfect  contemplation 
(6\oT€\t]9  Oewpia) — that  is,  of  the  mathesis  or  gnosis,  or, 
in  other  words,  the  "learning  of  the  things  that  are, 
the  contemplating  of  their  nature  and  the  knowing 
God"  (C.  H.,  i.  3) ;  or  the  "  being  taught  the  nature  of 
the  all  and  the  Supreme  Vision  "  (ibid.,  27). 

This  view  of  the  tradition  of  the  School  seems  to 
clash  entirely  with  the  other  view  set  forth  in  C.  H.y 
xiii.  (xiv.),  where  Tat  has  handed  on  to  him  the 
"  manner  of  Kebirth,"  but  a  probable  explanation  has 
already  been  attempted  in  the  "Prolegomena,"  chap, 
xvi. :  "  The  Disciples  of  Thrice-greatest  Hermes." 


LETTER   OF   HERMES   TO   ASCLEPIUS          265 

COMPARE  WITH  "MiND  UNTO  HERMES" 

The  treatise  itself  requires  little  commentary;  the 
similarity  of  its  doctrine,  however,  with  that  of  the 
"Mind  unto  Hermes"  is  remarkable.  For  instance, 
compare  the  last  sentence  of  §  7  of  our  treatise  with 
C.  H.,  xi.  (xii.)  14  :  "  For  that  indeed  He  hath  no  other 
one  to  share  in  what  He  works,  for  working  by  Him- 
self, He  ever  is  at  work,  Himself  being  what  He  doth." 

Compare  also  the  first  sentence  of  §  8  with  C.  H.,  xi. 
(xii.)  20 :  "  Behold  what  power,  what  swiftness  thou 
dost  have !  And  canst  thou  do  all  of  these  things,  and 
God  not  do  them  ? " 

THE  GOOD  HUSBANDMAN 

With  the  Good  Husbandman  "  image "  (§  10)  com- 
pare : 

"  Come  unto  me,  Good  Husbandman,  Good  Daimon, 
Harpocrates,  Chnouphis  .  .  .  who  rollest  down  the 
stream  of  Nilus,1  and  minglest  with  the  Sea  ...  as 
man  with  woman."2 

And  in  the  Alchemical  literature : 

"[Come  then],  and  coming  contemplate,  enquire  of 
Acharantus  (?),  the  Husbandman,  and  learn  of  Him, 
what  is  it  that  is  sown,  and  what  that  which  is  reaped ; 
and  thou  shalt  learn  that  he  who  soweth  corn  shall 
reap  corn  also,  and  he  who  soweth  barley  shall  in  like 
manner  reap  barley."  3 

So  also  Zosimus  in  the  "  Book  Concerning  the  Logos  " : 

"  And  that  I  tell  thee  truth,  I  call  to  witness  Hermes, 
when  he  says :  Go  unto  Achaab  (?),  the  Husbandman, 
and  thou  shalt  learn  that  he  who  soweth  corn  gives 
birth  to  corn."  4 

1  The  Heavenly  River  of  fructifying  essence. 

2  Abhandl.  d.  Berl  Akad.  (1865),  p.  120,  26  ;  R.  143. 

3  Berthelot,  p.  30.  4  Berthelot,  p.  89. 


CORPUS  HERMETICUM  (XVI.) 


THE  DEFINITIONS  OF  ASCLEPIUS 
UNTO  KING  AMMON 

THE  PERFECT  SERMON  OF  ASCLEPIUS 
UNTO  THE  KING 

(Text :  R.  348-354  ;  Pat.  at  end.1) 

1.  GREAT  is  the  sermon  (logos)  which  I  send  to 
thee,  0  King — the  summing  up  and  digest,  as 
it  were,  of  all  the  rest. 

For  it  is  not  composed  to  suit  the  many's  pre- 
judice, since  it  contains  much  that  refuteth  them. 

Nay,  it  will  seem  to  thee  as  well  to  contradict 
sometimes  my  sermons  too. 

Hermes,  my  master,  in  many  a  conversation, 
both  when  alone,  and  sometimes,  too,  when  Tat 
was  there,  has  said,  that  unto  those  who  come 
across  my  books,  their  composition  will  seem 
most  simple  and  [most]  clear ;  but,  on  the 
contrary,  as  'tis  unclear,  and  has  the  [inner] 

1  At  the  end  after  P^S.  A.,  but  the  pages  are  unnumbered. 
266 


DEFINITIONS  OF  ASCLEPIUS  TO  KING  AMMON    267 

meaning  of  its  words  concealed,  it  will  be  still 
unclearer,  when,  afterwards,  the  Greeks  will 
want  to  turn  our  tongue  into  their  own, — 
for  this  will  be  a  very  great  distorting  and 
obscuring  of  [even]  what  has  been  [already] 
written. 

2.  Turned  into  our  own  native  tongue,1  the 
sermon  (logos)  keepeth  clear  the  meaning2  of 
the  words  (logoi)  [at  any  rate]. 

For  that  its  very  quality  of  sound,  the  [very] 
power  of  the  Egyptian  names,  have  in  themselves 
the  bringing  into  act  of  what  is  said. 

As  far  as,  then,  thou  canst,  0  King — (and  thou 
canst  [do]  all  things) — keep  [this]  our  sermon 
from  translation ;  in  order  that  such  mighty 
mysteries  may  not  come  to  the  Greeks,  and 
the  disdainful  speech  of  Greece,  with  [all]  its 
looseness,  and  its  surface  beauty,3  so  to  speak, 
take  all  the  strength  out  of4  the  solemn  and  the 
strong — the  energetic 5  speech  of  Names. 

The  Greeks,  0  King,  have  novel  words,  energic 
of  "  argumentation "  [only] ;  and  thus  is  the 
philosophizing  of  the  Greeks — the  noise  of  words. 

But  we  do  not  use  words ;  but  we  use  sounds 
full-filled  with  deeds. 

1  This  presumably   means  from   the    hieroglyphic    into    the 

demotic — rrj  Trarpcpa  8ia\fKTca   ep/tTjpev^uei/os. 

2  Lit.  the  mind.  3  Or,  perhaps,  smartness. 

4  Make  jejune,  so  to  say — ^irij\ov  TTO^O-T?. 

5  That  is,  "  words  of  power,"  words  that  do  things. 


268 


THRICE -GREATEST   HERMES 


3.  Thus,  then,  will  I  begin  the  sermon  by 
invocation  unto  God,  the  universals'  Lord  and 
Maker,  [their]  Sire,  and  [their]  Encompasser; 
who  though  being  All  is  One,1  and  though  being 
One  is  All ;  for  that  the  Fullness  of  all  things  is 
One,  and  [is]  in  One,  this  latter  One  not  coming 
as  a  second  [One],  but  both  being  One. 

And  this  is  the  idea 2  that  I  would  have  thee 
keep,  through  the  whole  study  of  our  sermon, 
Sire! 

For  should  one  try  to  separate  what  seems 
to  be  both  All  and  One  and  Same  from  One,— 
he  will  be  found  to  take 3  his  epithet  of  "  All " 
from  [the  idea  of]  multitude,  and  not  from  [that 
of)  fullness  * — which  is  impossible  ;  for  if  he  part 
All  from  the  One,  he  will  destroy  the  All.5 

For  all  things  must  be  One — if  they  indeed 
are  One.  Yea,  they  are  One;  and  they  shall 
never  cease  being  One — in  order  that  the  Fullness 
may  not  be  destroyed. 


4.  See  then  in  Earth  a  host  of  founts  of  Water 
and  of  Fire  forth-spirting  in  its  midmost  parts ; 
in  one  and  the  same  [space  all]  the  three 

1  Cf.  R.  127,  3  ;  and  P.  8.  A.,  i.  1.  2  Lit.  mind. 

3  The  construction  is  very  elliptical ;  &8€(c£/iej'05  simply. 

4  That  is,  completeness,  perfection, — ir\-np&iJ.a.Tos. 

5  Cf.  Plato,  Soph.,  259  D,  B. 


DEFINITIONS  OF  ASCLEPIUS  TO  KING  AMMON    269 

natures  visible — of  Fire,  and  Water,  and  of 
Earth,  depending  from  one  Root.1 

Whence,  too,  it 2  is  believed  to  be  the  Treasury 3 
of  every  matter.  It  sendeth  forth  of  its 4  abun- 
dance, and  in  the  place  [of  what  it  sendeth  forth] 
receiveth  the  subsistence  from  above.5 

For  thus  the  Demiurge6 — I  mean  the  Sun — 
eternally  doth  order  Heaven  and  Earth,  pouring 
down  Essence,7  and  taking  Matter  up,  drawing 
both  round  Himself  and  to  Himself  all  things, 
and  from  Himself  giving  all  things  to  all. 

For  He  it  is  whose  goodly  energies  extend  not 
only  through  the  Heaven  and  the  Air,  but  also 
onto  Earth,  right  down  unto  the  lowest  Depth 
and  the  Abyss. 

6.  And  if  there  be  an  Essence  which  the  mind 
alone  can  grasp,8  this  is  his  Substance,9  the 
reservoir10  of  which  would  be  His  Light. 

1  Cf.  P.  S.  A.,  iv.  1.  2  Sc.  Earth. 

3  A  magazine,  a  store-house, — Ta/xielW.  The  term  "  treasure  " 
(6rj<Tavp6s')  is  found  in  most  lavish  use  in  the  Greek -Coptic 
Gnostic  works,  and  also  in  Christian  Gnostic  literature  and 
Jewish  Apocalyptic.  4  Sc.  matter's. 

5  rV  &/o>0ei/  virap£u', — hyparxis,  substance  or  subsistence,  a  word 
of  frequent  use  and  highly  technical  meaning  with  the  last  of  the 
Neo-Platonists,  especially  with  Proclus.     Cf.  G.  H.,  x.  (xi.)  2. 

6  Cf.  P.  S.  A.,  xxix.  4. 

7  Lit.  bringing  or  drawing  down;  K<n<iy^iv  =  deducere,  elicere — 
used  frequently  of  magic  arts. 

8  vo-n-r^]  ovaia  —  intelligibilis  essentia. 

9  ZyKos  =  moles,   mass,   bulk,  volume ;    in  later  philosophy  it 
means  "atom,"  and  may  mean  so  here,  of  course  in  the  philo- 
sophical and  mystic  and  not  in  the  physical  sense. 

receptaculum. 


270  THRICE-GREATEST   HERMES 

But  whence   this  [Substance]   doth  arise,   or 
floweth  forth,  He,  [and  He]  only,  knows. 


Or  rather,  in  space  and  nature,  He  is  near 
unto  Himself  .  .  .  though  as  He  is  not  seen  by 
us,  ...  understand  [Him]  by  conjecture.1 

7.  The  spectacle  of  Him,  however,  is  not  left 
unto  conjecture  ;  nay  [for]  His  very  rays,2  in 
greatest  splendour,  shine  all  round  on  all  the 
Cosmos  that  doth  lie  above  and  lie  below. 

For  He  is  stablished  in  the  midst,  wreathed 
with  the  Cosmos,3  and  just  as  a  good  charioteer, 
He  safely  drives  the  cosmic  team,4  and  holds 
them  in  unto  Himself,5  lest  they  should  run  away 
in  dire  disorder. 

The  reins  are  Life,  and  Soul,  and  Spirit, 
Deathlessness,  and  Genesis. 

1  The  text  is  very  corrupt.     Patrizzi  translates  :  "  Vel  quia  ipso 
loco,  et  natura  prope  se  ipsum  existens,  non  a  nobis  conspicitur  cogit 
nos  per  conjecturas  intelligere  "  —  which  certainly  does  not  represent 
the  Greek.     Menard  conjectures  brilliantly  but  in  entire  emanci- 
pation from  the  text  :  "  Pour  comprendre  par  induction  ce  qui  se 
derobe  a  noire  vue,  il  faudrait  etre  pres  de  lui  et  analogue  a  sa 
nature"     Reitzenstein  discovers  two  lacunas  in  the  text,  but  does 
not  attempt  to  fill  them.     As  the  text  stands,  then,  all  attempt  at 
translation  seems  hopeless. 

2  Lit.  his  very  sight,  —  avr^i  y  fyis,  that  is,  his  rays,  fyis  being 
used  of  the  visual  rays  which  were  supposed  by  the  science  of  the 
time  to  proceed  from  the  eyes.     Cf.  Ex.  vii.  4. 

3  Wearing  the  Cosmos  as  a  wreath  or  crown  ;  the  visible  sun 
being  regarded  as  a  "  head."    See  "  The  Perfect  Sermon." 

4  Lit.  car  or  chariot  —  #p/ta. 

5  Lit.  binds  it  to  himself  —  avaS-fi<ras  tls 


DEFINITIONS  OF  ASCLEPIUS  TO   KING  AMMON   271 

He  lets  it,  then,  drive  [round]  not  far  off  from 
Himself  —  nay,  if  the  truth  be  said,  together  with 
Himself. 

8.  And  in  this  way  He  operates  l  all  things. 
To  the  immortals  He  distributeth  perpetual 

permanence  ;  and  with  the  upper  hemisphere  of 
His  own  Light  —  all  that  he  sends  above  from  out 
His  other  side,2  [the  side  of  him]  which  looks  to 
Heaven  —  He  nourisheth  the  deathless  parts  of 
Cosmos. 

But  with  that  side  that  sendeth  down  [its 
Light],  and  shineth  round  all  of  the  hemisphere  3 
of  Water,  and  of  Earth,  and  Air,  He  vivifieth, 
and  by  births  and  changes  keepeth  in  movement 
to  and  fro  the  animals4  in  these  [the  lower]  parts 
of  Cosmos.  .  .  . 

9.  He   changes   them  in   spiral   fashion,  and 
doth  transform  them   into   one   another,  genus 
to    genus,    species    into    species,    their    mutual 
changes  into  one  another  being  balanced  —  just 
as  He  does  when  He  doth  deal  with  the  Great 
Bodies. 

For  in  the  case  of  every  body,  [its]  perma- 
nence [consists  in]  transformation. 

In    case    of    an   immortal   one,    there   is   no 


2  Lit.  part. 

3  KVTos=a,  hollow,  vase,  or  vessel. 

4  That  is,  those  lives  subject  to    death,  as  opposed  to  the 
immortals. 


272  THRICE- GREATEST   HERMES 

dissolution ;   but   when   it   is   a   mortal  one,  it 
is  accompanied  with  dissolution.1 

And  this  is  how  the  deathless  body  doth  differ 
from  the  mortal,  and  how  the  mortal  one  doth 
differ  from  the  deathless. 

10.  Moreover,  as  His  Light's  continuous,  so  is 
His  Power  of  giving  Life  to  lives  continuous, 
and  not  to  be  brought  to  an  end  in  space  or 
in  abundance. 

For  there  are  many  choirs  of  daimons  round 
Him,  like  unto  hosts  of  very  various  kinds  ;  who 
though  they  dwell  with  mortals,  yet  are  not  far 
from  the  immortals  ;  but  having  as  their  lot  from 
here  unto  the  spaces  of  the  Gods,2  they  watch 
o'er  the  affairs  of  men,  and  work  out  things 
appointed  by  the  Gods — by  means  of  storms, 
whirlwinds  and  hurricanes,  by  transmutations 
wrought  by  fire  and  shakings  of  the  earth,3  with 
famines  also  and  with  wars  requiting  [man's] 
impiety, — for  this  is  in  man's  case  the  greatest 
ill  against  the  Gods. 

11.  For  that  the  duty  of  the  Gods  is  to  give 
benefits;  the  duty  of  mankind  is  to  give  worship4; 
the  duty  of  the  daimons  is  to  give  requital. 

For  as  to  all  the  other  things  men  do,  through 

1  Compare  "  Sermon  to  Tat,"  I.  (Menard).     Cf.  Stob.,  Eel,  i.  61  ; 
274,  24  W. 

2  Lit.  "  the  land  of  these  " — that  is,  of  the  immortals. 

3  Cf.  Ex.  ix.  5. 

4  Or,  to  be  pious.     Cf.  P.  S.  A.,  ix.  1. 


DEFINITIONS  OF   ASCLEPIUS  TO  KING  AMMON    273 

error,  or  foolhardiness,  or  by  necessity,  which 
they  call  Fate,1  or  ignorance  —  these  are  not  held 
requitable  among  the  Gods  ;  impiety  alone  is 
guilty  at  their  bar. 

12.  The  Sun  is  the  preserver2  and  the  nurse 
of  every  class.3 

And  just  as  the  Intelligible  World,4  holding 
the  Sensible  in  its  embrace,  fills  it  [all]  full, 
distending  it  with  forms  of  every  kind  and 
every  shape  —  so,  too,  the  Sun  distendeth  all  in 
Cosmos,  affording  births  to  all,  and  strengtheneth 
them. 

When  they  are  weary  or  they  fail,  He  takes 
them  in  His  arms  again. 

13.  And  under  Him  is  ranged  the  choir  of 
daimons  —  or,  rather,  choirs  ;  for  these  are  multi- 
tudinous and  very  varied,  ranked  underneath  the 
groups  of  Stars,5  in  equal  number  with  each  one 
of  them. 

So,  marshalled  in  their  ranks,  they  are  the 
ministers  of  each  one  of  the  Stars,  being  in  their 
natures  good,  and  bad,  that  is,  in  their  activities 
(for  that  a  daimon's  essence  is  activity)  ;  while 


3  Or  genus.  4  Or  Cosmos. 

5  M  TO.S  rwv  ao-repwv  irXivOiSas.     ir\ii>9is  =  ir\ivQiovt  and  is  used  of 

any  rectangular  figure,  and  also  of  groups  of  stars  as  in  Eratosth. 
apud  Strab.,  II.  i.  35  ;  v.  36  (Lex.  Sophocles)  j  compare  al  r&v 
irxivQtuv  viroypa.(j>ai,  the  fields,  or  spaces,  into  which  the  Augurs 
divided  the  heavens,  templa,  or  regiones  coeli  (Lex.  Liddell  and 
Scott). 

VOL.  II.  18 


274  THRICE-GREATEST    HERMES 

some  of  them  are  [of]  mixed  [natures],  good  and 
bad. 

14.  To   all   of   these   has   been    allotted    the 
authority  o'er  things  upon  the  Earth  ;   and   it 
is  they  who  bring  about  the  multifold  confusion 
of  the   turmoils  on  the  Earth  —  for  states  and 
nations    generally,     and    for     each     individual 
separately. 

For  they  do  shape  our  souls  like  to  themselves, 
and  set  them  moving  with  them,  —  obsessing 
nerves,  and  marrow,  veins  and  arteries,  the 
brain  itself,  down  to  the  very  heart.1 

15.  For  on  each  one  of  us  being  born  and 
made  alive,  the  daimons  take  hold  on  us  —  those 
[daimones]  who  are  in  service  at  that  moment  [of 
the  wheel]  of  Genesis,   who  are  ranged  under 
each  one  of  the  Stars.2 

For  that  these  change  at  every  moment  ;  they 
do  not  stay  the  same,  but  circle  back  again. 

These,  then,  descending  through  the  body  *  to 
the  two  parts4  of  the  soul,  set  it5  awhirling, 
each  one  towards  its  own  activity. 

But  the  soul's  rational  part  is  set  above  the 
lordship  of  the  daimons  —  designed  to  be  receptacle 
of  God. 

1  Lit.  viscera.  2  Cf.  P.  S.  A.,  xxxv.  2. 

3  Cf.  C.  H.,  xiii.  (xiv.)  7. 

4  The  two  irrational  parts,  "  passion  "  and  "  desire  " 


5  The  soul. 


DEFINITIONS  OF  ASCLEPIUS  TO    KING  AMMON   275 

16.  Who  then  doth  have  a  Ray  shining  upon 
him  through  the  Sun  within  his  rational  part — 
and  these  in  all  are  few — on  them  the  daimons 
do  not  act ;  for  no  one  of  the  daimons  or  of  Gods 
has  any  power  against  one  Ray  of  God. 

As  for  the  rest,  they  are  all  led  and  driven, 
soul  and  body,  by  the  daimons — loving  and 
hating  the  activities  of  these. 

The  reason  (logos),  [then,]  is  not  the  love  that 
is  deceived  and  that  deceives.1 

The  daimons,  therefore,  exercise  the  whole  of 
this  terrene  economy,2  using  our  bodies  as  [their] 
instruments. 

And  this  economy  Hermes  has  called 
Heimarmene.3 

17.  The    World    Intelligible,4   then,   depends 
from   God;    the  Sensible  from   the  Intelligible 
[World]. 

The  Sun,  through  the  Intelligible  and  the 
Sensible  Cosmos,  pours  forth  abundantly  the 
stream  from  God  of  Good, — that  is,  the 
demiurgic  operation. 

And  round  the  Sun  are  the  Eight  Spheres, 
dependent  from  Him  —  the  [Sphere]  of  the 

1  This  Eros  is  the  lower  love  (cf.  G.  H.,  i.  18  :  "  love,  the  cause 
of  death  "),  not  the  Divine  Love  who  inspires  Hermes  in  "  The 
Perfect  Sermon"  and  who  is  mentioned  G.  H.,  xviii.  14. 


3  Or,  Fate  ;  cf.  G.  H.,  i.  9  ;  and  P.  S.  A.,  xix. 

4  Or,  Intelligible  Cosmos. 


276  THRICE-GREATEST   HERMES 

Non-wandering  Ones,  the  Six  [Spheres]  of  the 
Wanderers,  and  one  Circumterrene. 

And  from  the  Spheres  depend  the  daimones ; 
and  from  these,  men. 

And  thus  all  things  and  all  [of  them]  depend 
from  God.1 

18.  Wherefore  God  is  the  Sire  of  all;  the 
Sun's  [their]  Demiurge;  the  Cosmos  is  the 
instrument  of  demiurgic  operation. 

Intelligible  Essence  regulateth  Heaven ;  and 
Heaven,  the  Gods ;  the  daimones,  ranked  under- 
neath the  Gods,  regulate  men. 

This  is  the  host 2  of  Gods  and  daimones.3 

Through  these  God  makes  all  things  for  His 
own  self. 

And  all  [of  them]  are  parts  of  God ;  and  if 
they  all  [are]  parts — then,  God  is  all. 

Thus,  making  all,  He  makes  Himself;  nor 
ever  can  He  cease  [His  making],  for  He  Him- 
self is  ceaseless.4 

Just,  then,  as  God  doth  have  no  end  and  no 
beginning,  so  doth  His  making  have  no  end 
and  no  beginning.6 


1  Cf.  P.  S.  A.,  iv.  1  n. ;  and  xix. 

2  Or  army,  or  hierarchy.    Compare  the  "soldier"  degree  of 
the  Mithriaca. 

3  Cf.  G.  H.,  x.  (xi.)  22  ;  and  P.  S.  A.,  v.  1. 
*  Qf  G.  H.,  xiv.  (xv.),  7  and  5. 

5  See  Commentary  to  Frag.  iv.  (Lack,  D.  I.,  ii.  15). 


DEFINITIONS  OF  ASCLEPIUS  TO   KING  AMMON   277 
COMMENTAKY 

CONCEKNING  THE  TlTLE 

Patrizzi  has  run  (xvi.)  and  (xvii.)  together,  under  the 
title  "Definitions  of  Asclepius — Book  I.,"  though  he  clearly 
saw  that  (xvii.)  did  not  belong  to  (xvi.)  by  his  remark, 
"  videntur  sequentia  ex  olio  libro  sumpta."  He  also  heads 
(xvii.)  1-10  "  Definitions  of  Asclepius — Book  II.,"  and 
11-16  "D.  of  A.— Book  III.,"  though  the  contents 
have  evidently  nothing  to  do  with  such  a  title. 

In  the  MSS.  a  later  hand  has  added  to  the  general 
title  a  catalogue  of  contents  as  follows : 

"  Of  God ;  Matter ;  Evil ;  Fate ;  the  Sun  ;  Intelli- 
gible Essence  ;  Divine  Essence ;  Man ;  the  Economy  of 
the  Pleroma;  the  Seven  Stars;  the  Man  after  the 
Likeness"1 — for  which  largely  irrelevant  list  Patrizzi 
substitutes  the  title :  "  Of  the  Sun  and  Daimons. " 

Eeitzenstein  (p.  192)  is  of  opinion  that  this  contents- 
list,  and  also  the  similar  headings  in  (xviii.),  are  due  to 
some  Byzantine  scribe,  who  also  foolishly  interpolated 
(xvii.). 

But  even  to  (xvi.)  the  title  "  Definitions  of  Asclepius  " 
seems  very  inappropriate  ;  while,  on  the  other  hand,  we 
find  Lactantius  (D.  I.,  ii.  5),  in  referring  to  the 
"  incursions  of  daimones,"  claiming  that  it  was  a 
doctrine  also  of  Hermes,  and  adding: 

"  Asclepius,  his  hearer,  has  also  explained  the  same 
idea  at  greater  length  in  that  '  Perfect  Sermon '  which 
he  wrote  to  the  King." 

This  is  quite  definite,  and  the  authority  of  Lactantius 
should  perhaps  be  preferred  to  that  of  the  MSS.,  but 
as  the  title  would  clash  with  "The  Perfect  Sermon" 
of  Hermes  to  Asclepius,  and  as  Lactantius  may  just 

1  R.  348  n. 


278  THRICE-GREATEST   HERMES 

possibly  mean  "  in  that  initiatory  sermon," — the  term 
perfectus  being  used  in  a  general  and  not  in  an  appel- 
lative sense, — I  have  kept  the  traditional  title  and 
placed  that  of  Lactantius  second. 

A  TRADITION  CONCERNING  THE  TRISMEGISTIC 
LITERATURE 

1.  Like  "  The  Key"— 0.  H.,  x.  (xi.)— of  Hermes,  our 
treatise    is    an    Epitome 1 ;    Asclepius   has  previously 
written  a  number  of  Sermons  to  the  King. 

The  reference  to  the  "Conversations"  between  Hermes 
and  Asclepius  and  Tat,  sometimes  when  both  the  latter 
were  present  and  sometimes  with  Asclepius  alone, 
presupposes  the  existence  of  this  class  of  Dialogue,  and 
indicates  that  the  Correspondence  of  Asclepius  with  the 
King  is  a  later  deposit  of  our  literature.2 

This  literary  activity  of  Asclepius  is  claimed  in  the 
introduction  to  be  authorized  by  Hermes,  and,  moreover, 
purports  to  have  been  originally  written  in  Demotic 
Egyptian.  In  other  words,  the  writer  would  have  us 
believe  that  the  Greek  is  a  translation  from  Egyptian. 
This  it  clearly  is  not ;  and  we  can  only  conclude  that 
the  "prophecy"  as  to  direct  translation  is  a  literary 
fiction  of  our  author. 

2.  On  the  other  hand,  it  is  highly  probable  that  our 
author  was  in  contact  with  a  living  tradition,  to  the 
effect  that  the  Hermes-teaching  was  originally  Egyptian, 
and  that  this  was  "interpreted"  into  Greek — that  is, 
into  Greek  modes  of  thought,  rather  than  "  translated  " 
in  the  ordinary  sense  into  Greek. 

In  any  case,  the  contempt  shown  by  our  author  for 
the  Greek  language  and  "philosophizing,"  and  his 

1  Cf.  also  Ex.  i.  16,  and  Comment. 

2  This  deduction,  however,  has  to  be  modified  by  the  view  we 
hold  as  to  the  authorship  of  the  introduction.     See  Comment.,  §  5. 


DEFINITIONS   OF  ASCLEPIUS  TO   KING   AMMON    279 

admiration  for  Hieroglyphic  Egyptian  as  a  "language 
of  the  Gods" — a  magical  tongue,  that  by  its  mdntric 
power  compelled  the  understanding  of  the  hearer,  by 
putting  him  in  sympathy  with  the  ideas  pictured  by 
the  ideograms,  or  sounded  forth  by  the  "  names  of 
power  " l — show  that  he  was  not  only  not  a  Greek,  but 
also  no  lover  of  Greek  Philosophy. 

This  is  exceedingly  puzzling,  seeing  not  only  that  the 
majority  of  the  writers  of  our  tractates  are  plainly 
deep  students  and  lovers  of  Plato,  but  also  that  the 
author  of  our  tractate  himself  also  writes  very  much  in 
the  same  style  as  they  do. 

All  of  this  seems  to  indicate  that  in  his  introduction 
he  was  using  for  his  own  purposes  some  tradition  about 
the  ancient  Thoth-literature  that  was  current  in  his 
time.  A  form  of  this  tradition  was  also  made  use  of 
by  Philo  of  Byblus  in  the  first  century,  when  he  makes 
the  Phoenician  priest  Sanchuniathon  discover  the  origin 
of  the  Phoenician  cosmogony  and  mystery-teaching  in 
the  Books  of  Taautos,  "whom  the  Egyptian  called 
Thoyth,  the  Alexandrians  Thoth,  and  the  Greeks 
changed  into  Hermes." 

Sanchuniathon,  he  says,  "having  come  across  the 
secret  writings  that  had  been  discovered  and  brought 
from  the  shrines  of  the  Temples  of  Ammon, — com- 
positions which  were  not  known  to  all, — practised  by 
himself  the  science  (rtjv  imdOrjo-iv)  of  all  things." 2 

Philo  also  professes  to  quote  from  one  of  the  earliest 
priests  of  Phoenicia,  a  certain  Thabion,  who  is  said 
apparently  to  have  got  his  information  from  a  writing 
of  the  Seven  Kabiri,  and  of  Asclepius,  the  pupil  of 
Taautos.  This  Thabion  asserted  that  Taautos  was 
made  King  of  Egypt  by  Kronos — that  is,  Ammon.3 

1  Of.  R  269.  2  Apt  Euseb.,  Prcep.  Ev.,  I.  ix.  29. 

3  Ibid.,  I.  x.  38,  39. 


280  THRICE-GREATEST   HERMES 

Here  we  are  evidently  in  contact  with  certain 
traditions  with  regard  to  Thoth-Hermes,  his  ancestors 
and  pupils,  and  secret  writings.  Presumably  many 
such  traditions  were  floating  about,  and  were  used 
according  to  the  fancy  and  taste  of  Hellenistic  writers 
for  their  own  purposes. 

But  there  was  also  another  tradition  concerning  a 
certain  King  Ammon,  used  in  one  form  by  Jamblichus, 
when  he  writes : 

"  It  was  Hermes  who  first  taught  this  Path  [sc.  the 
Way  up  to  God].  And  Bitys,1  the  Prophet,  translated 
[his  teachings  concerning  it]  for  King  Ammon,  dis- 
covering them  in  the  inner  temple  in  an  inscription  in 
the  sacred  characters  at  Sai's  in  Egypt." 2 

What  our  author  and  Jamblichus  have  in  common  is 
that  there  were  certain  secret  teachings  of  Hermes  in 
the  Sacred  Language  of  Ancient  Egypt  hidden  away  in 
the  inner  shrines  of  the  temples,  and  that  these  were 
translated  into  the  current  Egyptian  language  of  the 
time  for  a  certain  King  Ammon. 

It  must,  then,  have  been  some  tradition  of  this  kind 
that  our  author  or  writer  had  in  mind ;  he  would  have 
it  believed  that  he  was  writing  in  the  style  or  according 
to  the  model  of  a  certain  literature. 

Who  this  King  Ammon  was  can  only  be  guessed  at ; 
but  to  my  mind  it  is  probable  that  the  "  translations  " 
of  Bitys  were  made  in  connection  with  the  translation 
activity  of  Manetho  for  King  Ptolemy,  and  this  trans- 
lation was  into  Greek.  Our  author,  however,  would 
refer  it  to  some  Egyptain  King,  and  so  seek  to  invoke 
the  authority  of  a  high  antiquity  for  the  treatise  he 
was  putting  into  circulation. 

1  Of.  Zosimus  (§  8).  2  De  Myst.,  viii.  5. 


DEFINITIONS  OF  ASCLEPIUS  TO  KING  AMMON    281 

A  SPECULATION  AS  TO  DATE 

5.  What  seems  to  differentiate  our  treatise  from  the 
rest  of  the  tractates,  is  the  prominence  its  author  gives 
to  the  doctrine  of  the  Sun  as  Demiurgic  Orderer  of  all 
things.  This  so  to  speak  pantheistic  form  of  Sun- 
worship  is  peculiarly  Egyptian.1 

Now  if  we  remember  the  disdainful  way  in  which 
Greek  "  philosophizing  "  is  spoken  of  in  the  introduction, 
we  may  be  tempted  to  take  the  sentence,  "And  if 
there  be  any  essence  which  the  mind  alone  can  grasp  " 
(§  6),  as  a  somewhat  patronizing  reference  to  the 
Intelligible  World  of  Greek  Philosophy,  as  also  the 
analogy  in  §  12 ;  but  when  we  turn  to  §§17  and  18 
the  exposition  fully  adopts  the  doctrine  of  the  Intelli- 
gible and  Sensible  Worlds.  This  is  so  irreconcilable 
a  contradiction  that  one  is  almost  compelled  to  believe 
that  the  introduction  is  by  another  hand  altogether, 
and  that  our  sermon  proper  begins  with  §  3. 

But  even  so,  the  sermon  is  addressed  to  some  King 
or  other  —  "The  Perfect  Sermon  to  the  King"  of 
Lactantius — without  any  further  qualification.  Who, 
however,  this  King  may  have  been  historically  must 
remain  a  matter  of  pure  conjecture. 

7.  When,  then,  Reitzenstein,  pointing  to  §  7,  says  that 
the  symbolism  of  the  Sun  as  a  charioteer  wearing  a 
crown  of  rays  corresponds  with  that  of  the  pictures  of 
the  Aurelian  Sun-god,  and  adds  further  it  is  the 
Roman  Empire-god  of  the  third  century,  we  are  quite 
prepared  to  acknowledge  a  similarity  of  symbolism. 
But  if  it  is  intended  to  suggest  that,  therefore,  we  are 
to  date  our  document  by  this  similarity,  it  must  be 
admitted  that  the  indications  are  far  too  vague;  for 
the  symbolism  of  the  Sun  as  the  ray-crowned  charioteer 

1  Cf.  K  198,  1  ;  and  also  Comment  on  §  17  below. 


282  THRICE-GREATEST   HERMES 

is  fundamental  with  the  cult  of  Mithras,  and  is  found 
in  Greece  long  before  the  Aurelian  period. 

THE  DELINEATION  OF  THE  SUN 

It  is  interesting,  however,  here  to  notice  that  the 
Sun  is  "  wreathed  with  cosmos/'  and  to  compare  this 
with  the  passage  concerning  the  Macro-prosopus  in  the 
Untitled  Apocalypse  of  the  Coptic  Gnostic  Codex 
Brucianus,  and  especially  with  the  sentence: 

"  The  Hair  of  His  Head  is  the  number  of  the  Hidden 
Worlds,  and  the  Outline  of  His  Face  is  the  Type  of 
the  ^ons."1 

In  this  Untitled  Apocalypse  there  is  a  strong  Egyptian 
under-colouring ;  that,  however,  the  idea  of  a  crown  of 
powers  was  pre-eminently  Egyptian  may  be  seen  from 
many  a  passage  in  the  Pistis  Sophia. 

8.  It  is  also  of  interest  to  notice  that  the  delineation 
of  the  Sun  in  §  8  reminds  us  of  the  Orphic  Phanes, 
especially  the  reference  to  the  two  hemispheres  above 
and   below,  —  the   two  parts   of   the  Egg  in   Orphic 
symbolism. 

9.  The  hint  that  the  sun-life  runs  in  some  sort  of 
spiral  or  serpentine  fashion  in  animals,  and  that  this 
also  is   the  case  with   the   Great  Bodies  or  Celestial 
Animals,  is  of  interest. 

CONCERNING  THE  DAIMONES 

10.  Our  author  then  proceeds  to  set  forth  his  doctrine 
of   the  daimones  or   ministers   of   the   Gods,  who   are 
assigned  to  the  lower   hemisphere  of   operation,  from 
the  Earth  to  the  Sun,  the  Gods  presumably  occupying 
the  higher  hemisphere  of  activity.     These  daimones  are 
what  a  Hindu  or  Buddhist  would  call  karmic  agents, 
for  they  are  all  connected  with  what  is  called  the  Fate- 

1  F.  F.  F.,  549. 


DEFINITIONS   OF  ASCLEPIUS  TO  KING  AMMON    283 

Sphere,  the  Instrument  or  the  Wheel  of   Genesis,  or 
Samsara. 

15.  These  daimones  rule  over  the  lower  energies  of 
the  soul;   the  higher  energy  or  rational   part   of   the 
soul  is  set  above   them,  and  is   designed   to   be   the 
"  receptacle  of  God," — or  rather  of  His  Eay, — the  Mind 
proper. 

16.  With  §  16  compare  the  remarkable  passage  in 
one  of  the  Letters  of  Valentin  us : 

"One  [alone]  is  Good,  whose  free  utterance  is  His 
manifestation  through  His  Son;  it  is  by  Him  alone 
that  the  heart  can  become  pure,  when  every  evil  essence 
has  been  expelled  from  it. 

"  Now  its  purity  is  prevented  by  the  many  essences 
which  take  up  their  abode  in  it,  for  each  of  them 
accomplishes  its  own  deeds,  outraging  it  in  divers 
fashions  with  unseemly  lusts. 

"As  far  as  I  can  see,  the  heart  seems  to  receive 
somewhat  the  same  treatment  as  an  inn  [or  caravan- 
serai], which  has  holes  and  gaps  made  in  its  walls,  and 
is  frequently  filled  with  dung,  men  living  filthily  in  it 
and  taking  no  care  of  the  place  as  being  someone  else's 
property.  Thus  is  it  with  the  heart  so  long  as  it  has 
no  care  taken  of  it,  ever  unclean  and  the  abode  of  many 
daimons. 

"  But  when  the  Alone  Good  Father  hath  regard  unto 
it,  it  is  sanctified  and  shineth  with  light ;  and  he  who 
possesseth  such  a  heart  is  so  blessed  that  '  he  shall  see 
God.'"1 

The  language  of  Valentinus  is  remarkably  like  that 
of  our  treatises ;  Valentinus  himself  was  an  Egyptian. 

1  Quoted  by  Clemens  Alexandrinus,  Strom.,  II.  xx.  114 ; 
P.  489  (ed.  Dindorf,  ii.  219).  See  for  further  critical  text, 
Hilgenfeld  (A.),  Ketzergesch.  d.  Urchrist.,  p.  296 ;  F.  F.  F.,  300, 
301. 


284  THRICE-GREATEST    HERMES 

17.  Entirely  Egyptian  also  is  the  Scheme  of 
Dependency  given  in  §  17,  as  we  have  already  pointed 
out  on  several  occasions,  quoting  from  a  Hymn  of 
Valentinus. 

The  sentence:  "Wherefore  God  is  the  Sire  of  all; 
the  Sun's  [their]  Demiurge" — distinctly  contradicts 
Eeitzenstein's  (p.  198,  1)  statement  that  the  Sun  in  our 
treatise  is  worshipped  as  the  All-god.  The  Sun  is  He 
"  by  whom  all  things  are  made," — the  Creative  Logos 
of  God.1 

19.  The  treatise  is  evidently  incomplete;  if, however, 
we  turn  to  the  contents-title  given  at  the  beginning  of 
these  comments  we  can  gain  but  little  information  as 
to  what  is  missing,  for  the  contents  there  given  do  not 
in  any  but  the  vaguest  fashion  correspond  to  the 
substance  of  our  treatise,  nor  do  the  subjects  treated  of 
come  in  the  same  order  as  in  the  contents-heading. 
The  Divine  Essence,  Man,  the  Economy  of  the  Pleroma 
and  the  Man  after  the  Likeness,  which  are  clearly  not 
treated  of  in  our  text,  may  then  have  been  treated  in 
the  missing  portion  of  our  tractate ;  but  this  is  all  we 
can  say. 

1  Qf.  P.  S.  A.,  xxix.  5. 


COEPUS  HEEMETICUM  (XVII.) 


[OF  ASCLEPIUS  TO  THE  KING] 

(Text :  R.  354 ;  Pat.  at  end  of  last  piece.) 
***** 
***** 
***** 
***** 
***** 
***** 

Asclepius.  If  thou  dost  think  [of  it],  0  King, 
even  of  bodies  there  are  things  bodiless.1 

The  King.  What  [are  they]  ?— (asked  the 
King.) 

Asc.  The  bodies  that  appear  in  mirrors — do 
they  not  seem  then  to  have  no  body  ? 

The  King.  It  is  so,  0  Asclepius2;  thou  thinkest 
like  a  God3 ! — (the  King  replied.) 

1  Of.  Plat.,  Soph.,  229  D,  240  A,  246  B. 

2  The  corrector  of  B  has  changed  the  name  Asclepius  into 
Tat,  as  he  has  everywhere  in  C.  H.,  ii.  (iii.) ;  R.  193,  1. 

3    06  ICO S. 

285 


286  THRICE-GREATEST   HERMES 

Asc.  There  are  things  bodiless  as  well  as 
these ;  for  instance,  forms l — do  not  they  seem 
to  thee  to  have  no  body,  but  to  appear  in 
bodies  not  only  of  the  things  which  are  ensouled, 
but  also  of  those  which  are  not  ensouled  ? 

The  King.  Thou  sayest  well,  Asclepius. 

Asc.  Thus,  [then,]  there  are  reflexions  of 
things  bodiless  on  bodies,  and  of  bodies  too 
upon  things  bodiless — that  is  to  say,  [reflexions] 
of  the  Sensible  on  the  Intelligible  World,  and 
of  the  [World]  Intelligible  on  the  Sensible. 

Wherefore,  pay  worship  to  the  images,  0 
King,  since  they  too  have  their  forms  as  from 
the  World  Intelligible. 

(Thereon  His  Majesty  arose  and  said  :) 

The  King.  It  is  the  hour,2  0  Prophet,  to  see 
about  the  comfort  of  our  guests.  To-morrow, 
[then,]  will  we  resume  our  sacred  converse.3 


COMMENTAKY 

ON  THE  ADORATION  OF  IMAGES 

The  loss  of  the  end  of  the  previous  sermon,  and  also 
the  loss  of  almost  the  whole  of  (xvii.),  is  to  be  accounted 
for  by  the  falling  out  of  one  or  more  quires  from  the 
original  MS.  of  our  Corpus,4  a  phenomenon  similar 
to  that  already  remarked  in  the  case  of  C.  H.t  ii.  (iii). 

1  Or  ideas.  2  Of.  Plat.,  Soph*  241  B. 

4    R.   198. 


OF   ASCLEPIUS   TO    THE    KING  287 

And  that  this  is  the  fact  is  brought  out  interestingly 
by  the  note  of  Keitzenstein  (p.  193,  1) — namely,  that 
one  of  the  correctors  of  one  of  the  copies  (Paris  MS.) 
of  this  faulty  original  has  precisely  in  these  two  places 
changed  the  name  Asclepius  into  Tat.  He  was  puzzled, 
and  thought  that  his  "correction"  would  set  matters 
right ;  as  a  matter  of  fact,  however,  it  only  adds  to  the 
confusion. 

What  the  main  subject  of  our  treatise  may  have  been 
we  can  hardly  conjecture;  part  of  it,  however,  must 
have  been  devoted  to  an  explanation  of  the  rationale 
of  image-adoration, — "Wherefore  pay  worship  to  the 
images,  0  King," — of  which  we  hear  so  much  in  P.  S.  A. 

These  symbolic  images  of  the  Gods  are  said  to  have 
their  "  forms  "  (^ea?)  in  sympathetic  relation  with  the 
Intelligible  World.  These  are  mutual "  reflections,"  the 
one  of  the  other. 

Now  as  the  Ka  of  the  God  was  thought  to  have 
immediate  relation  with  the  image-symbol  of  the  God, 
and  the  Gods  were  of  the  Intelligible  World, — the 
statues  of  the  Gods  were  thought  to  be  images  of  the 
Image  in  some  special  way ;  they  were  regarded  as 
providing  a  straight  path  or  line  of  connection  between 
Earth  and  Heaven,  just  as  a  man  who  made  himself 
like  to  the  Man  after  the  Likeness  became  in  himself  a 
Way  Up. 


COKPUS  HEEMETICUM  (XVIII.) 


[THE  ENCOMIUM  OF  KINGS] 

(ABOUT  THE  SOUL'S  BEING  HINDERED  BY  THE 
PASSION  OF  THE  BODY) 

(Text:  R.  355-360;  Pat.  at  end.) 

1.  [Now]  in  the  case  of  those  professing  the 
harmonious  art  of  muse-like  melody — if,  when 
the  piece  is  played,  the  discord  of  the  instruments 
doth  hinder  their  intent,  its  rendering  becomes 
ridiculous. 

For  when  his  instruments  are  quite  too  weak 
for  what's  required  of  them,  the  music-artist 
needs  must  be  laughed  at  by  the  audience. 

For  He,  with  all  good  will,  gives  of  His  art 
unweariedly  ;  they  blame  the  [artist's  j  weakness. 

He  then  who  is  the  Natural  Musician-God, 
not  only  in  His  making  of  the  harmony  of  His 
[celestial]  songs,  but  also  in  His  sending  forth 
the  rhythm  of  the  melody  of  His  own  song[s] 

288 


THE    ENCOMIUM   OF   KINGS  289 

right  down  unto  the  separate  instruments,1  is, 
as  God,  never  wearied. 

For  that  with  God  there  is  no  growing 
weary. 

2.  So,  then,  if  ever  a  musician  desires  to  enter 
into  the  highest   contest    of  his  art  he  can  — 
when   now   the   trumpeters   have  rendered  the 
same  phrase  of  the  [composer's]  skill,  and  after- 
wards the  flautists  played  the  sweet  notes   of 
the  melody  upon  their  instruments,2  and  they 
complete  the  music  of  the  piece  with  pipe  and 
plectrum  —  [if  any  thing  goes  wrong,]  one  3  does 
not  lay  the  blame  upon  the  inspiration  4  of  the 
music-maker. 

Nay,  [by  no  means,]  —  to  him  one  renders  the 
respect  that  is  his  due  ;  one  blames  the  falseness 
of  the  instrument,  in  that  it  has  become  a 
hindrance  to  those  who  are  most  excellent  — 
embarrassing  the  maker  of  the  music  in  [the 
execution  of]  his  melody,  and  robbing  those 
who  listen  of  the  sweetness  of  the  song. 

3.  In  like  way  also,  in  our  case,  let  no  one  of 

1  &xpt  TUV  Kara  pepos  opydvw,  —  that  is,  to  "  parts  "  as  opposed 
to  "  wholes  "  ;  "  wholes  "  signifying  generally  noumenal  or 
celestial  essences,  "parts"  meaning  the  separate  existences  of 
the  phenomenal  or  sensible  world. 


2  &pn  Se  KOI  a.v\t]r(av  rols  /xeXi/co?s  rb  TIJS  fj.6\ca$(as  \iyvpbv  epycKTa- 

jueVwj/.  —  I  do  not  know  what  this  means  exactly.  Menard 
translates  :  quand  les  joueurs  de  fldte  ont  exprime  les  finesses  de  la 
melodic  ;  Patrizzi  gives  :  melicis  organis  melodice  dulcedinem. 

3  Or  perhaps  "he,"  meaning  the  judge  of  the  contest. 

4    Ttf  TTt>c6fJ.aTl. 

VOL.|II.  19 


290  THRICE-GREATEST   HERMES 

our  audience  for  the  weakness  that  inheres  in 
body,  blame  impiously  our  Kace.1 

Nay,  let  him  know  God  is  Unwearied  Spirit2 
— for  ever  in  the  self-same  way  possessed  of 
His  own  science,  unceasing  in  His  joyous  gifts, 
the  self-same  benefits  bestowing  everywhere. 

4.  And  if  the  Pheidias — the  Demiurge — is  not 
responded  to,  by  lack  of  matter  to  perfect  His 
skilfulness,  although  for  His  own  part  the  Artist 
has  done  all  he  can,  let  us  not  lay  the  blame 
on  Him. 

But  let  us,  [rather,]  blame  the  weakness  of 

the   string,3   in    that,   because  it    is    too    slack 

or   is   too   tight,   it  mars   the  rhythm   of   the 
harmony. 

5.  So  when  it  is  that  the  mischance  occurs  by 
reason  of  the  instrument,  no  one   doth  blame 
the  Artist. 

Nay,  [more ;]  the  worse  the  instrument  doth 
chance  to  be,  the  more  the  Artist  gains  in 
reputation  by  the  frequency  with  which  his 
hand  doth  strike  the  proper  note,4  and  more 
the  love  the  listeners  pour  upon  that  Music- 

1  The  Race  of  the  Prophets,  or  Gnostics — the  Race  of  the  Logos. 

2  Referring   to   the   "inspiration"    or    "breath"    above, — &s 

aicdfjLaTov  p.4v  Iffn  irvevfjLa  6  6<-6s.      Compare   John  iv.    24:   irveG/xa 
5  ge£s — God  is  Spirit. 

3  The  metaphor  has  become  somewhat  mixed  by  the  intro- 
duction of  Pheidias,  who  was  a  "  musician  "  in  marble  and  ivory 
and  gold,  and  not  on  strings  and  pipes. 

4  rfjs  Kpovfffws  •TroAA.cOas  irpbs  rbv  rAvov  e/x.ire(roi/<njs. 


THE    ENCOMIUM    OF   KINGS  291 

maker,  without  l  the  slightest  thought  of  blaming 
him. 

So  will  we  too,  most  noble  [Sirs],  set  our 
own  lyre  in  tune  again,  within,  with  the 
Musician  ! 

6.  Nay,  I  have  seen  one  of  the  artist-folk2  — 
although  he  had  no  power  of  playing  on  the  lyre 
—when  once  he  had  been  trained  for  the  right 
noble  theme,  make  frequent  use  of  his  own  self 
as  instrument,  and  tune  the  service  of  his  string 
by  means  of  mysteries,  so  that  the  listeners 
were  amazed  at  how  he  turned  necessitude  into 
magnificence.3 

Of  course  you  know  the  story  of  the  harper 
who  won  the  favour  of  the  God  who  is  the 
president  of  music-work. 

[One  day,]  when  he  was  playing  for  a  prize, 
and  when  the  breaking  of  a  string  became  a 
hindrance  to  him  in  the  contest,  the  favour  of 
the  Better  One  supplied  him  with  another 
string,  and  placed  within  his  grasp  the  boon 
of  fame. 

A  grasshopper  was  made  to  settle  on  his  lyre, 
through  the  foreknowledge  of  the  Better  One, 


1  Reading  exoi/res  for 

2  Meaning  presumably  prophets. 

3  It  is  difficult  to  follow  the  exact  meaning  of  some  of  the 
writer's  rhetorical  sentences,  even  if  our  text  is  sound  ;  here,  how- 
ever, the  text,  even  after  passing  through  Eeitzenstein's  hands,  is 
still  very  halting,  and  so  I  venture  on  this  translation  with  all 
hesitation. 


292  THRICE-GREATEST   HERMES 

and  [so]  fill  in  the  melody  in  substitution  of  the 
[broken]  string.1 

And  so  by  mending  of  his  string  the  harper's 
grief  was  stayed,  and  fame  of  victory  was  won. 

7.  And  this  I  feel  is  my  own  case,  most  noble 
[Sirs] ! 

For  but  just  now  I  seemed  to  make  confession 
of  my  want  of  strength,  and  play  the  weakling 
for  a  little  while ;  but  now,  by  virtue  of  the 
strength  of  [that]  Superior  One,  as  though  my 
song  about  the  King  had  been  perfected  [by 
Him,  I  seem]  to  wake  my  muse. 

For,  you  must  know,  the  end  of  [this]  our 
duty  will  be  the  glorious  fame  of  Kings,  and  the 
good-will  of  our  discourse  (logos)  [will  occupy 
itself]  about  the  triumphs  which  they  win. 

Come  then,  let  us  make  haste !  For  that  the 
singer  willeth  it,  and  hath  attuned  his  lyre 2  for 
this ;  nay  more,  more  sweetly  will  he  play, 
more  fitly  will  he  sing,  as  he  has  for  his  song  the 
greater  subjects  of  his  theme. 

8.  Since,  then,  he3  has  the  [stringing]  of  his 
lyre  tuned  specially  to  Kings,  and  has  the  key 

1  The  song  of  the  cicala  was  so  pleasant  to  the  ear  of  the 
Ancients,  that  we  frequently  find  it  used  in  poetry  as  a  simile  for 
sweet  sounds.     Plato  calls  the  grasshoppers  the  "  prophets  of  the 
Muses." 

2  For  the  idea  of  the  prophet  being  the  lyre  of  God,  cf. 
Montanus  (ap.  Epiphan.,  Hcer.,  xlviii.  4).     See  also  the  references 
to  Philo  given  by  R.  204,  n.  1. 

3  Sc.  the  singer. 


THE   ENCOMIUM   OF   KINGS  293 

of  laudatory  songs,  and  as  his  goal  the  Royal 
praises,  let  him  first  raise  himself  unto  the 
highest  King — the  God  of  wholes. 

Beginning,  [then,]  his  song  from  the  above, 
he,  [thus,]  in  second  place,  descends  to  those 
after  His  likeness  who  hold  the  sceptre's  power 1 ; 
since  Kings  themselves,  indeed,  prefer  the 
[topics]  of  the  song  should  step  by  step  descend 
from  the  above,  and  where  they  have  their 
[gifts  of]  victory  presided  o'er  for  them,  thence 
should  their  hopes  be  led  in  orderly  succession. 

9.  Let,  then,  the  singer  start  with  God,  the 
greatest  King  of  wholes,  who  is  for  ever  free  from 
death,  both  everlasting  and  possessed  of  [all]  the 
might  of  everlastingness,  the  Glorious  Victor,  the 
very  first,  from  whom  all  victories  descend  to 
those  who  in  succession  do  succeed  to  victory.2 

10.  Our  sermon  (logos)  then,  doth  hasten  to 
descend  to  [Kingly]  praises  and  to  the  Presidents 
of  common  weal  and  peace,  the  Kings — whose 
lordship  in  most  ancient  times  was  placed  upon 
the    highest    pinnacle    by    God    Supreme ;    for 
whom  the  prizes   have    already  been   prepared 
even  before  their  prowess  in  the  war ;  of  whom 
the  trophies  have  been  raised  even  before  the 
shock  of  conflict. 

For  whom  it  is  appointed  not  only  to  be 
Kings  but  also  to  be  best. 

1  Of.  K.  K.,  39  ff.  2  But  see  Plasberg's  reading.    R.  370. 


294  THRICE-GREATEST  HERMES 

At  whom,  before  they  even  stir,  the  foreign 
land *  doth  quake. 


(ABOUT  THE  BLESSING  OF  THE  BETTER  [ONE] 
AND  PRAISING  OF  THE  KING) 

11.  But  now  our  theme  (logos)  doth  hasten 
on  to  blend  its  end  with  its  beginnings — with 
blessing  of  the  Better  [One]2;  and  then  to 
make  a  final  end  of  its  discourse  (logos)  on  those 
divinest  Kings  who  give  us  the  [great]  prize  of 
peace. 

For  just  as   we   began   [by   treating]  of  the 
Better  [One]  and  of  the  Power  Above,  so  let  us 
make  the  end  bend  round  again  unto  the  same— 
the  Better  [One]. 

Just  as  the  Sun,  the  nurse  of  all  the  things 
that  grow,  on  his  first  rising,  gathers  unto 
himself  the  first-fruits  of  their  yield  with  his 
most  mighty  hands,  using  his  rays  as  though  it 
were  for  plucking  off  their  fruits — yea,  [for] 
his  rays  are  [truly]  hands  for  him  who  plucketh 
first  the  most  ambrosial  [essences]  of  plants — so, 
too,  should  we,  beginning  from  the  Better  [One], 
and  [thus]  recipient  of  His  wisdom's  stream,  and 
turning  it  upon  the  garden  of  our  souls  above 


1  rb  pdp&apov. 

2  rov  Kpelrrovos, — that  is  God,  or  the  inner  God,  as  in  the  last 
section. 


THE    ENCOMIUM   OF   KINGS  295 

the  heavens,1  —  we  should  [direct  and]  train 
these  [streams]  of  blessing  back  again  unto  their 
source,  [blessing]  whose  entire  power  of  ger- 
mination [in  us]  He  hath  Himself  poured  into  us. 

12.  Tis  fit  ten  thousand  tongues  and  voices 
should  be  used  to  send  His  blessings  back  again 
unto  the  all  -pure  God,  who  is  the  Father  of  our 
souls  ;  and  though  we  cannot  utter  what  is  fit— 
for  we  are  [far]  unequal  to  the  task  —  [yet  will 
we  say  what  best  we  can]. 

For  Babes  just  born  have  not  the  strength  to 
sing  their  Father's  glory  as  it  should  be  sung  ; 
but  they  give  proper  thanks  for  them,  according 
to  their  strength,  and  meet  with  pardon  for 
their  feebleness.2 

Nay,  it  is  rather  that  God's  glory  doth  consist 
in  this  [one]  very  thing  —  that  He  is  greater 
than  His  children  ;  and  that  the  prelude  and  the 
source,  the  middle  and  the  end,  of  blessings,  is 
to  confess  the  Father  to  be  infinitely  puissant 
and  never  knowing  what  a  limit  means. 

13.  So  is  it,  too,  in  the  King's  case. 

For  that  we  men,  as  though  we  were  the 
children  of  the  King,  feel  it  our  natural  duty  to 
give  praise  to  him.  Still  must  we  ask  for  pardon 
[for  our  insufficiency],  e'en  though  'tis  granted 
by  our  Sire  before  we  [even]  ask. 


1  ets  TO,  ^werepa  rwv  tyvx&v  virtpovpdvia  <pvrd. 

2  Lit.  "in  this." 


296  THRICE-GREATEST    HERMES 

And  as  it  cannot  be  the  Sire  will  turn  from 
Babes  new-born  because  they  are  so  weak,  but 
rather  will  rejoice  when  they  begin  to  recognise 
[his  love]1  —  so  also  will  the  Gnosis  of  the  all 
[rejoice],  which  doth  distribute  life  to  all,  and 
power  of  giving  blessing  back  to  God,  which  He 
hath  given  [us]. 

14.  For  God,  being  Good,  and  having  in  Him- 
self eternally  the  limit  of  His  own  eternal  fitness, 
and  being  deathless,  and  containing  in  Himself 
that  lot  of  that  inheritance  that  cannot  come 
unto  an  end,  and  [thus]  for  ever  ever-flowing 
from  out  that  energy  of  His,  He  doth  send 
tidings  to  this  world  down  here  [to  urge  us]  to 
the  rendering  of  praise  that  brings  us  home 
again.2 

With  Him,3  therefore,  is  there  no  difference 
with  one  another  ;  there  is  no  partiality  4  with 
Him. 

But  they  are  one  in  Thought.  One  is  the 
Prescience  6  of  all.  They  have  one  Mind  —  their 
Father. 

One  is  the  Sense  that's  active  through  them  — 


1  Lit.  "at   their  recognition,'3  —  tvl  rrjs  fTnyvdxreus  —  a  play  on 
epignosis  and  gnosis,  and  a  parallel  between  the  wisdom  of  God 
and  the  royal  knowledge  of  the  King. 

2  els  r6v8f    vbv   Kbff^ov   ira.pi\wv   T^\V    airayythlav   (is   StafftaffTiK^v 

eiHfaliiav,  —  where  it  may  be  possible  to  connect  airayyehta  with 
the  familiar  eucryyeAiov. 

3  titeiffe.  4  rb  a\\oirp6ffa\\ov. 

5 


THE    ENCOMIUM    OF    KINGS  297 

their  passion  for  each  other.1    'Tis  Love  2  Himself 
who  worketh  the  one  harmony  of  all. 

15.  Thus,    therefore,    let   us   sing   the   praise 
of  God. 

Nay,  rather,  let  us  [first]  descend  to  those 
who  have  received  their  sceptres  from  Him. 

For  that  we  ought  to  make  beginning  with 
our  Kings,  and  so  by  practising  ourselves  on 
them,  accustom  us  to  songs  of  praise,  and  train 
ourselves  in  pious  service  to  the  Better  [One]. 

[We  ought]  to  make  the  very  first  beginnings 
of  our  exercise  of  praise  begin  from  him,3  and 
through  him  exercise  the  practice  [of  our  praise], 
that  so  there  may  be  in  us  both  the  exercising 
of  our  piety  towards  God,  and  of  our  praise  to 
Kings. 

16.  For  that  we   ought   to   make   return   to 
them,  in  that  they  have  extended  the  prosperity 
of  such  great  peace  to  us. 

It  is  the  virtue  of  the  King,  nay,  'tis  his  name 
alone,  that  doth  establish  peace. 

He  has  his  name  of  King  because  he  levelleth 
the  summits  of  dissension  with  his  smooth  tread,4 
and  is  the  lord  of  reason  (logos)  that  [makes]  for 
peace. 

And  in  as  much,  in  sooth,  as  he  hath  made 


els  d\A^)\ovs  <f>i\rpov. 

,—  the  Higher  Love.  3  Sc.  the  King. 

4  The  word-play  between  j8a<n\6us  and  ftdvti  Ae/a  is  unrepro- 
ducible  in  English. 


298  THRICE-GREATEST   HERMES 

himself  the  natural  protector  of  the  kingdom 
which  is  not  his  native  land,1  his  very  name  [is 
made]  the  sign  of  peace. 

For  that,  indeed,  you  know,  the  appellation 
of  the  King  has  frequently  at  once  restrained 
the  foe. 

Nay,  more,  the  very  statues  of  the  King  are 
peaceful  harbours  for  those  most  tempest-tossed. 

The  likeness  of  the  King  alone  has  to  appear 
to  win  the  victory,  and  to  assure  to  all  the 
citizens  freedom  from  hurt  and  fear. 


COMMENTAKY 

THE  APOLOGY  OF  A  PCEMANDRIST 

This,  the  last  piece  in  our  Corpus,  differs  so  greatly 
ooth  in  style  and  form  of  contents  from  the  rest  of  our 
sermons,  that  we  are  plainly  dealing  with  a  different 
order  of  endeavour. 

The  style  is  for  the  most  part  so  very  artificial  and 
forced,  that  we  are  conscious  of  labour  and  effort,  and 
sometimes  of  such  obscurity  as  to  make  a  clear  render- 
ing almost  impossible.  The  contents  are  of  the  nature 
of  an  elaborate  set  Eulogy  of  Kings. 

Whether  or  not  this  concluding  piece  ever  bore  a 
proper  title  it  is  impossible  to  say,  for  the  existing  head- 
ings are  plainly  added  by  a  later  redactor,2  —  as  we 


1  rrjs  ftaffi\eias  TT 

2  In  fact,  are  due  to  the  first  hand  in  B  C  D  M.     See  R.  355,  1  ; 
358,  12. 


THE   ENCOMIUM   OF   KINGS  299 

have  already  seen  in  a  number  of  other  instances.  I 
have  therefore  ventured  to  superscribe  as  the  main 
title  "  The  Encomium  of  Kings," 1  and  have  placed  the 
contents-headings  in  parentheses. 

Eeitzenstein,  in  his  analysis  of  the  Corpus,  concludes 
(p.  207)  that  this  Eulogy  was  appended  to  the  collection 
of  treatises  by  the  original  redactor,  or  collector. 

He  was  an  Egyptian  Rhetor,  who  was  a  follower  of 
the  Trismegistic  tradition,  and  his  object  in  making  the 
collection  was  mainly  to  show  the  Eulers  of  the  Empire 
that  not  only  was  there  nothing  in  the  Hermes  religion 
that  could  excite  their  suspicion,  but  that,  on  the 
contrary,  it  was  in  its  most  fundamental  teachings 
admirably  calculated  to  inculcate  Loyalty  to  the  Eulers 
of  the  Empire's  destinies. 

It  is,  indeed,  to  this  "  Apology,"  so  to  speak,  that  we 
owe  the  good  fortune  of  the  preservation  of  our 
Corpus. 

SPECULATIONS  AS  TO  DATE 

Who  the  "  most  noble  [Sirs]  "of  §§5  and  7,  to  whom 
the  Eulogy  is  immediately  addressed,  may  be,  is  difficult 
to  determine,  for  though  the  subject  is  the  "  Encomium 
of  Kings  "  in  general,  some  actual  King  was  evidently 
in  the  mind  of  the  writer  when  he  penned  §  16. 
Perhaps  the  "most  noble"  may  have  been  the  high 
officials  of  Egypt. 

The  lost  conclusion  of  our  Encomium,  for  our  actual 
text  is  evidently  incomplete,  may  have  given  clearer 
indications  of  the  Emperor  for  whose  ultimate  perusal 
the  Eulogy  was  intended.  As  it  is,  the  indications  are 
of  the  vaguest. 

Eeitzenstein,  however,  is  of  opinion  (pp.  207,  208) 
that  the  indications  in  §  16  best  suit  the  reign  of 

1  See  §  15 — T)  irpbs  robs  &a(rt\eas  fv(f)-r)/j.la — and  compare  note  to 
Clem.  Alex.,  iii.,  in  "  Fragments  from  the  Fathers." 


300 


THRICE-GREATEST   HERMES 


Diocletian  (imp.  285-305  A.D.);  but  he  is  aware  that, 
as  far  as  these  are  concerned,  an  earlier  date  is  not 
excluded  (p.  208).  It  is  only  when  he  has  treated,  in 
his  Addenda  (pp.  371-374),  the  Encomium  as  an 
example  of  later  Greek  "  art-prose,"  or  rhythmic  prose, 
the  scheme  of  the  accentuation  of  which  has  been  of 
late  years  carefully  studied,  especially  by  Meyer  and 
Wilamowitz,  that  he  comes  definitely  to  the  conclusion 
that  the  external  form  of  our  Khetor's  effort  fits 
precisely  the  time  of  Diocletian's  Triumph,  302  A.D.  I 
cannot,  however,  say  that  I  am  convinced  by  his 
arguments. 

The  strained  and  elaborate  introduction  (§§  1-5) 
needs  no  further  comment ;  no  doubt  it  is  very  "  fine 
writing,"  but  it  is  difficult  to  pin  some  of  it  down  to 
any  precise  meaning  in  translation. 

B 

THE  STORY  OF  THE  PYTHIC  GRASSHOPPER 

6.  With  §  6,  however,  our  interest  is  awakened,  for 
it  reminds  us  of  the  famous  Introduction  to  the  Pro- 
trepticus,  or  Exhortation  to  the  Greeks,  of  Clement  of 
Alexandria,  when  he  says : 

"  I  could  tell  thee  also  of  another — brother  to  these 1 
— story  and  singer,  of  Eunomus  the  Locrian  and  the 
Pythic  grasshopper. 

"At  Pytho  there  was  gathered  together  a  solemn 
assembly  of  Greeks  to  celebrate  the  Death  of  the 
Serpent,  with  Eunomus  to  sing  the  funeral  song  of 
the  beast. 

"  Whether  his  song  was  a  hymn  or  a  dirge  I  cannot 
say;  anyhow,  there  was  a  contest,  and  Eunomus  had 
to  harp  it  in  the  heat  of  the  day,  when  the  grass- 
hoppers, warmed  by  the  sun,  were  singing  underneath 
the  leaves  along  the  hills. 

1  Amphion,  Arion  and  Orpheus. 


THE   ENCOMIUM   OF   KINGS  301 

"They  were  singing  not  to  the  Serpent,  the  dead 
thing,  but  to  God  the  All-wise,  a  song  of  unrestrained 
mode  far  better  than  the  modes  of  Eunomus. 

"A  cord  breaks  for  the  Locrian;  the  grasshopper 
flies  on  to  the  yoke;  it  chirped  on  the  harp  as  on  a 
branch;  and  the  minstrel,  modulating  to  the  song  of 
the  grasshopper,  filled  up  the  missing  string. 

"  It  was  not  that  the  grasshopper  was  attracted  by 
the  song  of  Eunomus,  as  the  story  would  have  it,  setting 
up  a  brazen  statue  at  Pytho  of  Eunomus,  harp  and  all, 
and  his  helper  in  the  contest ;  it  flew  on  naturally  and 
sung  naturally.  The  Greeks,  however,  thought  it  played 
the  music." l 

This  passage  shows  that  the  story  referred  to  by 
our  author  was  well  known,  so  well  known  indeed  that 
Clement  takes  it  as  a  text  for  a  naturalistic  explanation 
of  Hellenic  miracle.  No  literary  dependence,  however, 
of  one  or  the  other  can  be  entertained,  for  the  similarity 
of  the  "  Trjv  vevpav  aveirXripuMTev  CLVTW  "  of  our  text  and 
the  "  6  CD$O?  Tqv  \eLTrov(Ta.v  aveTrXrjpwue  ^opStjv "  of 
Clement  is  far  too  slight  a  link  to  bear  the  weight 
of  any  argument  of  this  nature.2 

11.  There  is  evidently  a  lacuna  after  §  10,  and, 
judging  by  the  opening  words  of  §  11,  it  must  be  of 
some  length,  for  the  Praise  of  Kings  so  far  is  of  a  very 
brief  description. 

It  is  also  of  interest  to  notice  how  much  easier  the 
style  of  our  author  is  when  he  treats  of  the  Praises  of 
God ;  his  words  seem  to  come  far  more  easily,  as 
though  he  had  a  subject  to  deal  with  with  which 
he  was  more  familiar,  as,  indeed,  he  ought  to  have 
been  if  he  had  studied  the  treatises  he  has  collected 
together. 

1  Clem.  Al.,  Pro*.,  i.  1  ;  P.  2  (ed.  Dindorf,  i.  2). 

2  Of.  R.  205,  206. 


302  THRICE-GREATEST   HERMES 

THE  TRUE  KING 

13.  The  idea  that  all  his  subjects  are  the  children  of 
the  King  is  Egyptian  ;  or,  rather,  it  is  the  tradition  of 
all  nations  who  believed  in  Divine  Kings.     The  true 
King  was  he  who,  so  to  speak,  contained  all  his  subjects 
within  himself;   they  were  all  "members,"  or,  as  we 
should  say,  cells,  of  his  true  Body.     The  nation  was  the 
King ;   the  victory  of  the  nation  was  ascribed  to  the 
virtue  of  the  King.1 

THE  FELLOW-KULERS   OF  THE  HEIGHT 

14.  The  last  three   sentences   of   §  14  Eeitzenstein 
(p.  208)  would  take  as  referring  to  the  Kings  under 
the  suzerainty  of   the  Emperor,  who  were  bound   to 
him  by  a  common  bond  of  love,  in  order  that  he  may 
the   more  insist   on   the   Diocletian  date.2      I  would, 
however,  refer  the  idea  to  the  ideal  of  harmony  and 
unity   of    the   Beings  of    the   Intelligible   World,   as 
described,  for  instance,  by  Plotinus,  when  he  writes : 

"  They  see  themselves  in  others.  For  all  things  are 
transparent,  and  there  is  nothing  dark  or  resisting,  and 
everyone  is  manifest  to  everyone  internally,  and  all 
things  are  made  manifest ;  for  light  is  manifest  to 
light.  For  everyone  has  all  things  in  himself,  and  again 
sees  in  another  all  things,  so  that  all  things  are  every- 
where, and  all  in  all,  and  each  in  all,  and  infinite  the 
glory.  For  each  of  them  is  great,  since  the  small  also 
is  great.  And  the  sun  there  is  all  the  stars,  and,  again, 
each  and  all  are  the  sun.  In  each,  one  thing  is  pre- 
eminent above  the  rest,  but  it  also  shows  forth  all." 3 

1  This  belief,  indeed,  is  the  power  of  the  Japanese  in  our  own 
day. 

2  He  thus,  apparently,  would  take  the  &cef<re  as  referring  to  these 
subject  kings  and  rulers. 

3  ^n.,  V.  viii.  4. 


THE    ENCOMIUM    OF    KINGS  303 

Compare  this  also  with  the  intuition  of  the  seer  in 
The  Untitled  Apocalypse  of  the  Codex  Brucianus : 

"Their  Crowns  send  forth  Eays;  the  Brilliancy  of 
their  Bodies  is  as  the  life  of  the  Space  into  which  they 
are  come ;  the  Word  (Logos)  that  comes  out  of  their 
mouth  is  Eternal  Life,  and  the  Light  that  comes  forth 
from  their  Eyes  is  Eest  for  them;  the  Movement  of 
their  Hands  is  their  Flight  to  the  Space  out  of  which 
they  are  come,  and  their  Gazing  on  their  own  Faces  is 
Knowledge  of  themselves ;  their  Giving  to  themselves 
is  a  repeated  Eeturn,  and  the  Stretching  out  of  their 
Hands  establishes  them ;  the  Hearing  of  their  Ears  is 
the  Perception  in  their  Heart ;  and  the  Union  of  their 
Limbs  is  the  Ingathering  of  Israel ;  their  Holding  to 
one  another  is  their  Fortification  in  the  Logos."  * 

This  is  the  Egyptian  counterpart  of  the  Plotinian 
Ecstasis ;  and  Plotinus  was  by  birth  an  Egyptian. 

1  F.  F.  F.,  557. 


II 

The  Perfect  Sermon 


VOL.  II. 


20 


, 


THE  PERFECT  SERMON 

OR   THE   ASCLEPIUS 

(Text :  The  Greek  original  is  lost,  and  only  a  Latin 
version  remains  to  us.  I  use  the  text  of  Hildebrand 
(G.  F.),  L.  Apuleii  Opera  Omnia  ex  Fide  Optimorum 
Codicum  (Leipzig,  1842),  Pars  II.,  pp.  279-334 ;  but 
have  very  occasionally  preferred  the  text  in  Patrizzi's 
Nova  de  Universis  Philosophia  (Venice,  1593),  or  of 
the  Bipontine  edition  of  Appuleius,  Lucii  Apuleji 
Madaurensis  Platonici  PMlosophi  Opera  (Biponti,  1788), 
pp.  285-325.) 


I.1  [I.  M.2]  \_Trismegistus.']  God,  0  Asclepius, 
hath  brought  thee  unto  us  that  thou  mayest  hear 
a  Godly  sermon,3  a  sermon  such  as  well  may  seem 
of  all  the  previous  ones  we've  [either]  uttered, 
or  with  which  we've  been  inspired  by  the  Divine, 
more  Godly  than  the  piety  of  [ordinary]  faith. 

1  I  have  added  numbers  to  the  paragraphs  for  greater  con- 
venience of  reference. 

2  Menard  has  divided  the  treatise  into  fifteen  parts,  which  I 
have  thus  distinguished  ;  the  numbering  of  the  chapters  are  those 
usually  found. 

3  Or,  a  sermon  about  the  Gods. 

307 


308  THRICE-GREATEST   HERMES 

If  thou  with  eye  of  intellect1  shalt  see  this 
Word2  thou  shalt  in  thy  whole  mind  be  filled 
quite  full  of  all  things  good. 

If  that,  indeed,  the  "many"  be  the  "good," 
and  not  the  "  one,"  in  which  are  "  all."  Indeed 
the  difference  between  the  two  is  found  in  their 
agreement,— " All"  is  of  "One"3  or  "One"  is 
"  All."  So  closely  bound  is  each  to  other,  that 
neither  can  be  parted  from  its  mate. 

But  this  with  diligent  attention  shalt  thou 
learn  from  out  the  sermon  that  shall  follow  [this]. 

But  do  thou,  0  Asclepius,  go  forth  a  moment 
and  call  in  the  one  who  is  to  hear.4 

(And  when  he  had  come  in,  Asclepius  proposed 
that  Ammon  too  should  be  allowed  to  come. 
Thereon  Thrice-greatest  said :) 

[ Tris.~\  There  is  no  cause  why  Ammon  should 
be  kept  away  from  us.  For  we  remember  how  we 
have  ourselves  set  down  in  writing  many  things 
to  his  address,5  as  though  unto  a  son  most  dear 
and  most  beloved,  of  physics  many  things,  of 
ethics  [too]  as  many  as  could  be. 

It  is,  however,  with  thy  name  I  will  inscribe 
this  treatise. 

1  Intelligens. 

2  Reason  or  sermon  or  logos ;  cf.  iii.  and  below  :  "  For  that  the 


Reason,"  etc. 


3  But  ii.  1,  referring  again  to  this  idea,  has  the  reading  :  "  *  All : 
is  'One.'"     Of.  G.  H.,  xvi.  3  ;  and  also  xx.  2  below. 

4  This,  as  we  shall  see  later  on,  is  Tat.     See  xxxii.  below. 

5  Lit.  to  his  name. 


THE    PERFECT   SERMON  309 

But  call,  I  prithee,  no  one  else  but  Arnmon, 
lest  a  most  pious  sermon  on  a  so  great  theme  be 
spoilt  by  the  admission  of  the  multitude. 

For  'tis  the  mark  of  an  unpious  mind  to 
publish  to  the  knowledge  of  the  crowd  a 
tractate  brimming  o'er  with  the  full  Greatness 
of  Divinity. 

(When  Ammon  too  had  come  within  the  holy 
place,  and  when  the  sacred  group  of  four  was 
now  complete  with  piety  and  with  God's  goodly 
presence — to  them,  sunk  in  fit  silence  reverently, 
their  souls  and  minds  pendent  on  Hermes'  lips, 
thus  Love1  Divine  began  to  speak.) 

II 

1.  [TrisJ]  The  soul  of  every  man,  0  [my] 
Asclepius,  is  deathless  ;  yet  not  all  in  like  fashion, 
but  some  in  one  way  or  [one]  time,  some  in 
another. 

Asc.  Is  not,  then,  0  Thrice -greatest  one,  each 
soul  of  one  [and  the  same]  quality  ? 

Tris.  How  quickly  hast  thou  fallen,  0 
Asclepius,  from  reason's  true  sobriety ! 

Did  not  I  say  that  "All"  is  "One,"  and 
"  One"  is  "All,"2  in  as  much  as  all  things  have 

1  Cupido ;  without  doubt  Eros  in  the  lost  original ;  cf.  xxi.  1 
below  ;  and  Frag,  xviii. 

2  This,  as  we  have  already  noted,  is  a  variant  of  the  reading 
in  i.,  where  we  find  " omnia  unius  esse"  ("all"   is  of  "one") 
and  not  "omnia  unum  esse"  ("all"  is  "one"). 


310  THRICE -GREATEST   HERMES 

been  in  the  Creator  before  they  were  created. 
Nor  is  He  called  unfitly  "All,"  in  that  His 
members  are  the  "  All." 

Therefore,  in  all  this  argument,  see  that  thou 
keep  in  mind  Him  who  is  "  One "-"  All,"  or 
who  Himself  is  maker  of  the  "All." 

2.  All  things  descend  from  Heaven  to  Earth, 
to  Water  and  to  Air. 

'Tis  Fire  alone,  in  that  it  is  borne  upwards, 
giveth  life  ;  that  which  [is  carried]  downwards 
[is]  subservient  to  Fire. 

Further,  whatever  doth  descend  from  the 
above,  begetteth ;  what  floweth  upwards, 
nourisheth. 

'Tis  Earth  alone,  in  that  it  resteth  on  itself, 
that  is  Receiver  of  all  things,  and  [also]  the 
Restorer  of  all  genera  that  it  receives. 

This  Whole,1  therefore,  as  thou  rememberest,2 
in  that  it  is  of  all, — in  other  words,  all  things, 
embraced  by  nature  under  "  Soul "  and  "  World," 3 
are  in  [perpetual]  flux,  so  varied  by  the  multi- 
form equality  of  all  their  forms,  that  countless 
kinds  of  well-distinguished  qualities  may  be 
discerned,  yet  with  this  bond  of  union,  that  all 
should  seem  as  One,  and  from  "  One  "  "  All." 4 

1  $c.  the  Cosmos. 

2  Presumably  from  some  previous  sermon. 

3  That  is,  Cosmos. 

4  The  Latin  of  this  paragraph  is  very  obscure. 


THE    PERFECT   SERMON  311 

III 

1.  That,  then,  from  which  the  whole  Cosmos 
is  formed,  consisteth  of  Four  Elements — Fire, 
Water,  Earth,  and  Air ;  Cosmos  [itself  is]  one, 
[its]  Soul  [is]  one,  and  God  is  one. 

Now  lend  to  me  the  whole  of  thee,1 — all  that 
thou  can'st  in  mind,  all  that  thou  skill'st  in 
penetration. 

For  that  the  Reason 2  of  Divinity  may  not  be 
known  except  by  an  intention  of  the  senses  like 
to  it.3 

'Tis 4  likest  to  the  torrent's  flood,  down-dashing 
headlong  from  above  with  all-devouring  tide ; 
so  that  it  comes  about,  that  by  the  swiftness 
of  its  speed  it  is  too  quick  for  our  attention, 
not  only  for  the  hearers,  but  also  for  the  very 
teachers.5 

2.  [II.  M.]  Heaven,  then,  God  Sensible,  is  the 

1  Cf.   G.  H.,  xi.  (xii.)   15:   "Give  thou  thyself  to  Me,  My 
Hermes,  for  a  little  while." 

2  Ratio — that  is,  Logos. 

3  Lit.  divine — that  is,  by  a  concentration  like  to  the  singleness 
of  the  Godhead. 

4  That  is,  "  This  Reason  is." 

5  "  Quo  efficitur  ut  intentionem  nostram   .   .   .  celeri  velocitate 
praetereat"    Compare  with  this  the  description  of  the  instruction 
of  the  Therapeuts  in   Philo's  famous  tractate,  De  Vita  Contem- 
plativa,  901  P.,  483  M.— Conybeare's  text,  p.  117  (Oxford  ;  1895)  : 
"For  when  in  giving  an  interpretation,  one  continues  to  speak 
rapidly  without  pausing  for  breath,  the  mind  of  the  hearers  is 
left  behind,  unable  to  keep  up  the  pace" — 6  T£>V 


312  THRICE-GREATEST   HERMES 

director  of  all  bodies ;  bodies'  increasings  and 
decreasings  are  ruled  by  Sun  and  Moon. 

But  He  who  is  the  Kuler  of  the  Heaven,  and 
of  its  Soul  as  well,  and  of  all  things  within  the 
Cosmos, — He  is  God,  who  is  the  Maker  of  all 
things. 

For  from  all  those  that  have  been  said  above,1 
o'er  which  the  same  God  rules,  there  floweth 
forth  a  flood  of  all  things  streaming  through  the 
Cosmos  and  the  Soul,  of  every  class  and  kind, 
throughout  the  Nature  of  [all]  things. 

The  Cosmos  hath,  moreover,  been  prepared  by 
God  as  the  receptacle  of  forms  of  every  kind.2 

Forth-thinking  Nature  by  these  kinds  of 
things,  He  hath  extended  Cosmos  unto  Heaven 
by  means  of  the  Four  Elements, — all  to  give 
pleasure  to  the  eye  of  God. 


IV 

1.  And  all  dependent  from  Above3  are  sub- 
divided into  species  in  the  fashion4  which  I 
am  to  tell. 

1  This  seems  to  refer  to  the  Elements. 

2  Omniformium  specierum. 

3  Omnia  autem  desuper  pendentia.      Compare  with  this    the 
famous  Psalm  of  Valentius,  "  All  things  depending  from  Spirit  I 

see" — irdvTa  KpendfjLeva  irvet/JLaTi  fl\eir<a — HippolytUS,  Philos.,  vi.  37. 
For  revised  text  see  Hilgenfeld's  (A.)  Ketzergescliichte,  p.  304 
(Leipzig,  1884),  and  for  a  translation,  my  Fragments  of  a  Faith 
Forgotten,  p.  307  (London  ;  1900).  See  also  end  of  xix.  4  below, 
and  C.  H.,  xvi.  17.  4  Genere. 


THE    PERFECT    SERMON  313 

The  genera  of  all  things  company  with  their 
own  species  ;  so  that  the  genus  is  a  class  in  its 
entirety,  the  species  is  part  of  a  genus. 

The  genus  of  the  Gods  will,  therefore,  make 
the  species  of  the  Gods  out  of  itself. 

In  like  way,  too,  the  genus  of  the  daimons, 
and  of  men,  likewise  of  birds,  and  of  all  [animals] 
the  Cosmos  doth  contain  within  itself,  brings 
into  being  species  like  itself. 

There  is  besides  a  genus  other  than  the 
animal, — a  genus,  or  indeed  a  soul,  in  that  it's 
not  without  sensation, — in  consequence  of  which 
it  both  finds  happiness  in  suitable  conditions, 
and  pines  and  spoils  in  adverse  ones ; — I  mean 
[the  class]  of  all  things  on  the  earth  which  owe 
their  life  to  the  sound  state  of  roots  and  shoots, 
of  which  the  various  kinds  are  scattered  through 
the  length  and  breadth  of  Earth. 

2.  The  Heaven  itself  is  full  of  God.  The  genera 
we  have  just  mentioned,  therefore,  occupy  up  to 
the  spaces  of  all  things  whose  species  are  immortal. 

For  that  a  species  is  part  of  a  genus, — as 
man,  for  instance,  of  mankind, — and  that  a  part 
must  follow  its  own  class's  quality. 

From  which  it  comes  to  pass  that  though  all 
genera  are  deathless,  all  species  are  not  so. 

The  genus  of  Divinity  is  in  itself  and  in  its 
species 1  [also]  deathless. 

1  That  is,  the  Gods. 


314  THRICE-GREATEST   HERMES 

As  for  the  genera  of  other  things, — as  to  their 
genus,  they  [too]  are  everlasting;  [for]  though 
[the  genus]  perish  in  its  species,  yet  it  persists 
through  its  fecundity  in  being  born.  And  for 
this  cause  its  species  are  beneath  the  sway  of 
death  ;  so  that  man  mortal  is,  mankind  immortal. 

V 

1.  And  yet  the  species  of  all  genera  are  inter- 
blended  with  all  genera;  some1  which  have 
previously  been  made,  some  which  are  made 
from  these. 

The  latter,  then,  which  are  being  made, — 
either  by  Gods,  or  daimons,  or  by  men, — are 
species  all  most  closely  like  to  their  own  several 
genera. 

For  that  it  is  impossible  that  bodies  should  be 
formed  without  the  will  of  God;  or  species  be  con- 
figured without  the  help  of  daimons ;  or  animals 
be  taught  and  trained  without  the  help  of  men.2 

2.  Whoever  of  the  daimons,  then,  transcending 
their  own  genus,  are,  by  chance,  united  with  a 
species,3  by  reason  of  the  neighbourhood  of  any 
species  of  the  Godlike  class, — these  are  considered 
like  to  Gods.4 

1  Sc.  species. 

2  Of.  C.  .ST.,  xvi.  18,  for  the  hierarchy  of  Gods  and  daimones ; 
and  for  the  "  intercourse  of  souls,"  G.  H.,  x.  (xi.)  22. 

3  That  is,  one  of  the  immortal  species,  or  a  God. 

4  That  is,  they  become  Gods. 


THE    PERFECT   SERMON  315 

Whereas  those  species  of  the  daimons  which 
continue  in  the  quality  of  their  own  class, — 
these  love  men's  rational  nature  [and  occupy 
themselves  with  men],  and  are  called  daimons 
proper. 

Likewise  is  it  the  case  with  men,  or  more 
so  even.  Diverse  and  multiform,  the  species  of 
mankind.  And  coming  in  itself  from  the 
association  spoken  of  above,  it  of  necessity  doth 
bring  about  a  multitude  of  combinations  of  all 
other  species  and  almost  of  all  things. 

3.  Wherefore  doth  man  draw  nigh  unto  the 
Gods,  if  he  have  joined  himself  unto  the  Gods 
with  Godlike  piety  by  reason  of  his  mind, 
whereby  he  is  joined  to  the  Gods ;  and  [nigh] 
unto  the  daimons,  in  that  he  is  joined  unto 
them  [as  well]. 

Whereas  those  men  who  are  contented  with 
the  mediocrity  of  their  own  class,  and  the 
remaining  species  of  mankind,  will  be  like  those 
unto  the  species  of  whose  class  they've  joined 
themselves.1 

VI 

1.  [III.  M.]  It  is  for  reasons  such  as  these, 
Asclepius,  man  is  a  mighty  wonder, — an  animal 
meet  for  our  worship  and  for  our  respect. 

1  A  suggestion  of  man's  attraction  to  the  various  species  of  the 
animal  nature. 


316  THRICE-GREATEST   HEROES 

For  he  doth  pass  into  God's  Nature,1  as  though 
himself  were  God.  This  genus  [also]  knows  the 
genus  of  the  daimons,  as  though  man  knew  he 
had  a  [common]  origin  with  them.  He  thinketh 
little  of  the  part  of  human  nature  in  him,  from 
confidence  in  the  divineness  of  [his]  other 
part. 

How  much  more  happy  is  the  blend  of  human 
nature  [than  of  all  the  rest] !  Joined  to  the 
Gods  by  his  cognate  divinity,  a  man  looks  down 
upon  the  part  of  him  by  means  of  which  he's 
common  with  the  Earth. 

The  rest  of  things  to  which  he  knows  he's  kin, 
by  [reason  of]  the  heavenly  order  [in  him],  he 
binds  unto  himself  with  bonds  of  love  ;  and  thus 
he  turns  his  gaze  to  Heaven. 

2.  So,  then,  [man]  hath  his  place  in  the  more 
blessed  station  of  the  Midst ;  so  that  he  loves 
[all]  those  below  himself,  and  in  his  turn  is  loved 
by  those  above. 

He  tills  the  Earth.  He  mingles  with  the 
Elements  by  reason  of  the  swiftness  of  his  mind. 
He  plunges  into  the  Sea's  depths  by  means  of 
its2  profundity.  He  puts  his  values  on  all 
things. 

Heaven  seems  not  too  high  for  him ;  for  it  is 


1  This  contradicts   somewhat  the  more   careful   wording  of 
G.  If.,  x.  (xi.)  1,  where  the  term  Energy  is  preferred. 

2  Sc.  the  mind's. 


THE   PERFECT   SERMON  317 

measured  by  the  wisdom  of  his  mind  as  though 
it  were  quite  near. 

No  darkness  of  the  Air  obstructs  the  penetra- 
tion of  his  mind.  No  density  of  Earth  impedes 
his  work.  No  depth  of  Water  blunts  his  sight. J 

[Though  still]  the  same  [yet]  is  he  all,  and 
everywhere  is  he  the  same. 

3.  Of  all  these  genera,  those  [species]  which 
are  animal  have  [many]  roots,  which  stretch 
from  the  above  below,2  whereas  those  which  are 
stationary 3 — these  from  [one]  living  root  send 
forth  a  wood  of  branching  greenery  up  from 
below  into  the  upper  parts. 

Moreover,  some  of  them  are  nourished  with  a 
two-fold  form  of  food,  while  others  with  a  single 
form. 

Twain  are  the  forms  of  food — for  soul  and 
body,  of  which  [all]  animals  consist.  Their  soul 
is  nourished  by  the  ever-restless  motion  of  the 
World4;  their  bodies  have  their  growth  from 

1  Of.  G.  #.,  xi.  (xii.)  19. 

2  Compare  with  this  the  symbolism  of  the  "fire-tree"  and  the 
"  rootage  "  of  the  aeons,  in  the  "  Simonian  "  system  of  the  Gnosis, 
taken  by  Hippolytus  from   the  document  entitled    The    Great 
Announcement  (Hipp.,  Philos.,  vi.  9  and  18).     Also  the  common 
figure  of  the  Ashvattha  tree  of  Indo- Aryan    mythology ;    for 
instance,  in  the  Katfiopanishad,  II.  vi.  1  :  "The  old,  old  tree  that 
sees  no  morrow's  dawn,  [stands]  roots  up,  branches  down"  (see 
Mead  and  Chattopadhyaya's  Upanishads,  i.  74 — London ;  1896). 
Ashvatthah=a~shvah-tha,  that  is, "  which  stands  not  till  to-morrow." 
The  idea  is  that  the  world-tree  (samsdravriksha)  never  lasts  till 
to-morrow,  for  all  things  are  perpetually  changing. 

3  Lit.  non-animal.  4  Or  Cosmos. 


318  THRICE-GREATEST   HERMES 

foods  [drawn]  from  the  water  and  the  earth  of 
the  inferior  world.1 

Spirit,2  with  which  they 3  all  are  filled,  being 
interblended  with  the  rest,4  doth  make  them 
live ;  sense  being  added,  and  also  reason  in  the 
case  of  man — which  hath  been  given  to  man 
alone  as  a  fifth  part  out  of  the  aether. 

Of  all  the  living  things5  [God]  doth  adorn, 
extend,  exalt,  the  sense  of  man  alone  unto  the 
understanding  of  the  Keason  of  Divinity.6 

But  since  I  am  impressed  to  speak  concerning 
Sense,  I  will  a  little  further  on  set  forth  for  you 
the  sermon  on  this  [point] ;  for  that  it  is  most 
holy,  and  [most]  mighty,  not  less  than  in  the 
Reason  of  Divinity  itself. 

VII 

1.  But  now  I'll  finish  for  you  what  I  have 
begun.  For  I  was  speaking  at  the  start  of  union 
with  the  Gods,  by  which  men  only 7  consciously 
enjoy8  the  Gods*  regard, — I  mean  whatever  men 
have  won  such  rapture  that  they  have  obtained 
a  share  of  that  Divine  Sense  of  intelligence  which 

1  Of.  xi.  2. 

2  Gf.  C.  H.,  x.  (xi.)  13,  and  Commentary  thereon. 

3  That  is,  animal  bodies. 

4  Presumably  the  rest  of  the  Earth  elements. 

5  Lit.  animals. 

6  Lit.  the  Divine  Reason,  Ratio,  or  Logos. 

7  Sc.  of  the  animals.     Gf.  xviii.  1  below. 

8  Per-fruuntur.     Cf.,  for  the  idea,  xxii.  1  below. 


THE   PERFECT   SERMON  319 

is  the  most1  Divine  of  Senses,  found  in  God  and 
in  man's  reason. 

Asc.  Are  not  the  senses  of  all  men,  Thrice- 
greatest  one,  the  same  ? 

Tris.  Nay,  [my]  Asclepius,  all  have  not  won 
true  reason  2 ;  but  wildly  rushing  in  pursuit  of 
[reason's]  counterfeit,3  they  never  see  the  thing 
itself,  and  are  deceived.  And  this  breeds  evil  in 
their  minds,  and  [thus]  transforms  the  best  of 
animals  into  the  nature  of  a  beast  and  manners 
of  the  brutes. 

2.  But  as  to  Sense  and  all  things  similar,  1 
will  set  forth  the  whole  discourse  when  [I  explain] 
concerning  Spirit. 

For  man  is  the  sole  animal  that  is  twofold. 
One  part  of  him  is  simple :  the  [man]  "essential,"4 
as  say  the  Greeks,  but  which  we  call  the  "  form 
of  the  Divine  Similitude." 

He  also  is  fourfold :  that  which  the  Greeks 
call  " hylic,"5  [but]  which  we  call  "cosmic"; 
of  which  is  made  the  corporal  part,  in  which  is 
vestured  what  we  just  have  said  is  the  divine  in 
man,6 — in  which  the  godhead  of  the  Mind  alone, 

1  Lit.  more. 

2  Cf.  C.  H.,  x.  (xi.)  23,  24  ;  iv.  (v.)  3  ;  and  ix.  3  below. 

3  Lit.  image. 

4  The  Greek  term  ovcridSris  is  here  retained.     Cf.  viii.  2  below. 

5  The  Greek  V\IK^V  being  retained  in  the  Latin. 

6  Cf.  C.  H.,  xvi.  15. 


320  THRICE-GREATEST    HERMES 

together  with  its  kin,  that  is  the  Pure  Mind's 
senses,  findeth  home  and  rest,  its  self  with  its 
own  self,  as  though  shut  in  the  body's  walls. 

3.  [IV.  M.]  Asc.  What,  then,  Thrice-greatest 
one,  has  caused  it  that  man  should  be  planted  in 
the  world,  and  should  not  pass  his  life  in  highest 
happiness  in  that  part  [of  the  universe]  where 
there  is  God? 

[Tris.~\  Rightly  thou  questionest,  0  [my] 
Asclepius !  And  we  pray  God  that  He  bestow 
on  us  the  power  of  setting  forth  this  reason  ; 
since  everything  depends  upon  His  Will,  and 
specially  those  things  that  are  set  forth  about 
the  Highest  Whole,  the  Reason  that's  the  object 
of  our  present  argument.  Hear,  then,  Asclepius  ! 

VIII 

1.  The  Lord  and  Maker  of  all  things,  whom 
we  call  rightly  God,  when  from  Himself  He 
made  the  second  [God],  the  Visible  and  Sensible,1 
— I  call  him  Sensible  not  that  He  hath  sensation 
in  Himself  (for  as  to  this,  whether  or  no  He 
have  himself  sensation,  we  will  some  other  time 
declare),  but  that  He  is  the  object  of  the  senses 
of  those  who  see ; — when,  then,  He  made  Him 
first,  but  second  to  Himself,  and  that  He  seemed 

1  Sc.  the  Logos  as  Cosmos.    Of.  xxxi.  1  below. 


THE    PERFECT   SERMON  321 

to  Him  [most]  fair,  as  one  filled  to  the  full  with 
goodness  of  all  things,  He  fell  in  love  with  Him 
as  being  part  of  His  Divinity.1 

2.  Accordingly,  in  that  He  was  so  mighty 
and  so  fair,  He  willed  that  some  one  else  should 
have  the  power  to  contemplate  the  One  He  had 
made  from  Himself.  And  thereon  He  made 
man, — the  imitator  of  His  Keason  and  His  Love.2 

The  Will  of  God  is  in  itself  complete  accom- 
plishment ;  inasmuch  as  together  with  His  having 
willed,  in  one  and  the  same  time  He  hath  brought 
it  to  full  accomplishment. 

And  so,  when  He  perceived  that  the 
"essential"3  [man]  could  not  be  lover4  of 
all  things,  unless  He  clothed  him  in  a  cosmic 
carapace,  He  shut  him  in  within  a  house  of 
body, — and  ordered  it  that  all  [men]  should  be 
so, — from  either  nature  making  him  a  single 
blend  and  fair-proportioned  mixture. 

1  The  Greek  original  of  this  passage  is  quoted  by  Lactantius, 
Div.  Institt.,  iv.  6,  and  runs  as  follows  in  Fritzsche's  (0.  F.)  text 
(Leipzig,  1842)  : 

"  The  Lord  and  Maker  of  all  things  (whom  'tis  our  custom  to 
call  God)  when  He  had  made  the  second  God,  the  Visible  and 
Sensible, — I  call  him  Sensible  not  that  He  hath  sensation  in 
Himself  (for  as  to  this,  whether  or  no  He  have  himself  sensation, 
we  will  some  other  time  enquire),  but  that  He  is  object  of  senses 
and  of  mind ;— when,  then,  He'd  made  Him  first,  and  One  and 
Only,  He  seemed  to  Him  most  fair,  and  filled  quite  full  of  all 
things  good.  At  Him  He  marvelled,  and  loved  Him  altogether 
as  His  Son."  With  the  last  words,  cf.  Plat.,  Tim.,  37  D. 

2  Diligentice. 

3  The  Greek  oua-itaS-ns  being  again,  as  in  vii.  2,  retained  in  the 
Latin.     Of.  C.  H.,  i.  15  and  ix.  (x.)  5. 

VOL.  II.  21 


322  THRICE-GREATEST   HERMES 

3.  Therefore  hath  He  made  man  of  soul  and 
body, — that  is,  of  an  eternal  and  a  mortal  nature  ; 
so  that  an  animal  thus  blended  can  content  his 
dual  origin,  —  admire  and  worship  things  in 
heaven,  and  cultivate  and  govern  things  on 
earth.1 

By  mortal  things 2  I  do  not  mean  the  water  or 
the  earth  [themselves],  for  these  are  two  of  the 
[immortal]  elements  that  nature  hath  made 
subject  unto  men, — but  [either]  things  that  are 
by  men,  or  [that  are]  in  or  from  them 3 ;  such 
as  the  cultivation  of  the  earth  itself,  pastures, 
[and]  buildings,  harbours,  voyagings,  intercom- 
munications, mutual  services,  which  are  the 
firmest  bonds  of  men  between  themselves  and 
that  part  of  the  Cosmos  which  consists  [indeed] 
of  water  and  of  earth,  [but  is]  the  Cosmos' 
terrene  part, — which  is  preserved  by  knowledge 
and  the  use  of  arts  and  sciences  ;  without  which 
[things]  God  willeth  not  Cosmos  should  be 
complete.4 

1  This  sentence  is  also  quoted  by  Lactantius  (Div.  Institt.,  vii.  13) 
in  the  original  Greek,  which  reads  : 

"  From  the  two  natures,  the  deathless  and  the  mortal,  He  made 
one  nature, — that  of  man,  one  and  the  selfsame  thing.  And 
having  made  the  selfsame  [man]  both  somehow  deathless  and 
also  somehow  mortal,  He  brought  him  [forth],  and  set  him  up 
betwixt  the  godlike  and  immortal  nature  and  the  mortal ;  that 
seeing  all  he  might  wonder  at  all." 

2  That  is,  the  "  things  on  earth." 

3  That  is,  the  two  elements  mentioned. 

4  The  above  paragraph  seems  to  have  been  very  imperfectly 
translated  into  Latin. 


THE    PERFECT    SERMON  323 

In  that  necessity  doth  follow  what  seems  good 
to  God ;  performance  waits  upon  His  will. 

Nor  is  it  credible  that  that  which  once  hath 
pleased  Him,  will  become  unpleasing  unto  God ; 
since  He  hath  known  both  what  will  be,  and 
what  will  please  Him,  long  before. 

IX 

1.  [V.  M.]     But,  0  Asclepius,  I  see  that  thou 
with  swift  desire  of  mind  art  in  a  hurry  to  be 
told  how  man  can  have  a  love  and  worship  of 
the  Heaven,  or  of  the  things  that  are  therein. 
Hear,  then,  Asclepius ! 

The  love  of  God  and  Heaven,  together  with 
all  them  that  are  therein,  is  one  perpetual  act 
of  worship.1 

No  other  thing  ensouled,  of  Gods  or  animals, 
can  do  this  thing,  save  man  alone.2  Tis  in  the 
admiration,  adoration,  [and]  the  praise  of  men, 
and  [in  their]  acts  of  worship,  that  Heaven  and 
Heaven's  hosts  find  their  delight. 

2.  Nor  is  it  without  cause   the   Muses'  choir 
hath  been  sent  down  by  Highest  Deity  unto  the 
host  of  men ;  in  order  that,  forsooth,  the  terrene 
world  should  not  seem  too    uncultured,  had   it 
lacked  the  charm  of  measures,  but  rather  that 
with  songs  and  praise  of  men  accompanied  with 

1  Una  est  obsequiorurnfrequentatio.     Of.  Ex.  i.  3. 

2  Cy.  (,'.  #.,  xvi.  11  :  "  The  duty  of  mankind  is  to  give  worship." 


324  THRICE-GREATEST   HERMES 

music,1  He  might  be  lauded, — He  who  alone  is 
all,  or  is  the  Sire  of  all ;  and  so  not  even  on  the 
earths,2  should  there  have  been  an  absence  of  the 
sweetness  of  the  harmony  of  heavenly  praise. 

3.  Some,    then,    though    they   be    very   few, 
endowed  with  the  Pure   Mind,3  have   been   en- 
trusted with  the  sacred  charge  of  contemplating 
Heaven. 

Whereas  those  men  who,  from  the  two-fold 
blending  of  their  nature,  have  not  as  yet  with- 
drawn their  inner  reason  from  their  body's  mass,4 
these  are  appointed  for  the  study  of  the  elements, 
and  [all]  that  is  below  them. 

4.  Thus  man's  an  animal ;  yet  not  indeed  less 
potent   in   that   he's   partly  mortal,  but   rather 
doth  he  seem  to  be  all  the  more  fit  and  efficacious 
for  reaching  Certain  Keason,  since  he   has   had 
mortality  bestowed  on  him  as  well. 

For  it  is  plain  he  could  not  have  sustained 
the  strain  of  both,  unless  he  had  been  formed 
out  of  both  natures,5  so  that  he  could  possess 
the  powers  of  cultivating  Earthly  things  and 
loving  Heaven. 

1  Musicatis ;  or  perhaps  "  Muse-inspired  "  ;  a  word  which,  like 
so  many  others,  occurs  only  in  the  Latin  of  this  treatise. 

2  In  terris,  pi.  3  Cf.  vii.  1  and  2  above. 

4  The  reading  is  "interiorem  intelligentiam  mole  corporis 
resed&runt,"  of  which  I  can  make  nothing  ;  resederunt  is  evidently 
an  error. 

6  There  is  here  a  "  double  "  in  the  text,  which  the  editor  has 
not  removed. 


THE   PERFECT   SERMON  325 


1.  The  Reason  of  a  thesis  such  as  this,  0  [my] 
Asclepius,  I  would  that  thou  should'st  grasp,  not 
only  with  the  keen  attention  of  thy  soul,  but 
also  with  its  living  power 1  [as  well]. 

For  'tis  a  Reason  that  most  men  cannot 
believe ;  the  Perfect  and  the  True  are  to  be 
grasped  by  the  more  holy  minds.2  Hence,  then, 
will  I  begin. 

2.  [VI.  M.]      The  Lord  of  the  Eternity3  is 
the  first  God ;  the  second's  Cosmos ;  man  is  the 
third.4 

God  is  the  Maker  of  the  Cosmos  and  of  all  the 
things  therein ;  at  the  same  time  He  ruleth 6 
all,  with  man  himself,  [who  is]  the  ruler  of  the 
compound  thing 6 ;  the  whole  of  which  man 
taking  on  himself,  doth  make  of  it  the  proper 
care  of  his  own  love,  in  order  that  the  two  of 
them,  himself  and  Cosmos,  may  be  an  ornament 
each  unto  other ;  so  that  from  this  divine  com- 
post of  man,  "  World "  seems  most  fitly  called 
"  Cosmos  " 7  in  Greek. 

3.  He  knows  himself ;  he  knows  the  World  as 

1  Vivacitate.     Cf.  G.  H.,  x.  (xi.)  17  ;  and  xix.  1  below. 

2  Gf.  G.  H.,  ix.  (x.)  10. 

3  That  is,  the  Mon.     Gf.  xxx.  1  below.  4  Cf.  Ex.  i.  8. 
f)  Reading  gubernat  for  gubernando. 

G  That  is,  the  compost,  or  "  cosmic  "  part  of  himself,  apparently, 
of  v.  2. 

7  The  original  Greek  /coV/uos  is  here  retained  in  the  Latin  ;  it 
means  "  order,  adornment,  ornament,"  as  well  as  "  world." 


326  THRICE-GREATEST   HERMES 

well.1  So  that  he  recollects,  indeed,  what  is 
convenient  to  his  own  parts.  He  calls  to  mind 
what  he  must  use,  that  they  may  be  of  service  to 
himself ;  giving  the  greatest  praise  and  thanks  to 
God,  His  Image 2  reverencing, — not  ignorant  that 
he  is,  too,  God's  image  the  second  [one]  ;  for  that 
there  are  two  images  of  God — Cosmos  and  man.3 

4.  So  that  it  comes  to  pass  that,  since  man's 
is  a  single  structure, — in  that  part  [of  him] 
which  doth  consist  of  Soul,  and  Sense,  of  Spirit, 
and  of  Reason,  he's  divine ;  so  that  he  seems  to 
have  the  power  to  mount  from  as  it  were  the 
higher  elements  into  the  Heaven. 

But  in  his  cosmic  part,  which  is  composed  of 
fire,  and  water,  and  of  air,  he  stayeth  mortal  on 
the  Earth, — lest  he  should  leave  all  things  com- 
mitted to  his  care  forsaken  and  bereft. 

Thus  human  kind  is  made  in  one  part  deathless, 
and  in  the  other  part  subject  to  death  while  in  a 
body. 

XI 

1.  Now  of  that  dual  nature, — that  is  to  say  of 
man, — there  is  a  chief  capacity.  [And  that  is] 
piety,  which  goodness  follows  after. 

1  The  idea  is  that  man  is  a  microcosm  ;  he  is,  as  to  his  bodies, 
"cosmic"  ("mundanus  homo"),  for  his  vehicles  are  made  of  the 
elements;  he  is  thus  in  these  an  image  or  seed  (microcosm)  of 
the  universe,  the  macrocosm. 

2  Sc.  Cosmos.     Of.  xxxi.  1  below. 

3  Cf.  G.  #.,  x.  (xi.)  25,  last  sentence. 


THE   PERFECT   SERMON  327 

[And]  this  [capacity]  then,  and  then  only, 
seems  to  be  perfected,  if  it  be  fortified  with 
virtue  of  despising  all  desires  for  alien  things. 

For  alien  from  every  part  of  kinship  with  the 
Gods 1  are  all  things  on  the  Earth,  whatever  are 
possessed  from  bodily  desires, — to  which  we 
rightly  give  the  name  "  possessions,"  in  that  they 
are  not  born  with  us,  but  later  on  begin  to  be 
possessed  by  us ;  wherefore  we  call  them  by  the 
name  possessions.2 

2.  All  such  things,  then,  are  alien  from  man, 
—even  his  body.     So  that  we  can  despise  not 

only  what  we  long  for,  but  also  that  from  which 
the  vice  of  longing  comes  to  us. 

For  just  as  far  as  the  increase  of  reason  leads 
our3  soul,  so  far  one  should  be  man;  in  order 
that  by  contemplating  the  divine,  one  should 
look  down  upon,  and  disregard  the  mortal  part, 
which  hath  been  joined  to  him,  through  the 
necessity  of  helping  on  the  lower  *  world. 

3.  For  that,  in  order  that  a  man  should   be 
complete  in  either  part,  observe   that   he   hath 

1  Ah  omnibus  divince  cognationis  partibus. 

2  This  seems  somewhat  tautological.     The  first  clause  runs : 
"  qucecunque  terrena  corporali  cupiditate  possidentur ;  quoe  merito 
possessionem  nomine  nuncupantur."    This  Latin  word-play  seems 
almost  to  suggest  that  we  are  dealing  with  an  embellishment  of 
the  translator  ;  it  may,  however,  have  stood  in  the  original.     Of. 
xii.  2  below. 

3  Lit.  my. 

4  Reading  inferioris  for  interioris,  as  immediately  below  in  §  3. 
Of.  vi.  3,  last  sentence. 


328  THRICE-GREATEST   HERMES 

been  composed  of  elements  of  either  part  in  sets 
of  four; — with  hands,  and  feet,  both  of  them 
pairs,  and  with  the  other1  members  of  his  body, 
by  means  of  which  he  may  do  service  to  the 
lower  (that  is  to  say  the  terrene)  world. 

And  to  these  parts  [are  added  other]  four ; — 
of  sense,  and  soul,  of  memory,  and  foresight,  by 
means  of  which  he  may  become  acquainted  with 
the  rest  of  things  divine,  and  judge  of  them. 

Hence  it  is  brought  about  that  man  in- 
vestigates the  differences  and  qualities,  effects 
and  quantities  of  things,  with  critical  research ; 
yet,  as  he  is  held  back  with  the  too  heavy  weight 
of  body's  imperfection,  he  cannot  properly  descry 
the  causes  of  the  nature  of  [all]  things  which 
[really]  are  the  true  ones. 

4.  Man,  then,  being  thus  created  and  composed, 
and  to  such  ministry  and  service  set  by  Highest 
God, — man,  by  his  keeping  suitably  the  world 
in  proper  order,  [and]  by  his  piously  adoring 
God,  in  both  becomingly  and  suitably  obeying 
God's  Good  Will, — [man  being]  such  as  this, 
with  what  reward  think'st  thou  he  should  be 
recompensed  ? 

If  that,  indeed, — since  Cosmos  is  God's  work, 
— he  who  preserves  and  adds  on  to  its  beauty 


1  This  seems  very  loose  indeed  ;  the  text  or  the  Latin  translation 
is  probably  at  fault,  unless  the  "  other  members  "  are  supposed  to 
be  grouped  in  sets  of  double  pairs. 


THE   PERFECT   SERMON  329 

by  his  love,  joins  his  own  work  unto  God's 
Will ;  when  he  with  toil  and  care  doth  fashion 
out  the  species *  (which  He  hath  made  [already] 
with  His  Divine  Intent),  with  help  of  his  own 
body ; — with  what  reward  think'st  thou  he 
should  be  recompensed,  unless  it  be  with  that 
with  which  our  forebears  2  have  been  blest  ? 

5.  That  this  may  be  the  pleasure  of  God's 
Love,  such  is  our  prayer  for  you,  devoted  ones. 

In  other  words,  may  He,  when  ye  have  served 
your  time,  and  have  put  off  the  world's  restraint, 
and  freed  yourselves  from  deathly  bonds,  restore 
you  pure  and  holy  to  the  nature  of  your  higher 
self,3  that  is  of  the  Divine ! 

XII 

1.  Asc.  Rightly  and  truly,  0  Thrice-greatest 
one,  thou  speakest.  This  is  the  prize  for  those 
who  piously  subordinate  their  lives  to  God  and 
live  to  help  the  world. 

Tris.  [To  those],  however,  who  have  lived 
in  other  fashion  impiously, — [to  them]  both  is 
return  to  Heaven  denied,  and  there's  appointed 
them  migration  into  other  bodies 4  unworthy  of 
a  holy  soul  and  base ;  so  that,  as  this  discourse 

1  Singular — that  is,  the  species  in  the  Cosmos,  according  to  the 
type  in  the  Divine  Mind. 

2  Of.  0.  H.,  x.  (xi.)  5  ;  Lack,  D.  I.t  i.  11 ;  and  xxxvii.  3  below. 

3  Lit.  part.  4  In  corporalia  .  .  .  migratio. 


330  THRICE-GREATEST   HERMES 

of  ours  will  show,1  souls  in  their  life  on  earth 
run  risk  of  losing  hope  of  future  immortality. 

2.  But  [all  of  this]  doth  seem  to  some  beyond 
belief ;  a  tale  to  others ;  to  others  [yet  again], 
perchance,  a  subject  for  their  mirth.2 

For  in  this  life  in  body,  it  is  a  pleasant  thing 
— the  pleasure  that  one  gets  from  one's 
possessions.3  Tis  for  this  cause  that  spite,  in 
envy  of  its  [hope  of]  immortality,  doth  clap 
the  soul  in  prison,4  as  they  say,  and  keep  it 
down,  so  that  it  stays  in  that  part  of  itself  in 
which  it's  mortal,  nor  suffers  it  to  know  the 
part  of  its  divinity. 

3.  For   I  will   tell   thee,   as   though  it  were 
prophetic-ly,5  that  no  one  after  us6  shall  have 
the  Single  Love,  the  Love  of  wisdom-loving,7 
which  consists  in  Gnosis  of  Divinity  alone,— 
[the  practice   of]   perpetual    contemplation  and 
of  holy  piety.     For  that  the  many  do  confound 
philosophy  with  multifarious  reasoning.8 

1  The  Latin  here  does  not  construe. 

2  Of.  G.  H.,  i.  29  ;  also  xxv.  3  below. 

3  Gf.  xi.  1  above.  *  Obtorto  .  .  .  collo. 

5  Ego  enim  tibi  quasi  prcedivinans  dixero.     Notice  the  dixero, — 
the  "  prophetic  "  tense,  if  we  may  be  permitted  to  coin  a  term  to 
characterize    this    use,   which   reminds  us  so    strongly  of    the 
"Sibylline"  literature   and   the  allied  prophetic  centonism  of 
the  time. 

6  Gf.  Ex.  ix.  8,  and  xiv.  1  below. 

7  Lit.  philosophy.      Gf.  in  Philo,  D.    V.   G.,  the  "Heavenly 
Love  "  with  which  the  Therapeuts  were  "  afire  with  God."     Gf. 
xiv.  1,  and  Ex.  i.  3. 

8  Gf.  G.  H.,  xvi.  2. 


THE    PERFECT   SERMON  331 

Asc.  Why  is  it,  then,  the  many  make 
philosophy  so  hard  to  grasp  ;  or  wherefore  is 
it  they  confound  this  thing  with  multifarious 


reasoning  ? 


XIII 


1.  Tris.  'Tisinthisway,Asclepius; — by  mixing 
it,  by  means  of  subtle  expositions,  with  divers 
sciences  not  easy  to  be  grasped, — such  as  arith- 
metic, and  music,  and  geometry. 

But  Pure  Philosophy,  which  doth  depend  on 
godly  piety  alone,  should  only  so  far  occupy 
itself  with  other  arts,  that  it  may  [know  how  to] 
appreciate  the  working  out  in  numbers  of  the 
fore-appointed  stations  of  the  stars  when  they 
return,  and  of  the  course  of  their  procession. 

Let  her,  moreover,  know  how  to  appreciate  the 
Earth's  dimensions,  its  qualities  and  quantities, 
the  Water's  depths,  the  strength  of  Fire,  and 
the  effects  and  nature  of  all  these.  [And  so] 
let  her  give  worship  and  give  praise  unto  the 
Art  and  Mind  of  God. 

2.  As   for   [true]   Music,  —  to    know   this   is 
naught  else  than  to  have  knowledge  of  the  order 
of    all    things,    and    whatsoe'er    God's    Reason 
hath  decreed. 

For  that  the  order  of  each  several  thing 
when  set  together  in  one  [key]  for  all,  by 
means  of  skilful  reason,  will  make,  as  'twere, 


332  THRICE-GREATEST    HERMES 

the  sweetest  and  the  truest  harmony  with  God's 
[own]  Song.1 

XIV 

1.  Asc.    Who,    therefore,    will    the    men    be 
after  us2? 

Tris.  They  will  be  led  astray  by  sophists' 
cleverness,  and  turned  from  True  Philosophy, 
—the  Pure  and  Holy  [Love]. 

For  that  to  worship  God  with  single  mind 
and  soul,  and  reverence  the  things  that  He  hath 
made,  and  to  give  thanks  unto  His  Will,  which 
is  the  only  thing  quite  full  of  Good, — this  is 
Philosophy  unsullied  by  the  soul's  rough 
curiousness. 

But  of  this  subject  let  what  has  been  said 
so  far  suffice. 

2.  [VII.  M.]     And  now  let  us  begin  to  treat 
of  Spirit  and  such  things. 

There  was  first  God  and  Matter,3  which  we  in 
Greek 4  believe  [to  be]  the  Cosmos ;  and  Spirit 
was  with  Cosmos,  or  Spirit  was  in  Cosmos,  but 
not  in  like  way  as  in  God 5 ;  nor  were  there 

1  Cf.  "Heaven's  harmonious  song"  in  xxviii.  11  below. 

2  Of.  xii.  3  above,  and  notes. 

3  The  Greek  v\-ri  is  here  retained  by  the  translator.    4  Greece. 

5  The  Latin  translation  is  confused.  The  original  seems  to  have 
stated  that  Spirit  and  Cosmos  (or  Matter)  were  as  yet  one,  or 
Spirit-Matter. 


THE   PERFECT   SERMON  333 

things  [as  yet]  from  which  the  Cosmos  [comes 
to  birth]  in  God. 

They  were  not ;  just  for  the  very  reason  that 
they  were  not,  but  were  as  yet  in  that  [condition] 
whence  they  have  had  their  birth.1 

For  those  things  only  are  not  called  in- 
generable  which  have  not  yet  been  born,  but 
[also]  those  which  lack  the  fertilizing  power  of 
generating,  so  that  from  them  naught  can  be 
born. 

And  so  whatever  things  there  are  that  have 
in  them  the  power  of  generating, — these  two  are 
generable,  [that  is  to  say,]  from  which  birth  can 
take  place,  though  they  be  born  from  their  own 
selves  [alone].  For  there's  no  question  that  from 
those  born  from  themselves  birth  can  with  ease 
take  place,  since  from  them  all  are  born. 

3.  God,  then,  the  everlasting,  God  the  eternal, 
nor  can  be  born,  nor  could  He  have  been  born. 
That2  is,  That  was,  That  shall  be  ever.  This, 
therefore,  is  God's  Nature  —  all  from  itself 
[alone]. 

But  Matter 3  (or  the  Nature  of  the  Cosmos) 4 
and  Spirit,  although  they  do  not  seem  to  be 
things  born  from  any  source,5  yet  in  themselves 

1  That  is,  presumably,  they  were  in  potentiality.  2  Hoc. 

3  Again  flAi?  in  the  Latin  text. 

4  Cf.  "Matter  or  Cosmos"  of  xvii.  2. 

6  Principio,  "beginning"  •  the  same  word  as  that  used  in  the 
Vulgate  translation  of  the  Proem  of  the  fourth  Gospel. 


334  THRICE-GREATEST   HERMES 

possess  the  power  of  generation  and  of  generating, 
—the  nature  of  fecundity. 

For  the  beginning1  [truly]  is  in  [just  that] 
quality  of  nature  which  possesses  in  itself  the 
power  and  matter  both  of  conception  and  of 
birth.2  This,3  then,  without  conception  of 
another,  is  generable  of  its  own  self. 

XV 

1.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  [whereas]  those 
things  which  only  have  the  power  of  bringing 
forth  by  blending  with  another  nature,  are  thus 
to  be  distinguished,  this  Space  of  Cosmos,4  with 
those  that  are  in  it,  seems  not  to  have  been 
born,  in  that  [the  Cosmos]  has  in  it  undoubtedly 
all  Nature's  potency.5 

By  "Space"  I  mean  that  in  which  are  all 
things.  For  all  these  things  could  not  have 
been  had  Space  not  been,  to  hold  them  all. 
Since  for  all  things  that  there  have  been,  must 
be  provided  Space. 

For  neither  could  the  qualities  nor  quantities, 
nor  the  positions,  nor  [yet]  the  operations,  be  dis- 
tinguished of  those  things  which  are  no  where. 

1  Initium. 

2  This  seems  to  make  it  clear  that  the  idea  "Cosmos"   is 
regarded  under  the  dual  concept  of  Spirit- Matter. 

3  Sc.  Primal  Nature,  or  Spirit- Matter. 

4  Cf.  xxx.  1,  and  xxxiv.  1  below. 

5  The  Latin  construction  is  very  faulty. 


THE    PERFECT    SERMON  335 

2.  So  then  the  Cosmos,  also,  though  not  born, 
still  has  in  it  the  births l  of  all ;  in  that,  indeed, 
it  doth  afford  for  all  of  them  most  fecund  wombs 
for  their  conception. 

It,  therefore,  is  the  sum  of  [all  that]  quality  of 
Matter  which  hath  creative  potency,  although  it 
hath  not  been  [itself]  created. 

And,  seeing  that  [this]  quality  of  Matter  is  in 
its  nature  [simple]  productiveness ;  so  the  same 
[source]  produces  bad  as  well  [as  good]. 

XVI 

1.  I  have  not,  therefore,  0  Asclepius  and 
Ammon,  said  what  many  say,  that  God  could 
not  excise  and  banish  evil  from  the  Scheme 2  of 
Things ; — to  whom  no  answer  need  at  all  be 
given.  Yet  for  your  sakes  I  will  continue  what 
I  have  begun,  and  give  a  reason. 

They  say  that  God  ought  to  have  freed  the 
World  from  bad  in  every  way ;  for  so  much  is 
it3  in  the  World,  that  it  doth  seem  to  be  as 
though  it  were  one  of  its  limbs. 

This  was  foreseen  by  Highest  God  and  [due] 
provision  made,  as  much  as  ever  could  have  been 
in  reason  made,  then  when  He  thought  it  proper 
to  endow  the  minds  of  men  with  sense,4  and 
science  and  intelligence. 

1  Naturas.  2  Lit.  nature.  3  Sc.  evil  or  bad. 

4  Presumably  meaning  the  higher  sense. 


336  THRICE-GREATEST   HERMES 

2.  For  it  is  by  these  things  alone  whereby  we 
stand  above  the  rest  of  animals,  that  we  are  able 
to  avoid  the  snares  and  crimes  of  ill. 

For  he  who  shall  on  sight  have  turned  from 
them,  before  he  hath  become  immeshed  in  them, 
— he  is  a  man  protected  by  divine  intelligence 
and  [godly]  prudence. 

For  that  the  ground-work  of  [true]  science 
doth  consist  of  the  top-stones  of  virtue. 

3.  It  is  by  Spirit  that  all  things  are  governed 
in  the  Cosmos,  and  made  quick, — Spirit  made 
subject  to  the  Will  of  Highest  God,  as  though 
it  were  an  engine  or  machine. 

So  far,  then,  [only]  let  Him  be  by  us  con- 
ceived,— as  Him  who  is  conceivable  by  mind 
alone,  who  is  called  Highest  God,  the  Kuler 
and  Director  of  God  Sensible,1 — of  Him  who 
in  Himself  includes  all  Space,  all  Substance,  and 
all  Matter,  of  things  producing  and  begetting, 
and  all  whatever  is,  however  great  it  be. 

•JL 

XVII 

1.  It  is  by  Spirit  that  all  species  in  the 
Cosmos  are  [or]  moved  or  ruled, — each  one 
according  to  its  proper  nature  given  it  by  God. 

Matter,2  or  Cosmos,  on  the  other  hand,  is  that 
which  holds  all  things, — the  field  of  motion,3  and 

1  That  is,  Cosmos.  2  Again  v\t],  3  Agitatio. 


THE    PERFECT   SERMON  337 

the  that  which  crowds  together  l  all  ;  of  which 
God  is  the  Euler,  distributing  unto  all  cosmic 
things  all  that  is  requisite  to  each. 

It  is  with  Spirit  that  He  fills  all  things, 
according  to  the  quality  of  each  one's  nature. 

2.  [Now,]  seeing  that  the  hollow  roundness2 
of  the  Cosmos  is  borne  round  into  the  fashion 
of  a  sphere  ;  by  reason  of  its  [very]  quality  or 
form,  it  never  can  be  altogether   visible   unto 
itself. 

So  that,  however  high  a  place  in  it  thou 
shouldest  choose  for  looking  down  below,  thou 
could'st  not  see  from  it  what  is  at  bottom, 
because  in  many  places  it  confronts  [the  senses], 
and  so  is  thought  to  have  the  quality  [of  being 
visible  throughout].3 

For  it  is  solely  owing  to  the  forms  of  species, 
with  images  of  which  it  seems  insculpted,  that 
it  is  thought  [to  be]  as  though  'twere  visible 
[throughout]  ;  but  as  a  fact  'tis  ever  to  itself 
invisible. 

3.  Wherefore,  its  bottom,  or  its  [lowest]  part, 
if  [such  a]  place  there  be  within  a  sphere,  is 
called  in  Greek  a-eides  4  ;  since  that  eidein  5  in 

1  Frequentatio. 

2  Cava  rotunditas  —  that  is,  presumably,  concavity. 

3  Propter  quod  multis  locis  instat,  qualitatemque  habere  creditur. 
The  Latin  translation  is  evidently  faulty.     Me'nard  omits  the 
sentence  entirely,  as  he  so  often  does  when  there  is  difficulty. 

4  'A-6i5fc—  that  is,  "  Invisible"  ;  that  is,  Hades  ('AtS^s  or"A5rjs). 


6 

VOL.  II.  22 


338  THRICE-GREATEST   HERMES 

Greek  means  " seeing," — which  "being-seen" 
the  sphere's  beginning1  lacks. 

Hence,  too,  the  species  have  the  name  eideai? 
since  they're  of  form  we  cannot  see. 

Therefore,  in  that  they  are  deprived  of  "  being- 
seen,"  in  Greek  they  are  called  Hades ;  in  that 
they  are  at  bottom 3  of  the  sphere,  they're  called 
in  Latin  Inferi. 

These,  then,  are  principal  and  prior,4  and,  as 
it  were,  the  sources  and  the  heads  of  all  the 
things  which  are  in  them,5  through  them,  or 
from  them. 

XVIII 

1.  Asc.  All  things,  then,  in  themselves  (as 
thou,  Thrice-greatest  one,  dost  say)  are  cosmic 
[principles]  (as  I  should  say)  of  all  the  species 
which  are  in  them,  [or]  as  it  were,  the  sum  and 
substance  of  each  one  of  them.6 

Tris.  So  Cosmos,  then,  doth  nourish  bodies ; 

A  \    f\        J~ 

the  Spirit,  souls ;  the  [Higher]  Sense  (with 
which  Celestial  Gift  mankind  alone  is  blest)7 
doth  feed  the  mind. 

1  Primum  spheres  ;  the  top  or  bottom  presumably,  or  periphery, 
of  the  world-sphere. 

2  ei'Se'cu —  ?  tSeot — that  is,  forms,  species, — but  also  used  of  the 
highest  species,  viewed  as  "  ideas." 

3  Sc.  at  the  centre. 

4  Or  principles  and  priorities  (antiquiora). 
*  Sc.  the  "ideas." 

6  The  Latin  text  is  hopeless.  7  Of.  vii.  i. 


THE    PERFECT    SERMON  339 

And  [these  are]  not  all  men,  but  [they  are] 
few,  whose  minds  are  of  such  quality  that  they 
can  be  receptive  of  so  great  a  blessing. 

2.  For  as  the  World's  illumined  by  the  Sun, 
so  is  the  inind  of  man  illumined  by  that  Light ; 
nay,  in  [still]  fuller  measure. 

For  whatsoever  thing  the  Sun  doth  shine 
upon,  it  is  anon,  by  interjection  of  the  Earth  or 
Moon,  or  by  the  intervention  of  the  night, 
robbed  of  its  light. 

But  once  the  [Higher]  Sense  hath  been  com- 
mingled with  the  soul  of  man,  there  is  at-one- 
ment  from  the  happy  union  of  the  blending 
of  their  natures ;  so  that  minds  of  this  kind 
are  never  more  held  fast  in  errors  of  the 
darkness. 

Wherefore,  with  reason  have  they  said  the 
[Higher]  Senses  are  the  souls  of  Gods  ;  to  which 
I  add  :  not  of  all  Gods,  but  of  the  great  ones 
[only]  ;  nay,  even  of  the  principles  of  these. 


XIX 

1.  [VIII.  M.]  Asc.  What  dost  thou  call, 
Thrice-greatest  one,  the  heads  of  things,  or 
sources  of  beginnings? 

Tris.  Great  are  the  mysteries  which  I  reveal 
to  thee,  divine  the  secrets  I  disclose ;  and  so  I 


340  THRICE-GREATEST   HERMES 

make  beginning  of  this  thing l  with  prayers  for 
Heaven's  favour. 

The  hierarchies 2  of  Gods  are  numerous ;  and 
of  them  all  one  class  is  called  the  Noumenal,3 
the  other  [class]  the  Sensible.4 

The  former  are  called  Noumenal,  not  for  the 
reason  that  they're  thought  to  lie  beyond  our6 
senses ;  for  these  are  just  the  Gods  we  sense 
more  truly  than  the  ones  we  call  the  visible, — 
just  as  our  argument  will  prove,  and  thou,  if 
thou  attend,  wilt  be  made  fit  to  see. 

For  that  a  lofty  reasoning,  and  much  more 
one  that  is  too  godlike  for  the  mental  grasp  of 
[average]  men,  if  that  the  speaker's  words  are 
not  received6  with  more  attentive  service  of 
the  ears, — will  fly  and  flow  beyond  them ;  or 
rather  will  flow  back  [again],  and  mingle  with 
the  streams  of  its  own  source.7 

2.  There  are,  then,  [certain]  Gods  who  are 
the  principals 8  of  all  the  species. 

1  Initium  facio ;  or  perhaps  perform  the  sacred  rite,  or  give 
initiation. 

2  Genera. 

3  Intelligibilis  (=  ol  I/OTJTOI)  ;  lit.  that  which  can  be  known  by 
intellect  (alone). 

4  Sensibilis  (=   tfolfffrof);  lit.  that  which  can  be  known  by 
the  senses. 

5  That  is,  the  "  Sense "  of  those  who  have  reached  the  "  Tris- 
megistic  "  grade,  though  of  course  beyond  the  range  of  the  normal 


6  The  text  is  faulty. 

7  Cf.  x.  1  above  ;  and  G.  H.t  x.  (xi.)  17. 

8  Principes. 


THE   PERFECT   SERMON  341 

Next  there  come  those  whose  essence *  is  their 
principal.  These  are  the  Sensible,  each  similar 
to  its  own  dual  source,2  who  by  their  sensibility 3 
affect  all  things, — the  one  part  through  the 
other  part  [in  each]  making  to  shine  the  proper 
work  of  every  single  one. 

Of  Heaven, — or  of  whatsoe'er  it  be  that  is 
embraced  within  the  term, — the  essence-chief4 
is  Zeus  ;  for  'tis  through  Heaven  that  Zeus  gives 
life  to  all. 

Sun's  essence-chief  is  light ;  for  the  good  gift 
of  light  is  poured  on  us  through  the  Sun's 
disk. 

3.  The  "  Thirty-six,"  who  have  the  name  of 
Horoscopes,5  are  in  the  [self]  same  space  as  the 
Fixed  Stars  ;  of  these  the  essence-chief,  or  prince, 
is  he  whom  they  call  Pantomorph,  or  Omniform,6 
who  fashioneth  the  various  forms  for  various 
species. 

The  "Seven"  who  are  called  spheres,  have 
essence-chiefs,  that  is,  [have  each]  their  proper 
rulers,  whom  they  call  [all  together]  Fortune 
and  Heimarmene,7  whereby  all  things  are  changed 

1  The  Greek  original  oixria  being  retained. 

2  That  is,  presumably,  essence  and  sensibility. 

3  That  is,  presumably,  their  power  of  affecting  the  senses. 

4  The  Greek  ova-Lapx^s  is  retained  in  the  Latin. 

6  Horoscopi  ( =  wpocr/coVot) ;  generally  called  Decans ;  c/.  Ex. 
ix.,  where  the  Decans  are  explained. 

6  navr6/jLop<j)ov  vel  omniformem  ;  see  xxxv.  below ;  also  C.  H., 
xi.  (xii.)  16,  Comment.  7  That  is,  Fate, 


342  THRICE-GREATEST   HERMES 

by  nature's  law ;  perpetual  stability  being  varied 
with  incessant  motion.1 

The  Air,  moreover,  is  the  engine,  or  machine, 

through   which   all  things  are  made — (there  is, 

however,  an  essence-chief  of  this,  a  second  [Air]) 

—mortal   from   mortal  things   and   things   like 

these.2 

4.  These  hierarchies  of  Gods,  then,  being  thus 
and  [in  this  way]  related,3  from  bottom  unto  top, 
are  [also]  thus  connected  with  each  other,  and 
tend  towards  themselves ;  so  mortal  things  are 
bound  to  mortal,  things  sensible  to  sensible. 

The  whole  of  [this  grand  scale  of]  Rulership, 
however,  seems  to  Him  [who  is]  the  Highest 
Lord,  either  to  be  not  many  things,  or  rather 
[to  be]  one. 

For  that  from  One  all  things  depending,4  and 
flowing  down  from  it, — when  they  are  seen  as 

1  Quoted  in  the  original  Greek  by  loan.  Laurentius  Lydus, 
De  Mensibus,  iv.   7 ;    Wiinsch    (Leipzig,    1898),  p.    70,  22 ;    as 
follows :    "  And   Hermes  is  witness  in  his   [book],  called  '  The 
Perfect  Sermon,'  when  saying  :  '  They  that  are  called  the  Seven 
Spheres  have  a  Source  that  is  called  Fortune  or  Fate,  which 
changes  all  things  and  suffers  them  not  to  remain  in  the  same 
[conditions].' "    The  quotation  is  continued  without  a  break  ;  the 
rest  of  it,  however,  corresponds  to  nothing  in  our  context,  but  is 
somewhat  similar  to  ch.  xxxix.  1,  2, 

2  That  is,  the  region  of  things  subject  to  death.     The  text  is 
faulty.     Cf.  with  this  "engine"  the  "cylinder"  of  the  K.  K. 
Fragments  (10). 

3  Ab  imo  ad  summum  se  admoventibus ;  for  admoventibus  compare 
"  genus  admotum  superis"  Silius  Italicus,  viii.  295. 

4  Cf.  iv.  1  above,  and  the  note. 


THE   PERFECT   SERMON  343 

separate,  they're  thought  to  be  as  many  as  they 
possibly  can  be ;  but  in  their  union  it  is  one 
[thing],  or  rather  two,  from  which  all  things  are 
made  ; — that  is,  from  Matter,  by  means  of  which 
the  other  things  are  made,  and  by  the  Will  of 
Him,  by  nod  of  whom  they're  brought  to  pass. 

XX 

1.  Asc.  Is  this  again  the  reason,  0  Thrice- 
greatest  one  ? 

Tris.  It  is,  Asclepius.  For  God's  the  Father 
or  the  Lord  of  all,  or  whatsoever  else  may  be 
the  name  by  which  He's  named  more  holily 
and  piously  by  men, — which  should  be  set  apart 
among  ourselves  for  sake  of  our  intelligence. 

For  if  we  contemplate  this  so  transcendent 
God,  we  shall  not  make  Him  definite  by  any  of 
these  names. 

For  if  a  [spoken]  word l  is  this  : — a  sound 
proceeding  from  the  air,  when  struck  by  breath,2 
denoting  the  whole  will,  perchance,  of  man,  or 
else  the  [higher]  sense,  which  by  good  chance  a 
man  perceives  by  means  of  mind,  when  out  of 
[all  his]  senses,3 — a  name  the  stuff  of  which, 

1  Vox  (=name),  presumably  \6yos  in  the  original;    a  play 
on  "word"   and  "reason,"  but  also  referring  to  the  mysterious 
"  name"  of  a  person. 

2  Spiritu,  or  spirit. 

3  Ex  sensibus  =  presumably,  in  ecstasis. 


344  THRICE-GREATEST   HERMES 

made  of  a  syllable  or  two,  has  so  been  limited 
and  pondered,  that  it  might  serve  in  man  as 
necessary  link  between  the  voice  and  ear ; — thus 
[must]  the  Name  of  God  in  full  consist  of  Sense, 
and  Spirit,  and  of  Air,  and  of  all  things  in  them, 
or  through,  or  with  them.1 

2.  Indeed,  I  have  no  hope  that  the  Creator  of 
the  whole  of  Greatness,  the  Father  and  the  Lord 
of  all  the  things  [that  are],  could  ever  have  one 
name,  even  although  it  should  be  made  up  of  a 
multitude — He  who  cannot  be  named,  or  rather 
He  who  can  be  called  by  every  name. 

For  He,  indeed,  is  One  and  All 2 ;  so  that  it 
needs  must  be  that  all  things  should  be  called 
by  the  same  name  as  His,  or  He  Himself  called 
by  the  names  of  all. 

3.  He,   then,  alone,  yet   all-complete   in    the 
fertility  of  either  sex,  ever  with  child  of  His  own 
Will,  doth  ever  bring  to  birth  whatever  He  hath 
willed  to  procreate. 

His  Will  is  the  All-goodness,  which  also  is  the 
Goodness  of  all  things,  born  from  the  nature  of 
His  own  Divinity, — in  order  that  all  things  may 
be,  just  as  they  all  have  been,  arid  that  hence- 
forth the  nature  of  being  born  from  their  own 
selves  may  be  sufficient  to  all  things  that  will 
be  born. 

1  The  text  of  this  paragraph  is  very  unsatisfactory. 

2  Cf.  i.  1  above. 


THE   PERFECT   SERMON  345 

Let  this,  then,  be  the  reason  given  thee, 
Asclepius,  wherefore  and  how  all  things  are  made 
of  either  sex. 

XXI 

1.  Asc.  Thou  speak'st  of  God,  then,  0  Thrice- 
greatest  one? 

Tris.  Not  only  God,  Asclepius,  but  all  things 
living  and  inanimate.  For  'tis  impossible  that 
any  of  the  things  that  are  should  be  unfruitful. 

For  if  fecundity  should  be  removed  from  all 
the  things  that  are,  it  could  not  be  that  they 
should  be  for  ever  what  they  are.  1  mean  that 
Nature,1  Sense,  and  Cosmos,  have  in  themselves 
the  power  of  being  born,2  and  of  preserving  all 
things  that  are  born. 

For  either  sex  is  full  of  procreation ;  and  of 
each  one  there  is  a  union,  or, — what's  more 
true, — a  unity  incomprehensible ;  which  you 
may  rightly  call  Eros3  or  Aphrodite,  or  both 
[names]. 

2.  This,  then,  is   truer   than   all   truth,    and 
plainer  than  what  the  mind  ['s  eye]  perceives  ;— 
that    from    that    Universal    God    of    Universal 
Nature  all  other  things  for  evermore  have  found, 
and   had   bestowed   on   them,   the    mystery   of 

1  Here,  presumably,  meaning  hyle.  2  Naturam  again. 

3  Of.  1,  2,  above. 


346  THRICE-GREATEST   HERMES 

bringing  forth ;  in  which  there  is  innate  the 
sweetest  Charity,  [and]  Joy,  [and]  Merriment, 
Longing,  and  Love  Divine. 

We  might  have  had  to  tell  the  mighty  power 
and  the  compulsion  of  this  mystery,  if  it  had 
not  been  able  to  be  known  by  every  one  from 
personal  experience,  by  observation  of  himself. 

3.  For  if  thou  should'st  regard  that  supreme 
[point]  of  time  when  .  .  . 1  the  one  nature  doth 
pour  forth  the  young  into  the  other  one,  and 
when  the  other  greedily  absorbs  [it]  from  the 
first,  and  hides  it  [ever]  deeper  [in  itself] ; — then, 
at  that  time,  out  of  their  common  congress, 
females  attain  the  nature  of  the  males,  males 
weary  grow  with  female  listlessness. 

And  so  the  consummation  of  this  mystery,  so 
sweet  and  requisite,  is  wrought  in  secret ;  lest, 
owing  to  the  vulgar  jests  of  ignorance,  the  deity 
of  either  sex  should  be  compelled  to  blush  at 
natural  congress, — and  much  more  still,  if  it 
should  be  subjected  to  the  sight  of  impious  folk. 

XXII 

1.  The  pious  are  not  numerous,  however  ;  nay, 
they  are  very  few,  so  that  they  may  be  counted 
even  in  the  world.2 

Whence  it  doth  come  about,  that  in  the  many 

1  Quo  ex  crebro  attritu  prurimus  ut  .  .  .  .         2  Cf.  Ex.  i.  16. 


THE    PERFECT   SERMON  347 

bad  inheres,  through  defect  of  the  Gnosis  and 
Discernment  of  the  things  that  are. 

For  that  it  is  from  the  intelligence  of  God- 
like Reason,1  by  which  all  things  are  ordered, 
there  come  to  birth  contempt  and  remedy  of 
vice  throughout  the  world. 

But  when  unknowingness  and  ignorance  per- 
sist, all  vicious  things  wax  strong,  and  plague 
the  soul  with  wounds  incurable  ;  so  that,  infected 
with  them,  and  invitiated,  it  swells  up,  as  though 
it  were  with  poisons, — except  for  those  who 
know  the  Discipline  of  souls  and  highest  Cure 
of  intellect. 

2.  So,  then,  although  it  may  do  good  to  few 
alone,  'tis  proper  to  develope  and  explain  this 
thesis  : —  wherefore  Divinity  hath  deigned  to 
share  His  science  and  intelligence  with  men 
alone.  Give  ear,  accordingly  ! 

When  God,  [our]  Sire  and  Lord,  made  man,  after 
the  Gods,  out  of  an  equal  mixture  of  a  less  pure 
cosmic  part  and  a  divine, — it  [naturally]  came 
to  pass  the  imperfections2  of  the  cosmic  part 
remained  commingled  with  [our]  frames,  and 
other  ones3  [as  well],  by  reason  of  the  food 
and  sustenance  we  have  out  of  necessity  in 
common  with  all  lives 4 ;  by  reason  of  which 

1  Cf.  vii.  1  above.  2  Vitia ;  lit.  vices. 

3  Sc.  imperfections.  4  Lit.  animals. 


348  THRICE-GREATEST   HERMES 

things  it  needs  must  be  that  the  desires,  and 
passions,  and  other  vices,  of  the  mind  should 
occupy  the  souls  of  human  kind. 

3.  As  for  the  Gods,  in  as  much  as  they  had 
been  made  of  Nature's  fairest1  part,  and  have 
no   need   of    the    supports    of    reason    and    of 
discipline,2 — although,   indeed,   their   deathless- 
ness,  the  very  strength  of  being  ever   of  one 
single  age,  stands  in  this  case  for  prudence  and 
for  science, — still,  for  the  sake  of  reason's  unity, 
instead  of  science  and  of  intellect  (so  that  the 
Gods  should  not  be  strange  to  these), — He,  by 
His  everlasting  law,  decreed  for  them  an  order,3 
circumscribed  by  the  necessity  of  law. 

While  as  for  man,  He  doth  distinguish  him 
from  all  the  other  animals  by  reason  and  by 
discipline  alone ;  by  means  of  which  men 
can  remove  and  separate  their  bodies'  vices, — 
He  helping  them  to  hope  and  effort  after 
deathlessness. 

4.  In  fine,  He  hath  made  man  both  good  and 
able   to   share   in   immortal   life,  —  out   of   two 
natures,  [one]  mortal,  [one]  divine. 

And  just  because  he  is  thus  fashioned  by  the 
Will  of  God,  it  is  appointed  that  man  should  be 
superior  both  to  the  Gods,  who  have  been  made 

1  Mundissima — that  is,  most  cosmic,  or  "  adorned." 

2  Or  science. 

3  Ordinem — that  is,  Cosmos.     Compare  this  also  with  the  idea 
of  the  Gnostic  Horos  which  "surrounds"  the  Pleroma. 


THE   PERFECT   SERMON  349 

of  an  immortal  nature  only,  and  also  to  all  mortal 
things. 

It  is  because  of  this  that  man,  being  joined 
unto  the  Gods  by  kinsmanship,  doth  reverence 
them  with  piety  and  holy  mind ;  while,  on  their 
side,  the  Gods  with  pious  sympathy  regard  and 
guard  all  things  of  men. 

XXIII 

1.  But  this  can  only  be  averred  of  a  few  men 
endowed  with  pious  minds.  Still,  of  the  rest, 
the  vicious  folk,  we  ought  to  say  no  word,  for 
fear  a  very  sacred  sermon  should  be  spoiled  by 
thinking  of  them. 

[IX.  M.]  And *  since  our  sermon  treats  of  the 
relationship  and  intercourse 2  of  men  and  Gods, — 
learn,  0  Asclepius,  the  power  and  strength  of  man ! 

[Our]  Lord  and  Father,  or  what  is  Highest 
God, — as  He's  Creator  of  the  Gods  in  Heaven, 
so  man's  the  maker  of  the  gods  who,  in  the 
temples,  suffer  man's  approach,  and  who  not 
only  have  light  poured  on  them,  but  who  send 
forth  [their]  light  [on  all] ;  not  only  does  a  man 
go  forward  towards  the  God[s],  but  also  he 
confirms  the  Gods  [on  earth].3 

1  This  sentence  and  the  first  half  of  the  next,  down  to  "  suffer 
man's  approach,"  is  quoted  word  for  word  in  Latin  by  Augustine, 
De  Civitate  Dei,  xxiii.  2  Cf.  C.  H.,  x.  (xi.)  22. 

3  The  Latin  translation  of  this  paragraph  seems  confused. 


350  THRICE-GREATEST   HERMES 

Art  thou  surprised,  Asclepius ;  nay  is  it  not 
that  even  thou  dost  not  believe  ? 

2.  Asc.   I   am   amazed,    Thrice-greatest   one ; 
but  willingly  I  give  assent  to  [all]  thy  words. 
I  judge  that  man  most  blest  who  hath  attained 
so  great  felicity. 

Tris.  And  rightly  so ;   [for]  he  deserves  our 
wonder,  in  that  he  is  the  greatest  of  them  all. 

As  for  the  genus  of  the  Gods  in  Heaven,— 
'tis  plain  from  the  commixture1  of  them  all, 
that  it  has  been  made  pregnant  from  the  fairest 
part  of  nature,2  and  that  the  only  signs  [by 
which  they  are  discerned]  are,  as  it  were,  before 
all  else  their  heads.3 

3.  Whereas   the   species   of   the   gods   which 
humankind  constructs  is  fashioned  out  of  either 
nature, — out  of  that  nature  which  is  more  ancient 
and  far  more  divine,  and  out  of  that  which  is  in 
men  ;  that  is,  out  of  the  stuff  of  which  they  have 
been  made  and  are  configured,  not  only  in  their 
heads  alone,  but  also  in  each  limb   and   their 
whole  frame. 

And 4  so  mankind,  in  imaging  Divinity,  stays 

1  This  is,  apparently,  the  "star  stuff"  of  which  their  bodies 
are  made. 

2  De  mundissima  parte  natures  esse  prcegnatum — whatever  that 
means  ;  but  cf.  p.  348,  n.  1. 

3  Cf.  G.  H.,  x.  (xi.)  10, 11. 

4  This  sentence,  together  with  the  first  five  sentences  of  the 
next  chapter,  down  to  the  words  "and  constant  worship,"  are 


THE    PERFECT   SERMON  351 

mindful  of  the   nature   and   the   source   of  its 
own  self. 

So  that,  just  as  [our]  Sire  and  Lord  did  make 
the  Gods  seonian,  that  they  might  be  like  Him ; 
so  hath  mankind  configured  its  own  gods  ac- 
cording to  the  likeness  of  the  look  of  its  own  self.1 

XXIV 

1.  Asc.  Thou  dost  not  mean  their  statues, 
dost  thou,  0  Thrice-greatest  one? 

Tris.  [I  mean  their]  statues,  0  Asclepius, — 
dost  thou  not  see  how  much  thou  even,  doubtest  ? 
—statues,  ensouled  with  sense,  and  filled  with 
spirit,  which  work  such  mighty  and  such  [strange] 
results, — statues  which  can  foresee  what  is  to 
come,  and  which  perchance  can  prophesy,  fore- 
telling things  by  dreams  and  many  other  ways, 
—[statues]  that  take  their  strength  away  from 
men,  or  cure  their  sorrow,  if  they  do  so  deserve. 

Dost  thou  not  know,  Asclepius,  that  Egypt 
is  the  image  of  the  Heaven 2 ;  or,  what  is  truer 
still,  the  transference,  or  the  descent,  of  all  that 
are  in  governance  or  exercise  in  Heaven  ?  And 
if  more  truly  [still]  it  must  be  said, — this  land 
of  ours  is  Shrine  of  all  the  World. 

quoted  in  Latin  with   two  or  three  slight  verbal  variants  by 
Augustine,  De  Civitate  Dei,  xxiii. 

1  Cf.  xxxvii.  2  below.  2  Cf.  Comment,  on  K.  K.,  46-48. 


352  THRICE-GREATEST   HERMES 

2.  Further,  in  that  'tis  fitting  that  the  prudent 
should  know  all  before,  it  is  not  right  ye  should 
be  ignorant  of  this. 

The  time  will  come  when  Egypt  will  appear 
to  have  in  vain  served  the  Divinity  with  pious 
mind  and  constant  worship1;  and  all  its  holy 
cult  will  fall  to  nothingness  and  be  in  vain. 

For  that  Divinity  is  now  about  to  hasten 
back  from  Earth  to  Heaven,  and  Egypt  shall  be 
left ;  and  Earth,  which  was  the  seat  of  pious 
cults,  shall  be  bereft  and  widowed  of  the  presence 
of  the  Gods. 

And  foreigners  shall  fill  this  region  and  this 
land;  and  there  shall  be  not  only  the  neglect 
of  pious  cults,  but — what  is  still  more  painful, 
— as  though  enacted  by  the  laws,  a  penalty  shall 
be  decreed  against  the  practice  of  [our]  pious 
cults  and  worship  of  the  Gods — [entire]  pro- 
scription of  them. 

3.  Then  shall  this  holiest  land,  seat  of  [our] 
shrines    and    temples,   be    choked    with    tombs 
and  corpses.2 

0  Egypt,  Egypt,  of  thy  pious  cults  tales  only 
will  remain,  as  far  beyond  belief  for  thy  own 
sons  [as  for  the  rest  of  men] ;  words  only  will 
be  left  cut  on  thy  stones,  thy  pious  deeds 
recounting ! 

1  Augustine's  quotation  ends  here. 

2  Sepulchrorum  erit  mortuorumque  plenissima.     This  sentence  is 
quoted  verbatim  by  Augustine,  De  Civitate  Dei,  xxvi. 


THE   PERFECT   SERMON  353 

And  Egypt  will  be  made  the  home  of  Scyth 1 
or  Indian,  or  some  one  like  to  them, — that  is 
a  foreign  neighbour.2 

Ay,  for  the  Godly  company3  shall  mount 
again  to  Heaven,  and  their  forsaken  worshippers 
shall  all  die  out ;  and  Egypt,  thus  bereft  of 
God  and  man,  shall  be  abandoned. 

4.  And  now  I  speak  to  thee,  0  Eiver,  holiest 
[Stream]!  I  tell  thee  what  will  be.  With 
bloody  torrents  shalt  thou  overflow  thy  banks. 
Not  only  shall  thy  streams  divine  be  stained 
with  blood  ;  but  they  shall  all  flow  over  [with 
the  same]. 

The  tale  of  tombs  shall  far  exceed  the  [number 
of  the]  quick  ;  and  the  surviving  remnant  shall 
be  Egyptians  in  their  tongue  alone,  but  in  their 
actions  foreigners. 

XXV 

1.  Why  dost  thou  weep,  Asclepius?  Nay, 
more  than  this,  by  far  more  wretched, — Egypt 
herself  shall  be  impelled  and  stained  with 
greater  ills. 

For  she,  the  Holy  [Land],  and  once  deservedly 

1  Compare  Colossians  iii.  11  :  "Where  there  is  neither  Greek 
nor  Jew,  circumcision  nor  uncircumcision,  Barbarian,  Scythian, 
bond  nor  free  :  but  Christ  is  all,  and  in  all." 

2  Vicina  barbaria  ;  lit.  a  neighbouring  foreign  country.     Com- 
pare this  with  the  previous  note.     It  is  strange  the  two,  Scyth 
and  barbarian,  coming  twice  together. 

3  Divinitas. 

VOL.  ii.  23 


354  THRICE-GREATEST   HERMES 

the  most  beloved  by  God,  by  reason  of  her  pious 
service  of  the  Gods  on  earth, — she,  the  sole 
colony1  of  holiness,  and  teacher  of  religion  [on 
the  earth],  shall  be  the  type  of  all  that  is  most 
barbarous. 

And  then,  out  of  our  loathing  for  mankind, 
the  World  will  seem  no  more  deserving  of  our 
wonder  and  our  praise. 

All  this  good  thing,2 — than  which  there  has 
been  fairer  naught  that  can  be  seen,  nor  is  there 
anything,  nor  will  there  [ever]  be, — will  be  in 
jeopardy. 

2.  And  it  will  prove  a  burden  unto  men ; 
and  on  account  of  this  they  will  despise  and 
cease  to  love  this  Cosmos  as  a  whole, — the 
changeless  work  of  God  ;  the  glorious  construction 
of  the  Good,  comprised  of  multifold  variety  of 
forms ;  the  engine  of  God's  Will,  supporting 
His  own  work  ungrudgingly ;  the  multitudinous 
whole  massed  in  a  unity  of  all,  that  should  be 
reverenced,  praised  and  loved,  —  by  them  at 
least  who  have  the  eyes  to  see. 

1  Deductio  •  the  technical  term  for  leading  out  a  colony  from 
the  metropolis  or  mother  city.     Compare  Philo,  De   Vita  Con- 
templativa,  P.  892,  M.  474  (Conybeare,  p.  58)  :  "  In  Egypt  there 
are  crowds  of  them  [the  Therapeuts]  in  every  province,  or  nome 
as  they  call  it,  and  especially  at  Alexandria.     For  they  who  are 
in  every   way  the  most  highly  advanced,  lead   out  a  colony 
(aTToiKiav  ffre\\ovTai),  as  it  were  to  the  Therapeutic  father-land "  ; 
and  also  the  numerous  parallel  passages  cited  by  Conybeare  from 
Philo's  other  writings. 

2  Sc.  the  Cosmos. 


THE   PERFECT   SERMON  355 

For  Darkness  will  be  set  before  the  Light, 
and  Death  will  be  thought  preferable  to  Life. 
No  one  will  raise  his  eyes  to  Heaven ;  the  pious 
man  will  be  considered  mad,  the  impious  a 
sage ;  the  frenzied  held  as  strong,  the  worst  as 
best. 

3.  For  soul,  and  all  concerning  it, — whereby 
it  doth  presume  that  either  it  hath  been  born 
deathless,  or  that  it  will  attain  to  deathlessness, 
according  to  the  argument  I  have  set  forth  for 
you,  —  [all   this]  will  be   considered   not   only 
food  for  sport,1  but  even  vanity. 

Nay,  [if  ye  will]  believe  me,  the  penalty  of 
death  shall  be  decreed  to  him  who  shall  devote 
himself  to  the  Religion  of  the  Mind. 

New  statutes  shall  come  into  force,  a  novel 
law ;  naught  [that  is]  sacred,  nothing  pious, 
naught  that  is  worthy  of  the  Heaven,  or  Gods 
in  Heaven,  shall  [e'er]  be  heard,  or  [even] 
mentally  believed. 

4.  The  sorrowful  departure  of  the  Gods  from 
men  takes  place  ;  bad  angels 2  only  stay,  who 
mingled  with  humanity  will  lay  their  hands  on 
them,  and  drive  the  wretched  folk  to  every  ill 
of  recklessness, — to  wars,  and  robberies,  deceits, 

1  Of.  xii.  2  above. 

2  Nocentes  angeli, — usually  daimones  in  our  tractates ;  still,  as 
Lactantius  (D.  /.,  ii.  15)  says  that  Hermes  calls  the  daimones 
"evil  angels"  (ayy&ovs  irovrjpovs),  he  most  probably  took  it  from 
the  Greek  original  of  our  sermon. 


356  THRICE-GREATEST   HERMES 

and  all  those  things  that  are  opposed  to  the 
soul's  nature.1 

Then  shall  the  Earth  no  longer  hold  together ; 
the  Sea  no  longer  shall  be  sailed  upon ;  nor 
shall  the  Heaven  continue  with  the  Courses  of 
the  Stars,  nor  the  Star- course  in  Heaven. 

The  voice  of  every  God 2  shall  cease  in  the 
[Great]  Silence  that  no  one  can  break;  the 
fruits  of  Earth  shall  rot ;  nay,  Earth  no  longer 
shall  bring  forth ;  and  Air  itself  shall  faint  in 
that  sad  listlessness. 

XXVI 

1.  This,  when  it  comes,  shall  be  the  World's 
old  age,  impiety,  —  irregularity,  and  lack  of 
rationality  in  all  good  things. 

And  when  these  things  all  come  to  pass, 
Asclepius, — then  He,  [our]  Lord  and  Sire,  God 
First  in  power,  and  Ruler  of  the  One  God 
[Visible],3  in  check  of  crime,  and  calling  error 
back  from  the  corruption  of  all  things  unto 
good  manners  and  to  deeds  spontaneous  with 
His  Will  (that  is  to  say  God's  Goodness), — 
ending  all  ill,  by  either  washing  it  away  with 
water-flood,  or  burning  it  away  with  fire,  or 
by  the  means  of  pestilent  diseases,  spread 

1  Of.  c.  H.,  x.  (xi.)  21. 

2  Omnis  vox  divina  ;  or,  perhaps,  the  "whole  Word  of  God." 

3  That  is,  Cosmos. 


THE   PERFECT   SERMON  357 

throughout  all  hostile  lands, — God  will  recall 
the  Cosmos  to  its  ancient  form l ;  so  that  the 
World  itself  shall  seem  meet  to  be  worshipped 
and  admired ;  and  God,  the  Maker  and  Kestorer 
of  so  vast  a  work,  be  sung  by  the  humanity 
who  shall  be  then,  with  ceaseless  heraldings  of 
praise  and  [hymns  of]  blessing. 

2.  For  this  [Re-]  birth  of  Cosmos  is  the  making 
new 2  of  all  good  things,  and  the  most  holy  and 
most  pious  bringing-back  again  of  Nature's  self, 
by  means  of  a  set  course  of  time, — of  Nature, 
which  was  without  beginning,  and  which  is 
without  an  end.  For  that  God's  Will  hath  no 
beginning ;  and,  in  that  'tis  the  same  and  as  it 
is,  it  is  without  an  end. 

Asc.  Because  God's  Nature's  the  Determina- 
tion 3  of  the  Will.  Determination  is  the  Highest 
Good  ;  is  it  not  so,  Thrice-greatest  one  ? 

1  The  above  passage  is  cited  in  the  original  Greek  by  Lactantius 
(D.  /.,  vii.  8)  as  from  the  "Perfect  Sermon"  of  Hermes.     As  we 
might  expect  from  what  had  been  already  said  on  this  subject, 
it  differs  from  our  Latin  translation,  and  runs  as  follows : 

"  Now  when  these  things  shall  be  as  I  have  said,  Asclepius, 
then  will  [our]  Lord  and  Sire,  the  God  and  Maker  of  the  First 
and  the  One  God,  look  down  on  what  is  done,  and  making  firm 
His  Will,  that  is  the  Good,  against  disorder, — recalling  error, 
and  cleaning  out  the  bad,  either  by  washing  it  away  with  water- 
flood,  or  burning  it  away  with  swiftest  fire,  or  forcibly  expelling 
it  with  war  and  famine, — will  bring  again  His  Cosmos  to  its 
former  state,  and  so  achieve  its  Restoration." 

2  Cf.  C.  H.,  iii.  (iv.)  1. 


358  THRICE-GREATEST   HERMES 

3.  Tris.  Asclepius,  Will  is  Determination's 
child  ;  nay,  willing  in  itself  comes  from  the  Will. 

Not  that  He  willeth  aught  desiring  it ;  for 
that  He  is  the  Fullness  of  all  things,  and  wills 
what  things  He  has. 

He  thus  wills  all  good  things,  and  has  all  that 
He  wills.  Nay,  rather,  He  doth  think  and  will 
all  good. 

This,  then,  is  God ;  the  World  of  Good's  His 
Image 

XXVII 

1.  Asc.  [Is  Cosmos]  good,  Thrice-greatest  one  ? 

Tris.  ['Tis]  good,1  as  I  will  teach  thee,  0 
Asclepius. 

For  just  as  God  is  the  Apportioner  and  Steward 
of  good  things  to  all  the  species,  or  [more  cor- 
rectly] genera,  which  are  in  Cosmos, — that  is  to 
say,  of  Sense,2  and  Soul,  and  Life, — so  Cosmos 
is  the  giver  and  bestower  of  all  things  which 
seem  unto  [us]  mortals  good  ; — that  is  to  say,  the 
alternation  of  its  parts,  of  seasonable  fruits, 
birth,  growth,  maturity,  and  things  like  these. 

And  for  this  cause  God  doth  transcend  the 
height  of  highest  Heaven,  extending  everywhere, 
and  doth  behold  all  things  on  every  side. 

1  This  seems  &  formal  contradiction  of  C.  H.,  x.  (xi.)  10,  but  is 
not  really  so. 

2  Meaning  higher  sense,  presumably  ;  reading  sensus  for  sensibus. 


THE    PERFECT   SERMON  359 

2.  Beyond   the   Heaven   starless   Space   doth 
stretch,    stranger   to   every   thing   possessed    of 
body. 

The  Dispensator  who's  between  the  Heaven 
and  Earth,  is  Euler  of  the  Space  which  we  call 
Zeus  [Above]. 

The  Earth  and  Sea  is  ruled  by  Zeus  Below 1 ; 
he  is  the  Nourisher  of  mortal  lives,  and  of  fruit- 
bearing  [trees]. 

It  is  by  reason  of  the  powers  of  all  of  these 2 
that  fruits,  and  trees,  and  earth,  grow  green. 

The  powers  and  energies  of  [all]  the  other 
[Gods]  will  be  distributed  through  all  the  things 
that  are. 

3.  Yea,  they  who  rule  the  earth  shall  be  dis- 
tributed [through  all  the  lands],  and  [finally]  be 
gathered  in  a  state,3 — at  top  of  Egypt's  upper 
part,4 — which  shall  be  founded  towards  the  set- 
ting sun,  and  to  which  all  the  mortal  race  shall 
speed. 

Asc.  But  now,  just  at  this  moment,  where 
are  they,  Thrice-greatest  one  ? 

Tris.  They're  gathered  in  a  very  large  com- 

1  Jupiter    Plutonius.      Me"nard     suggests     "Zeus     souterrain 
(Sarapis  T)  "  ;  the  original  was  probably  Zeus  Aidoneus. 

2  It  is  not  clear  who  "  these  "  are  ;  perhaps  all  that  have  so  far 
been  mentioned,  but  this  does  not  seem  satisfactory.     Doubtless 
the  Latin  translation  is,  as  usual,  at  fault. 

3  Or  city.  4  In  summo  dEgypti  initio. 


360  THRICE-GREATEST   HERMES 

munity,1  upon  the  Libyan  Hill.2  And  now 
enough  concerning  this  hath  been  declared. 

4.  [X.  M.]  But  now  the  question  as  to  death- 
lessness  or  as  to  death  must  be  discussed. 

The  expectation  and  the  fear  of  death  torture 
the  multitude,  who  do  not  know  True  Reason. 

Now  death  is  brought  about  by  dissolution 
of  the  body,  wearied  out  with  toil,  and  of  the 
number,  when  complete,  by  which  the  body's 
members  are  arranged  into  a  single  engine  for 
the  purposes  of  life.  The  body  dies,  when  it 
no  longer  can  support  the  life  -  powers 3  of  a 
man. 

This,  then,  is  death, — the  body's  dissolution, 
and  the  disappearance  of  corporeal  sense.4 

As  to  this  death  anxiety  is  needless.  But 
there's  another  [death]  which  no  man  can 

1  Givitate. 

2  In  monte  Libyco ;  lit.  on  a  (or  the)  Libycan,  or  Libyan  or 
African  Hill  or  Mount.     Compare  with  this  xxxvii.  below. 

3  Vitalia. 

4  This  passage  is  quoted  in  the  original  Greek  by  Stobseus, 
Florilegium,  cxx.  27  (G.  iii.  464  ;  M.  iv.  105,  106 ;  Pat.  45,  under 
title  "  Death"),  under  the  heading  "  Of  Hermes  from  the  [Sermons] 
to  Asclepius."     It  runs  as  follows  : 

"  Now  must  we  speak  of  death.  For  death  affrights  the  many 
as  the  greatest  of  all  ills,  in  ignorance  of  fact.  Death  is  the  dis- 
solution of  the  toiling  frame.  For  when  the  'number'  of  the 
body's  joints  becomes  complete, — the  basis  of  the  body's  jointing 
being  number, — that  body  dies  ;  [that  is,]  when  it  no  longer  can 
support  the  man.  And  this  is  death, — the  body's  dissolution  and 
the  disappearance  of  corporeal  sense." 

The  directness  and  the  sturdy  vigour  of  the  Greek  original  has 
clearly  lost  much  in  the  rhetorical  paraphrasing  of  the  Latin 
translator. 


THE   PERFECT   SERMON  361 

escape,1  but  which  the  ignorance  and  unbelief  of 
man  think  little  of. 

5.  Asc.  What  is  it,  0  Thrice-greatest  one,  that 
men  know  nothing  of,  or  disbelieve  that  it  can  be  ? 

Tris.  So,  lend  thy  ear,  Asclepius  ! 


XXVIII 

1.  When,  [then,]  the  soul's  departure  from 
the  body  shall  take  place, — then  shall  the  judg- 
ment and  the  weighing  of  its  merit  pass  into  its 
highest  daimon's  power.2 

And  when  he  sees  it  pious  is  and  just, — he 
suffers  it  to  rest  in  spots  appropriate  to  it. 

But  if  he  find  it  soiled  with  stains  of  evil 
deeds,  and  fouled  with  vice, — he  drives  it  from 
Above  into  the  Depths,  and  hands  it  o'er  to 
warring  hurricanes  and  vortices  of  Air,  of  Fire, 
and  Water.3 

1  Necessaria.  2  Of.  C.  H.,  x.  (xi.)  21. 

3  The  substance  of  these  two  sentences  is  contained  in  a 
a  quotation"  from  the  Greek  by  J.  Laurentius  Lydus,  De  Mensibus, 
iv.  149  (Wunsch,  167,  15)  :  "According  to  the  Egyptian  Hermes 
who,  in  what  is  called  '  The  Perfect  Sermon,3  says  as  follows : 
'  But  such  souls  as  transgress  the  norm  of  piety,  when  they  do 
leave  their  body,  are  handed  over  to  the  daimones  and  carried 
downwards  through  the  air,  cast  forth  as  from  a  sling  into  the  zones 
of  fire  and  hail,  which  poets  call  Pyriphlegethon  and  Tartarus.' " 
That  this  is  a  "quotation,"  however,  I  doubt  very  much,  for  if 
we  compare  it  with  D.  M.,  iv.  31  (W.  90,  24),  which  very  faintly 
echoes  the  teaching  of  our  chaps,  iv.,  v.,  xxvii.,  we  shall  find  that 


362  THRICE-GREATEST   HERMES 

2.  'Twixt  Heaven  and  Earth,  upon  the  waves 
of  Cosmos,  is  it  dragged  in  contrary  directions, 
for  ever  racked  with  ceaseless  pains * ;  so  that 
in  this  its  deathless  nature  doth  afflict  the 
soul,  in  that  because  of  its  unceasing  sense,  it 
hath  the  yoke  of  ceaseless  torture  set  upon  its 
neck. 

Know,  then,  that   we  should   dread,  and   be 

Tartarus  and  Pyriphlegethon  are  entirely  due  to  Laurentius 
himself.  The  passage  runs  as  follows  : 

"  For  the  Egyptian  Hermes,  in  his  Sermon  called  Perfect,  says 
that  the  Avenging  of  the  daimones,  being  present  in  matter  itself, 
chastise  the  human  part  [of  us]  according  as  it  has  deserved ; 
while  the  Purifying  ones  confined  to  the  air  purify  the  souls 
after  death  that  are  trying  to  soar  aloft,  [conducting  them]  round 
the  haily  and  fiery  zones  of  the  air,  which  the  poets  and  Plato 
himself  in  the  Phcedo  call  Tartarus  and  Pyriphlegethon ;  while 
the  Saving  ones  again,  stationed  in  the  lunar  space,  save  the  souls." 
Cf.  Ex.  ix.  6. 

1  Menard  here  quotes  a  couple  of  lines  from  Empedocles  (c. 
494-434  B.C.),  cited  by  Plutarch,  but  without  giving  any  reference. 
They  are  from  the  famous  passage  beginning  €<mv  avdyirns  x^^o. 
K.T.A.  (369-382),  of  which  the  following  is  Fairbanks'  translation. 
See  Fairbanks  (A.),  The  First  Philosophers  of  Greece  (London, 
1898),  p.  205 : 

"  There  is  an  utterance  of  Necessity,  an  ancient  decree  of  the 
Gods,  eternal,  sealed  fast  with  broad  oaths  :  Whenever  any  one 
defiles  his  body  sinfully  with  bloody  gore  or  perjures  himself  in 
regard  to  wrongdoing, — one  of  those  spirits  who  are  heir  to  long 
life  (Sat/teal',  o'/re  /jLUKpatuvts  \€\dxaffi  /JtoTo), — thrice  ten  thousand 
seasons  shall  he  wander  apart  from  the  blessed,  being  born  mean- 
while in  all  sorts  of  mortal  forms  (<f)v6^vov  iravrola  5m  XP^VOV 
eftea  Qvnrwv]  changing  one  bitter  path  of  life  for  another.  For 
mighty  Air  pursues  him  Seaward,  and  Sea  spews  him  forth  on 
the  threshold  of  Earth,  and  Earth  casts  him  into  the  rays  of  the 
unwearied  Sun,  and  Sun  into  the  eddies  of  Air  :  one  receives 
him  from  the  other,  and  all  hate  him.  One  of  these  now  am  I 
too,  a  fugitive  from  the  gods  and  a  wanderer,  at  the  mercy  of 
raging  Strife." 


THE   PERFECT   SERMON  363 

afraid,  and   [ever]  be  upon  our  guard,  lest  we 
should  be  entangled  in  these  [toils]. 

For  those  who  do  not  now  believe,  will  after 
their  misdeeds  be  driven  to  believe,  by  facts  not 
words,  by  actual  sufferings  of  punishment  and 
not  by  threats. 

3.  Asc.  The  faults  of  men  are  not,  then, 
punished,  0  Thrice-greatest  one,  by  law  of  man 
alone  ? 

Tris.  In  the  first  place,  Asclepius,  all  things 
on  Earth  must  die. 

Further,  those  things  which  live  by  reason  of 
a  body,  and  which  do  cease  from  living  by 
reason  of  the  same, — all  these,  according  to  the 
merits  of  this  life,  or  its  demerits,  find  due 
[rewards  or]  punishments. 

[And  as  to  punishments]  they're  all  the  more 
severe,  if  in  their  life  [their  misdeeds]  chance  to 
have  been  hidden,  till  their  death.1  For  [then] 
they  will  be  made  full  conscious  of  all  things 
by  the  divinity,  just  as  they  are,  according  to 
the  shades  of  punishment  allotted  to  their  crimes. 

1  Cf.  the  Vision  of  Thespesius  (Aridseus)  in  Plutarch,  De  Sera 
Numinis  Vindicta :  "  Thus  he  had  to  see  that  the  shades  of 
notorious  criminals  who  had  been  punished  in  earth-life  were 
not  so  hardly  dealt  with  .  .  .  ;  whereas  those  who  had  passed  their 
lives  in  undetected  vice,  under  cloak  and  show  of  virtue,  were 
hemmed  in  by  the  retributory  agents,  and  forced  with  labour  and 
pain  to  turn  their  souls  inside  out." 


364  THRICE-GREATEST   HERMES 

XXIX 

1.  Asc.  And     these     deserve    [still]    greater 
punishments,  Thrice-greatest  one? 

Tris.  [Assuredly ;]  for  those  condemned  by 
laws  of  man  do  lose  their  life  by  violence,  so 
that  [all]  men  may  see  they  have  not  yielded 
up  their  soul  to  pay  the  debt  of  nature,  but 
have  received  the  penalty  of  their  deserts. 

Upon  the  other  hand,  the  righteous  man  finds 
his  defence  in  serving  God  and  deepest  piety. 
For  God  doth  guard  such  men  from  every  ill.1 

2.  Yea,  He  who  is  the  Sire  of  all,  [our]  Lord, 
and  who  alone  is  all,  doth  love  to  show  Himself 
to  all. 

It  is  not  by  the  place  where  he  may  be,  nor 
by  the  quality  which  he  may  have,  nor  by  the 
greatness  which  he  may  possess,  but  by  the 
mind's  intelligence  alone,  that  He  doth  shed 
His  light  on  man, — [on  him]  who  shakes  the 
clouds  of  Error  from  his  soul,  and  sights  the 
brilliancy  of  Truth,2  mingling  himself  with  the 
All-sense  of  the  Divine  Intelligence ;  through 
love3  of  which  he  wins  his  freedom  from  that 
part  of  him  o'er  which  Death  rules,  and  has  the 

1  Compare  the  Fragment  quoted  in  Greek  by  Lactantius,  D.  /., 
ii.  15,  and  by  Cyril,  (7.  /.,  iv.  130. 

2  Of.  xiii.  (xiv.)  7-9,  Comment.  3  Cf.  xii.  3  above. 


THE   PERFECT   SERMON  365 

seed  of  the  assurance  of  his  future  Deathlessness 
implanted  in  him. 

3.  This,  then,  is  how  the  good  will  differ  from 
the  bad.  Each  several  one  will  shine  in  piety, 
in  sanctity,  in  prudence,  in  worship,  and  in 
service  of  [our]  God,  and  see  True  Eeason,  as 
though  [he  looked  at  it]  with  [corporal]  eyes ; 
and  each  will  by  the  confidence  of  his  belief 
excel  all  other  men,  as  by  its  light  the  Sun  the 
other  stars.1 

For  that  it  is  not  so  much  by  the  greatness 
of  his  light  as  by  his  holiness  and  his  divinity, 
the  Sun  himself  lights  up  the  other  stars.2 

Yea,  [my]  Asclepius,  thou  should'st  regard  him 
as  the  second  God,3  ruling  all  things,  and  giving 
light  to  all  things  living  in  the  Cosmofc,  whether 
ensouled  or  unensouled. 

For  if  the  Cosmos  is  a  living  thing,  and  if  it 
has  been,  and  it  is,  and  will  be  ever-living, — 
naught  in  the  Cosmos  is  subject  to  death. 

For  of  an  ever-living  thing,  it  is  [the  same] 
of  every  part  which  is ;  [that  is,]  that  'tis 
[as  ever-living]  as  it  is  [itself] ;  and  in  the 
World  itself  [which  is]  for  everyone,  and  at  the 
self-same  time  an  ever-living  thing  of  life, — in 
it  there  is  no  place  for  death.4 

5.  And   so   he5   should   be    the  full  store  of 

1  Astris.  2  Stellas.  3  Cf.  C.  H.,  xvi.  5.  ff. 

4  The  text  of  this  paragraph  is  very  corrupt. 

5  That  is,  the  Sun. 


366  THRICE-GREATEST   HERMES 

life  and  deathlessness  ;  if  that  it  needs  must  be 
that  he  should  live  for  ever. 

And  so  the  Sun,  just  as  the  Cosmos,  lasts  for 
aye.  So  is  he,  too,  for  ever  ruler  of  [all]  vital 
powers,  or  of  [our]  whole  vitality ;  he  is  their 
ruler,  or  the  one  who  gives  them  out. 

God,  then,  is  the  eternal  ruler  of  all  living 
things,  or  vital  functions,  that  are  in  the  World. 
He  is  the  everlasting  giver-forth  of  Life  itself.1 

Once  for  all  [time]  He  hath  bestowed  Life  on 
all  vital  powers  ;  He  further  doth  preserve  them 
by  a  law  that  lasts  for  evermore,  as  I  will  [now] 
explain. 

XXX 

1.  For  in  the  very  Life  of  the  Eternity2  is 
Cosmos  moved  ;  and  in  the  very  Everlastingness 3 
of  Life  [itself]  is  Cosmic  Space.4 

On  which  account  it5  shall  not  stop  at  any 
time,  nor  shall  it  be  destroyed ;  for  that  its  very 
self  is  palisaded6  round  about,  and  bound  to- 
gether as  it  were,  by  Living's  Sempiternity. 

1  See  Comment  on  G.  H.,  xvi.  17. 

2  ^Eternitatis,  doubtless  ai&vos  in  the  original  Greek, — that  is, 
the  Mon  ;  cf.  x.  2  above.     For  the  general  ^Eon-doctrine,  see  chap, 
xi.  in  the  Prolegomena,  and  xxxii.  1  below. 

3  dEternitate  ;  Mon  again. 

4  Lit.  the  Space  of  Cosmos  ;  cf.  xv.  1  above.        6  Sc.  Cosmos. 

6  Circumvallatus  et  quasi  constrictus.  Compare  with  this  the 
idea  of  the  Horos  or  Boundary  in  the  aeonology  of  "Them  of 
Valentinus,"  as  set  forth  by  Hippolytus  (Philosophumena,  vi.  31)  : 

"  Moreover  that  the  formlessness  of  the  Abortion  should  finally 


THE   PERFECT   SERMON  367 

Cosmos  is  [thus]  Life-giver  unto  all  that 
are  in  it,  and  is  the  Space  of  all  that  are  in 
governance  beneath  the  Sun. 

The  motion  of  the  Cosmos  in  itself  consisteth 
of  a  two-fold  energy.  'Tis  vivified  itself  from 
the  without  by  the  Eternity,1  and  vivifies  all 
things  that  are  within,  making  all  different, 
by  numbers  and  by  times,  fixed  and  appointed 
[for  them]. 

2.  Now  Time's  distinguished  on  the  Earth  by 
quality  of  air,  by  variation  of  its  heat  and  cold ; 
in  Heaven  by  the  returnings  of  the  stars  to  the 
same  spots,   the  revolution  of   their   course   in 
Time. 

And  while  the  Cosmos  is  the  home 2  of  Time,3 
it  is  kept  green  [itself]  by  reason  of  Time's  course 
and  motion. 

Time,  on  the  other  hand,  is  kept  by  regulation. 
Order  and  Time  effect  renewal  of  all  things  which 
are  in  Cosmos  by  means  of  alternation. 

3.  [XL    M.]   All   things,    then,    being    thus, 

never  again  make  itself  visible  to  the  perfect  ^Eons,  the  Father 
Himself  also  sent  forth  the  additional  emanation  of  a  single  Mon, 
the  Cross  [or  Stock,  rbv  a-Tavpfo],  which  being  created  great,  as 
[the  creature]  of  the  great  and  perfect  Father,  and  emanated  to 
be  the  Guard  and  Wall  of  protection  [lit.  Paling  or  Stockade — 
xapa/co>,ua,  the  Roman  vallum]  of  the  jEons,  constitutes  the 
Boundary  (8pos)  of  the  Pleroma,  holding  the  thirty  JSons  together 
within  itself.  For  these  [thirty]  are  they  which  form  the  divine 
creation."  See  F.  F.  F.,  p.  342. 

1  That  is,  the  Mon.  2  Receptaculum. 

3  Of.  0.  H.,  xi.  (xii.)  2. 


368  THRICE-GREATEST   HERMES 

there's  nothing  stable,  nothing  fixed,  nothing 
immoveable,  of  things  that  are  being  born,  in 
Heaven  or  on  the  Earth. 

Tmmoveable *  [is]  God  alone,  and  rightly  [He] 
alone ;  for  He  Himself  is  in  Himself,  and  by 
Himself,  and  round  Himself,  completely  full 
and  perfect. 

He  is  His  own  immoveable  stability.  Nor  by 
the  pressure  of  some  other  one  can  He  be  moved, 
nor  in  the  space  [of  anyone]. 

4.  For  in  Him  are  all  [spaces],  and  He  Him- 
self alone  is  in  them  all ;  unless  someone  should 
venture  to  assert  that  God's  own  motion's  in 
Eternity2;  nay,  rather,  it  is  just  Immoveable 
Eternity  itself,  back  into  which  the  motion  of 
all  times  is  funded,  and  out  of  which  the  motion 
of  all  times  takes  its  beginning. 

XXXI 

1.  God,  then,  hath  [ever]  been  unchanging,3 
and  ever,  in  like  fashion,  with  Himself  hath 
the  Eternity  consisted,  —  having  within  itself 
Cosmos  ingenerate,  which  we  correctly  call 
[God]  Sensible.4 

Of  that  [transcendent]  Deity  this  Image 5  hath 
been  made, — Cosmos  the  imitator  of  Eternity. 

1  That  is,  changeless.  2  That  is,  again,  in  the 

3  Stabilis.  4  Of.  viii.  1  above. 

5  Cf.  x.  3  above. 


THE   PERFECT   SERMON  369 

Time,  further,  hath  the  strength  and  nature 
of  its  own  stability,  in  spite  of  its  being  in 
perpetual  motion, — from  its  necessity  of  [ever] 
from  itself  reverting  to  itself. 

2.  And  so,  although  Eternity  is  stable,  motion- 
less, and  fixed,  still,  seeing  that  the  movement 
of  [this]  Time  (which  is  subject  to  motion)  is 
ever  being  recalled  into  Eternity, — and  for  that 
reason  Time's  mobility  is  circular, — it  comes  to 
pass  that  the  Eternity  itself,  although  in  its  own 
self,  is  motionless,  [yet]  on  account  of  Time,  in 
which  it  is — (and  it  is  in  it), — it  seems  to  be  in 
movement  as  all  motion. 

So  that  it  comes  to  pass,  that  both  Eternity's 
stability  becometh  moved,  and  Time's  mobility 
becometh  stable. 

So  may  we  ever  hold  that  God  Himself  is 
moved  into  Himself  by  [ever-]  same  transcendency 
of  motion.1 

For  that  stability  is  in  His  vastness  motion 
motionless ;  for  by  His  vastness  is  [His]  law 
exempt  from  change.2 

3.  That,  then,  which  so  transcends,  which  is 
not  subject  unto  sense,  [which  is]  beyond  all 
bounds,  [and  which]  cannot  be  grasped, — That 

1  Eadem  immobilitate.     The  whole  is  an  endeavour  to  at-one 
the   "Platonic"    root-opposites    "same"    (ravr6v)    and    "other" 
(edrepov}— the  "Self"  and  the  "not-Self,"  sat-asat,  dtmdndtman, 
of  the  Upanishads. 

2  Lit.  motionless. 

VOL.  ii.  24 


370  THRICE-GREATEST   HERMES 

transcends  all  appraisement ;  That  cannot  be 
supported,  nor  borne  up,  nor  can  it  be  tracked 
out.1 

/  For  where,  and  when,  and  whence,  and  how, 
\  and  what,  He  is, — is  known  to  none.2  For  He's 
borne  up  by  [His]  supreme  stability,  and  His 
stability  is  in  Himself  [alone], — whether  [this 
mystery]  be  God,  or  the  Eternity,  or  both,  or 
one  in  other,  or  both  in  either. 

4.  And  for  this  cause,  just  as  Eternity  tran- 
scends the  bounds  of  Time  ;  so  Time  [itself],  in  that 
it  cannot  have  bounds  set  to  it  by  number,  or  by 
change,  or  by  the  period  of  the  revolution  of 
some  second  [kind  of  Time], — is  of  the  nature 
of  Eternity. 

Both,  then,  seem  boundless,  both  eternal. 
And  so  stability,  though  naturally  fixed,  yet 
seeing  that  it  can  sustain  the  things  that  are  in 
motion, — because  of  all  the  good  it  does  by 
reason  of  its  firmness,  deservedly  doth  hold  the 
chiefest  place. 

XXXII 

1.  The  principals  of  all  that  are,  are,  therefore, 
God  and  JEon.3 

The  Cosmos,  on  the  other  hand,  in  that  'tis 
moveable,  is  not  a  principal.4 

1  Cf.  C.  H.j  xiii.  (xiv.)  6  ;  also  xxxiv.  3  below. 

2  Compare  the  Hymn  in  C.  H.,  v.  (vi.)  10,  11. 

3  Or  Eternity.  4  Lit.  does  not  hold  the  chief  place. 


THE   PERFECT   SERMON  371 

For  its  mobility  exceeds  its  own  stability  by 
treating  the  immoveable  fixation  as  the  law  of 
everlasting  movement. 

The  Whole  Sense,1  then,  of  the  Divinity, 
though  like  [to  Him]  in  its  own  self  immove- 
able, doth  set  itself  in  motion  within  its  own 
stability. 

Tis  holy,  incorruptible,  and  everlasting,  and 
if  there  can  be  any  better  attribute  to  give  to  it, 
['tis  its], — Eternity  of  God  supreme,  in  Truth 
itself  subsisting,  the  Fullness  of  all  things,  of 
Sense,  and  of  the  whole  of  Science,  consisting, 
so  to  say,  with  God.2 

2.  The  Cosmic  Sense  is  the  container3  of  all 
sensibles,  [all]  species,  and  [all]  sciences. 

The  human  [higher  sense  consists]  in  the 
retentiveness  of  memory,  in  that  it  can  recall 
all  things  that  it  hath  done. 

1  Cf.  §  3  below. 

2  Consistens^  ut  ita  dixerim,  cum   deo.     Is  there  possibly  here 
underlying  the  Latin  consistens  cum  deo  the  expanded  form  of  the 
peculiar  and  elliptical  irpbs  rbv  Oebv  of  the  Proem  to  the  Fourth 
Gospel  (the  apud  deum  of  the  Vulgate)  ?     This  was  explained  by 
the  Gnostic  Ptolemy,  somewhere  about  the  middle  of  the  second 
century,  as  "  at-one-ment  with  God,"  in  his  exegesis  of  the  opening 
words,  which  he  glosses  as :  "  The  at-one-ment  with  each  other, 
together  with  their  at-one-ment  with  the  Father"  (f)  -jrpbs  a\\-f}\ovs 
a/j-a  Kal  T]  Trpbs  •r'bv  iraTcpa  eVoxm).     So  that  the  first  verse  of  the 
Proem  would  run :    "  In  the  Beginning  was  the  Logos,  and  the 
Logos  was  (one)  with  God  ;  yea,  the  Logos  was  God.     He  was  in 
the  Beginning  (one)  with   God"  —  ?  consistens  cum  deo.      See 
Irenaeus,  Ref.  Om.  Hwr.,  I.  viii.  5  — Stieren  (Leipzig  ;  1853),  i.  102  ; 
also  F.  F.  F.,  p.  388. 

3  Or  receptacle. 


372  THRICE-GREATEST   HERMES 

For  only  just  as  far  as  the  man- animal  has  the 
divinity  of  Sense l  descended  ;  in  that  God  hath 
not  willed  the  highest  Sense  divine  should  be 
commingled  with  the  rest  of  animals ;  lest  it 
should  blush  for  shame 2  on  being  mingled  with 
the  other  lives. 

For  whatsoever  be  the  quality,  or  the  extent, 
of  the  intelligence  of  a  man's  Sense,  the  whole  of 
it  consists  in  power  of  recollecting  what  is  past. 

It  is  through  his  retentiveness  of  memory, 
that  man's  been  made  the  ruler  of  the  earth. 

3.  Now  the  intelligence  of  Nature 3  can  be  won 
by  quality  of  Cosmic  Sense, — from  all  the  things 
in  Cosmos  which  sense  can  perceive. 

Concerning  [this]  Eternity,  which  is  the  second 
[one], — the  Sense  of  this  we  get  from  out  the 
senses'  Cosmos,  and  we  discern  its  quality  [by 
the  same  means]. 

But  the  intelligence  of  Quality  [itself],  the 
"Whatness"  of  the  Sense  of  God  Supreme,  is 
Truth  alone, — of  which  [pure]  Truth  not  even 
the  most  tenuous  sketch,  or  [faintest]  shade,  in 
Cosmos  is  discerned. 

For  where  is  aught  [of  it]  discerned  by 
measurement  of  times, — wherein  are  seen  un- 
truths, and  births  [-and-deaths],  and  errors  ? 

1  That  is,  the  divine  or  higher  sense,  connected  with  memory 
in  its  beginnings   and  with  the  Platonic   "reminiscence"  (the 
Pythagorean  mathesis)  in  its  maturity. 

2  Gf.  C.  H.t  x.  (xi.)  19.  3  That  is,  Cosmos. 


THE    PERFECT    SERMON  373 

4.  Thou  seest,  then,  Asclepius,  on  what  we  are 
[already]   founded,  with   what   we  occupy  our- 
selves, and  after  what  we  dare  to  strive. 

But  unto  Thee,  0  God  most  high,  I  give  my 
thanks,  in  that  Thou  hast  enlightened  me  with 
Light  to  see  Divinity  ! 

And  ye,  0  Tat,  Asclepius  and  Ammon,  in 
silence  hide  the  mysteries  divine  within  the 
secret  places  of  your  hearts,1  and  breathe  no 
word  of  their  concealment*! 

5.  Now  in  our  case  the  intellect  doth   differ 
from   the   sense   in   this, — that   by  the   mind's 
extension  intellect  can  reach  to  the  intelligence 
and  the  discernment  of  the  quality  of  Cosmic 
Sense. 

The  Intellect  of  Cosmos,  on  the  other  hand, 
extends  to  the  Eternity  and  to  the  Gnosis  of  the 
Gods  who  are  above  itself.3 

And  thus  it  comes  to  pass  for  men,  that  we 
perceive  the  things  in  Heaven,  as  it  were  through 
a  mist,  as  far  as  the  condition  of  the  human 
sense  allows. 

'Tis  true  that  the  extension  [of  the  mind] 
which  we  possess  for  the  survey  of  such  tran- 
scendent things,  is  very  narrow  [still] ;  but  [it 

1  Lit.  breasts.  2  Of.  C.  H.,  xiii.  (xiv.)  22. 

3  The  super-cosmic  Gods,  or  beings  of  the  Intelligible  Cosmos ; 
the  ^Eons  of  the  Gnostics. 


374  THRICE-GREATEST    HERMES 

will  be]  most  ample  when  it  shall  perceive  with 
the  felicity  of  [true]  self-consciousness. 

XXXIII 

1.  [XII.  M.]  Now  on  the  subject  of  a  "  Void," l 
—which  seems  to  almost   all   a   thing   of  vast 

importance, — I  hold  the  following  view. 

Naught  is,  naught  could  have  been,  naught 
ever  will  be  void. 

For  all  the  members  of  the  Cosmos  are  com- 
pletely full;  so  that  Cosmos  itself  is  full  and 
[quite]  complete  with  bodies,  diverse  in  quality 
and  form,  possessing  each  its  proper  kind  and 
size. 

And  of  these  bodies — one's  greater  than 
another,  or  another's  less  than  is  another,  by 
difference  of  strength  and  size. 

Of  course,  the  stronger  of  them  are  more 
easily  perceived,  just  as  the  larger  [are].  The 
lesser  ones,  however,  or  the  more  minute,  can 
scarcely  be  perceived,  or  not  at  all — those  which 
we  know  are  things  [at  all]  by  sense  of  touch 
alone. 

Whence  many  come  to  think  they  are  not 
bodies,  and  that  there  are  void  spaces, — which 
is  impossible. 

2.  So  also   [for   the   Space]   which   is   called 

1  Of.  a.  H.,  xi.  (xii.). 


THE    PERFECT    SERMON  375 

Extra-cosmic, — if  there  be  any  (which  I  do  not 
believe), — [then]  is  it  filled  by  Him  with  things 
Intelligible,  that  is  things  of  like  nature  with 
His  own  Divinity  ;  just  as  this  Cosmos  which  is 
called  the  Sensible,  is  fully  filled  with  bodies 
and  with  animals,  consonant  with  its  proper 
nature  and  its  quality ; — [bodies]  the  proper 
shape  of  which  we  do  not  all  behold,  but  [see] 
some  large  beyond  their  proper  measure,  some 
very  small ;  either  because  of  the  great  space 
which  lies  between  [them  and  ourselves],  or  else 
because  our  sight  is  dull ;  so  that  they  seem  to 
us  to  be  minute,  or  by  the  multitude  are  thought 
not  to  exist  at  all,  because  of  their  too  great 
tenuity. 

I  mean  the  daimones,  who,  I  believe,  have 
their  abode  with  us,  and  heroes,  who  abide 
between  the  purest  part  of  air  above  us  and 
the  earth, — where  it  is  ever  cloudless,  and  no 
[movement  from  the]  motion  of  a  single  star 
[disturbs  the  peace]. 

3.  Because  of  this,  Asclepius,  thou  shalt  call 
nothing  void  ;  unless  thou  wilt  declare  of  what 
that's  void,  which  thou  dost  say  is  void; — for 
instance,  void  of  fire,  of  water,  or  things  like 
to  these. 

For  if  it  should  fall  out,  that  it  should  seem 
that  anything  is  able  to  be  void  of  things  like 
these, — though  that  which  seemeth  void  be  little 


376  THRICE-GREATEST   HERMES 

I 

or  be  big,  it  still  cannot  be  void  of  spirit  and 
of  air. 

XXXIV 

1.  In  like  way  must  we  also  talk  concerning 
"Space,"1 — a  term  which  by  itself  is  void  of 
"sense."2 

For  Space  seems  what  it  is  from  that  of  which 
it  is  [the  space].  For  if  the  qualifying 3  word  is 
cut  away,  the  sense  is  maimed. 

Wherefore  we  shall  [more]  rightly  say  the 
space  of  water,  space  of  fire,  or  [space]  of  things 
like  these. 

For  as  it  is  impossible  that  aught  be  void  ;  so 
is  Space  also  in  itself  not  possible  to  be  dis- 
tinguished what  it  is. 

For  if  you  postulate  a  space  without  that 
[thing]  of  which  it  is  [the  space],  it  will  appear 
to  be  void  space, — which  I  do  not  believe  exists 
in  Cosmos. 

2.  If  nothing,  then,  is  void,  so  also  Space  by 
its  own  self  does  not  show  what  it  is  unless  you 
add  to  it  lengths,  breadths  [and  depths], — just 
as    you    add   the    proper    marks4   unto    men's 
bodies. 

These  things,  then,  being  thus,  Asclepius,  and 
ye  who  are  with  [him], — know  the  Intelligible 

1  Cf.  xv.  1  above.  2  Intelledu  caret. 

3  Principals, — lit.  principal. 

4  Signa ;  characteristics,  presumably. 


THE    PERFECT   SERMON  377 

Cosmos  (that  is,  [the  one]  which  is  discerned  by 
contemplation  of  the  mind  alone)  is  bodiless ; 
nor  can  aught  corporal  be  mingled  with  its 
nature,  —  [by  corporal  I  mean]  what  can  be 
known  by  quality,  by  quantity,  and  numbers. 
For  there  is  nothing  of  this  kind  in  that. 

3.  This  Cosmos,  then,  which  is  called  Sensible, 
is  the  receptacle  of  all  things  sensible, — of  species, 
qualities,  or  bodies. 

But  not  a  single  one  of  these  can  quicken 
without  God.  For  God  is  all,  and  by  Him  [are] 
all  things,  and  all  [are]  of  His  Will. 

For  that  He  is  all  Goodness,  Fitness,  Wisdom, 
unchangeable, — that  can  be  sensed  and  under- 
stood by  His  own  self  alone. 

Without  Him  naught  hath  been,  nor  is,  nor 
will  be. 

4.  For  all  things  are  from  Him,  in  Him,  and 
through  Him, — both  multitudinous  qualities,  and 
mighty   quantities,    and    magnitudes    exceeding 
every  means  of  measurement,  and  species  of  all 
forms ; — which  things,  if  thou  should'st  under- 
stand, Asclepius,  thou  wilt  give  thanks  to  God. 

And  if  thou  should'st  observe  it 1  as  a  whole, 
thou  wilt  be  taught,  by  means  of  the  True 
Reason,  that  Cosmos  in  itself  is  knowable  to 
sense,2  and  that  all  things  in  it  are  wrapped 

1  Sc.  the  Cosmos. 

2  Sensibilem  ;   probably  referring  to  the  sensus  par  excellence  ; 
that  is,  the  higher  or  cosmic  sense. 


378  THRICE-GREATEST   HERMES 

as  in  a  vesture  by  that  Higher  Cosmos l  [spoken 
of  above]. 

XXXV 

1.  Now  every  single  class   of  living   thing,2 
Asclepius,  of  whatsoever  kind,  or  it  be  mortal 
or  be  rational,  whether  it  be  endowed  with  soul, 
or  be  without  one,  just  as  each  has  its  class,3  so 
does  each  several  [class]  have  images  of  its  own 
class. 

And  though  each  separate  class  of  animal  has 
in  it  every  form  of  its  own  class,  still  in  the 
selfsame  [kind  of]  form  the  units  differ  from 
each  other. 

And  so  although  the  class  of  men  is  of  one 
kind,  so  that  a  man  can  be  distinguished  by  his 
[general]  look,  still  individual  men  within  the 
sameness  of  their  [common]  form  do  differ  from 
each  other. 

2.  For  the  idea 4  which  is  divine,  is  bodiless, 
and  is  whatever  is  grasped  by  the  mind. 

So  that  although  these  two,5  from  which  the 
general  form  and  body  are  derived,  are  bodiless, 
it  is  impossible  that  any  single  form  should  be 
produced  exactly  like  another,  —  because  the 

1  That  is,  the  Intelligible  Cosmos  ;  presumably  the  Mon. 

2  Animalium.  3  Genus. 
4  Species  ;  meaning  here  apparently  the  genus  or  class. 

6  Apparently  the  idea  and  mind. 


THE   PERFECT   SERMON  379 

moments  of  the  hours  and  points  of  inclination 
[when  they're  born]  are  different. 

But  they  are  changed  as  many  times  as  there 
are  moments  in  the  hour  of  that  revolving  Circle 
in  which  abides  that  God  whom  we  have  called 
All-formed.1 

3.  The  species,2  then,  persists,  as  frequently 
producing  from  itself  as  many  images,  and  as 
diverse,  as  there  are  moments  in  the  Cosmic 
Revolution,3 — a  Cosmos  which  doth  [ever]  change 
in  revolution.  But  the  idea  *  [itself]  is  neither 
changed  nor  turned. 

So  are  the  forms  of  every  single  genus 
permanent,  [and  yet]  dissimilar  in  the  same 
[general]  form. 

XXXVI 

1.  Asc.  And  does  the  Cosmos  have  a  species, 
0  Thrice -greatest  one  ? 

Tris.  Dost  not  thou  see,  Asclepius,  that  all 
has  been  explained  to  thee  as  though  to  one 
asleep  ? 

For  what  is  Cosmos,  or  of  what  doth  it 
consist,  if  not  of  all  things  born  ? 

This,5  then,  you  may  assert  of  heaven,  and 

1  Cf.  C.  H,,  xi.  (xii.)  16  ;  and  C.  H.,  xvi.  15  ;  also  xix.  3  above, 
and  xxxvi.  2  below. 

2  That  is,  apparently,  the  "  divine  species,"  or  idea,  the  genus. 

3  Cf.  xl.  3  below.  4  Species. 
6  That  is,  that  there  are  genera  embracing  many  species. 


380  THRICE-GREATEST   HERMES 

earth,  and  elements.  For  though  the  other 
things  possess  more  frequent  change  of  species, 
[still  even]  heaven,  [by  its]  becoming  moist,  or 
dry,  or  cold,  or  hot,  or  clear,  or  dull,  [all]  in 
one  kind1  of  heaven, — these  [too]  are  frequent 
changes  into  species.2 

2.  Earth  hath,  moreover,  always  many  changes 
in  its  species; — both  when  she  brings  forth 
fruits,  and  when  she  also  nourishes  her  bringings- 
forth  with  the  return  of  all  the  fruits ;  the 
diverse  qualities  and  quantities  of  air,  its 
stoppings  and  its  flowings 8 ;  and  before  all  the 
qualities  of  trees,  of  flowers,  and  berries,  of 
scents,  of  savours — species. 

Fire  [also]  brings  about  most  numerous  con- 
versions, and  divine.  For  these  are  all-formed 
images  of  Sun  and  Moon  * ;  they're,  as  it  were, 
like  our  own  mirrors,  which  with  their  emulous 
resplendence  give  us  back  the  likenesses  of  our 
own  images. 

XXXVII 

1.  [XIII.  M.]  But5  now  let  this  suffice 
about  such  things ;  and  let  us  once  again  return 

1  Specie. 

2  The  construction  is  here  confuted  and  elliptical. 

3  This  clause  seems  to  be  out  of  place. 

4  Presumably  of  the  ideal  Sun  and  Moon  ;  for  "  all-formed," 
cf.  xxxv.  2  above. 

6  The  first  six  paragraphs  of  this  chapter  are  quoted  in  Latin, 
with  two  slight  verbal  variants,  by  Augustine,  De  Civitate  Dei, 
xxiv.,  xx vi. 


THE    PERFECT   SERMON  381 

to   man   and   reason, — gift  divine,   from  which 
man  has  the  name  of  rational  animal. 

Less  to  be  wondered  at  are  the  things  said 
of  man, — though  they  are  [still]  to  be  admired. 
Nay,  of  all  marvels  that  which  wins  our  wonder 
[most]  is  that  man  has  been  able  to  find  out 
the  nature  of  the  Gods  and  bring  it  into  play. 

2.  Since,  then,  our  earliest  progenitors  were 
in   great    error,1 — seeing   they  had   no   rational 
faith  about  the  Gods,   and  that  they  paid  no 
heed  unto  their  cult  and  holy  worship, — they 
chanced  upon  an  art  whereby  they  made  Gods 
[for  themselves].2 

To  this  invention  they  conjoined  a  power  that 
suited  it,  [derived]  from  cosmic  nature ;  and 
blending  these  together,  since  souls  they  could 
not  make,  [they  set  about]  evoking  daimons' 
souls  or  those  of  angels ;  [and  thus]  attached 
them  to  their  sacred  images  and  holy  mysteries, 
so  that  the  statues  should,  by  means  of  these, 
possess  the  powers  of  doing  good  and  the 
reverse. 

3.  For  thy  forebear,  Asclepius,  the  first  dis- 
coverer of  medicine,  to  whom  there  is  a  temple 

1  Menard  thinks  he  can  distinguish  the  hand  of  a  Christian 
scribe  in  this  sentence,  which  he  translates  with  great  freedom, 
"qui  s'egaraient  dans  I'incredulite'."     A  more  careful  translation, 
however,  does  not  seem  to  favour  this  hypothesis.     Hermes  says 
simply  that  primitive  mankind  were  ignorant  of  the  Gods,  and 
so  in  error. 

2  That  is,  images.     Of.  xxx.  above  ;  and  0.  H.t  xvii. 


382  THRICE-GREATEST    HERMES 

hallowed  on  Libya's  Mount,1  hard  by  the  shore 
of  crocodiles,2  in  which  his  cosmic  man 3  reposes, 
that  is  to  say  his  body ;  for  that  the  rest 
[of  him],  or  better  still,  the  whole  (if  that  a 
man  when  wholly  [plunged]  in  consciousness 
of  life,4  be  better),  hath  gone  back  home  to 
heaven, — still  furnishing,  [but]  now  by  his 
divinity,  the  sick  with  all  the  remedies  which 
he  was  wont  in  days  gone  by  to  give  by  art  of 
medicine. 

4.  Hermes,  which  is  the  name  of  my  forebear, 
whose  home  is  in  a  place  called  after  him,5  doth 
aid  and  guard  all  mortal  [men]  who  come  to  him 
from  every  side.6 

As  for  Osiris'  [spouse] ;  how  many  are  the 
blessings  that  we  know  Isis  bestows  when  she's 
propitious  ;  how  many  does  she  injure  when  she's 
wrath ! 

For  that  the  terrene  and  the  cosmic  Gods  are 

1  Cf.  xxvii.  3  above. 

2  In  monte  Libya  circa  littus  crocodilorum.     Does  this  refer  to 
a  Crocodilopolis  (KpoKo5ei\uv  Tr6\is,  Ptol.,  iv.  5,  §  65)  ?    And  if  so, 
to  which  of  these  cities,  for  there  were  several  ?     The  best  known 
of  these  is  Arsinoe  in  the  Faiyyum  ;  but  there  was  also  another 
down  south,  in  the  Thebaid,  on  the  W.  bank  of  the  Nile,  lat. 
25°  6',  of  which  remains  are  still  visible  at  Embeshanda,  on  the 
verge  of  the  Libyan  desert.     See  Smith's  Diet,  of  Gk.  and  Rom. 
Geography  (London,  1878),  sub  voc. 

3  Presumably  his  mummy. 

4  In  sensu  vitce. 

6  Hermopolis  therefore  (compare  Lact.,  D.  Institt.,  i.  6) ;  that 
is  to  say,  Hermopolis  Magna  ('Ep/toD  Tr6\is  /j.eyd\ii),  the  modern 
Eshmun,  on  the  left  bank  of  the  Nile,  about  lat.  27°  4'. 

6  To  get  wisdom.     Augustine's  quotation  ends  here. 


THE    PERFECT    SERMON  383 

easily  enraged,  in  that  they  are  created  and 
composed  of  the  two  natures. 

5.  And  for  this  cause  it  comes  to  pass  that 
these  are  called  the  "sacred  animals"  by  the 
Egyptians,  and  that  each  several  state1  gives 
service  to  the  souls  of  those  whose  souls  have 
been  made  holy,2  while  they  were  still  alive ;  so 
that  [the  several  states]  are  governed  by  the 
laws  [of  their  peculiar  sacred  animals],  and  called 
after  their  names. 

It  is  because  of  this,  Asclepius,  those  [animals] 
which  are  considered  by  some  states  deserving 
of  their  worship,  in  others  are  thought  otherwise ; 
and  on  account  of  this  the  states  of  the  Egyptians 
wage  with  each  other  frequent  war. 

XXXVIII 

1.  Asc.  And  of  what  nature,  0  Thrice-greatest 
one,  may  be  the  quality  of  those  who  are  con- 
sidered terrene  Gods  ? 

Tris.  It  doth  consist,  Asclepius,  of  plants, 
and  stones,  and  spices,  which  contain  the  nature 
of  [their  own]  divinity. 

And  for  this  cause  they  are  delighted  with 
repeated  sacrifice,  with  hymns,  and  lauds,  and 

1  Or  city.     For  the  animal  cult  of  the  Egyptians,  see  Plutarch, 
De  Is.  et  Os.,  Ixxii.  ff. 

2  Or  consecrated. 


384  THRICE-GREATEST   HERMES 

sweetest  sounds,  tuned  to  the  key  of  Heaven's 
harmonious  song.1 

2.  So  that  what  is  of  heavenly  nature,2  being 
drawn    down    into    the    images    by   means   of 
heavenly  use  and  practices,  may  be  enabled  to 
endure   with  joy  the   nature   of  mankind,  and 
sojourn  with  it  for  long  periods  of  time. 

Thus  is  it  that  man  is  the  maker  of  the  Gods. 

3.  But  do  not,  0  Asclepius,  1  pray  thee,  think 
the  doings  of  the  terrene  Gods  are  the  result  of 
chance. 

The  heavenly  Gods  dwell  in  the  heights  of 
Heaven,  each  filling  up  and  watching  o'er  the 
rank  he  hath  received ;  whereas  these  Gods  of 
ours,3  each  in  its  way,— by  looking  after  certain 
things,  foretelling  others  by  oracles  and  prophecy, 
foreseeing  others,  and  duly  helping  them  along, 
— act  as  allies  of  men,  as  though  they  were  our 
relatives  and  friends. 

XXXIX 

1.  [XIV.  M.]  Asc.  What  part  of  the  economy,4 
Thrice-greatest  one,  does  the  Heimarmene,  or 
Fate,  then  occupy  ?  For  do  not  the  celestial 
Gods  rule  over  generals 5 ;  the  terrene  occupy 
particulars  ? 

1  Cf.  "God's  song"  in  xiii.  2  above. 

2  Namely,  the  nature  of  the  Gods. 

3  The  terrene  Gods  ;  the  daimones  of  (7.  #.,  xvi.  14. 

4  Rationis ;  lit.  reason.  5  Catholicorum. 


THE    PERFECT   SERMON  385 

Tris.  That  which  we  call  Heimarmene,  As- 
clepius,  is  the  necessity  of  all  things  that 
are  born,1  bound  ever  to  themselves  with  inter- 
linked enchainments. 

This,  then,  is  either  the  effector  of  all  things, 
or  it  is  highest  God,  or  what  is  made  the  second 
God  by  God  Himself, — or  else  the  discipline 2  of 
all  things  both  in  heaven  and  on  earth,  established 
by  the  laws  of  the  Divine. 

2.  And  so  these  twain,  Fate  and  Necessity, 
are  bound  to  one  another  mutually  by  insepar- 
able cohesion.3 

The  former  of  them,  the  Heimarmene,  gives 
birth  to  the  beginnings  of  all  things ;  Necessity 
compels  the  end  of  [all]  depending  from  these 
principals. 

On  these  doth  Order  follow,  that  is  their 
warp-and-woof,  and  Time's  arrangement  for  the 
perfecting  of  [all]  things.  For  there  is  naught 
without  the  interblend  of  Order.4 

1  Or  borne,  quce  geruntur.  2  Disciplines  =  ?gnosis. 

3  Glutino. 

4  Of.  J.  Laurentius  Lydus,  De  Mensibus,  iv.  7  (Wiinsch,  70) ;  the 
rest  of  the  quotation  following  on  what  has  been  already  quoted 
in  the  note  to  xix.  3.     The  Greek  is  either  a  very  much  shortened 
form  or  the  Latin  a  very  much  expanded   one,  for  the   former 
may  be  translated  as  follows :  "  And  Fate  is  also  fated  Activity 
(or  Energy),  or  God  Himself,  or  the  Order  that  doth  follow  that 
Activity  set  over  all  things  in  the  heaven  and  all  things  on  the 
earth,  together  with  Necessity.     The  former  (Fate)  gives  birth  to 
the  very  beginnings  of  things,  the  latter  compels  the  ends  also  to 
come  into  existence.     And  on  them  there  follow  Order  and  Law, 
and  there  is  naught  that's  orderless."     Cf.  Ex.  i.  15,  and  Ex.  xi.  1. 

VOL.  II.  25 


386  THRICE-GREATEST   HERMES 

That  Cosmos l  is  made  perfect  in  all  things ; 
for  Cosmos'  self  is  vehicled 2  in  Order,  or  totally 
consists  of  Order. 


XL 

1.  So,  then,  these  three,  Fate,  [and]  Necessity, 
[and]  Order,  are  most  immediately  effected  by 
God's  Will,  who  rules  the  Cosmos  by  His  Law 
and  by  His  Holy  Keason. 

From  these,  accordingly,  all  willing  or  not- 
willing  is  altogether  foreign,  according  to  God's 
Will.3 

They  are  not  moved  by  wrath  nor  swayed  by 
favour,  but  are  the  instruments  of  the  Eternal 
Reason's  self-compulsion,  which  is  [the  Reason] 
of  Eternity,4  that  never  can  be  turned  aside,  or 
changed,  or  be  destroyed. 

2.  First,  then,  is  Fate,  which,  as  it  were,  by 
casting  in  the  seed,  supplies  the  embryo  of  all 
that  are  to  be. 

Follows  Necessity,  whereby  they  all  are  forcibly 
compelled  unto  their  end. 

Third,  Order  [comes],  preserving  warp-and- 
woof  of  [all]  the  things  which  Fate  and  [which] 
Necessity  arrange.5 

1  Mundus= cosmos,  meaning  also  order  in  Greek. 

2  Gestatur.  3  Divinitus.  4  That  is,  the  ^Eon. 

6  Fate  thus  seems  to  be  regarded  as  the  Creator,  Order  as  the 
Preserver,  and  Necessity  as  the  Destroyer  or  Regenerator. 


THE    PERFECT   SERMON  387 

This,  then,  is  the  Eternity,  which  neither  doth 
begin  nor  cease  to  be,  which,  fixed  by  law  un- 
changeable, abides  in  the  unceasing  motion  of 
its  course. 

3.  It  rises  and  it  sets,  by  turns,  throughout 
its  limbs l ;  so  that  by  reason  of  Time's  changes 
it  often  rises  with  the  very  limbs  with  which  it 
[once]  had  set. 

For  [its]  sphericity, — its  law  of  revolution,2— 
is  of  this  nature,  that  all  things  are  so  straitly 
joined  to  their  own  selves,  that  no  one  knoweth 
what  is  the  beginning  of  their  revolution 3 ;  since 
they  appear  for  ever  all  to  go  before  and  follow 
after  their  own  selves. 

Good  and  bad  issues,4  [therefore,]  are  com- 
mingled in  all  cosmic  things. 

4.  [XV.  M.]     And  now  it  hath  been  told  you 
on  each  several  point, — as  man  hath  power  [to 
tell],  and  God  hath  willed  it  and  permitted  it. 

This,  then,  alone  remains  that  we  should  do, 
— bless  God  and  give  Him  praise  ;  and  so  return 
to  taking  thought  for  body  ['s  comfort]. 

For  now  sufficiently  have  we  been  filled  with 
feast  of  mind  by  our  discourse  on  sacred  things.5 

1  Membra  j  that  is,  parts,  presumably  constellations. 

2  Cf.  xxxv.  3  below. 

3  Volubilitatis ;   that  is,  their  turning  into  themselves ;    the 
symbol  of  which  was  the  serpent  swallowing  its  tail. 

4  Eventus  etfors. 

5  Cf.  the  conclusion  of  C.  H.t  xvii. 


388  THRICE-GREATEST   HERMES 

XLI 

1.  Now  when  they  came  forth  from  the  holy 
place,1    they    turned    their    faces    towards    the 
south 2  when  they  began  their  prayers  to  God. 

For  when  the  sun  is  setting,  should  anyone 
desire  to  pray  to  God,  he  ought  to  turn  him 
thitherwards 3 ;  so  also  at  the  rising  of  the  same, 
unto  that  spot  which  lies  beneath  the  sun.4 

As  they  were  just  beginning  to  recite  the 
prayer,  Asclepius  did  whisper : 

[Asc.~\  Let  us  suggest  to  father,  Tat, — what 
he  did  bid  us  do,5 — that  we  should  say  our 
prayer  to  God  with  added  incense  and  with 
unguents. 

Whom  when  Thrice-greatest  heard,  he  grew 
distressed  and  said : 

2.  [Tris.~\  Nay,   nay,   Asclepius ;   speak  more 
propitious  words !     For  this  is  like  to  profana- 
tion of  [our]  sacred  rites, — when  thou  dost  pray 
to  God,  to  offer  incense  and  the  rest. 

For  naught  is  there  of  which  He  stands  in 
need,  in  that  He  is  all  things,  or  all  are  in  Him. 

1  De  adyto  ;  "  down  from,"  literally. 

2  This  is  apparently  an  error  for  south-west  or  west. 

3  That  is,  to  the  setting  sun  or  the  west.     Cf.  G.H.,  xiii.  (xiv.) 
16,  Comment. 

4  Subsolanus,  lying  beneath  the  sun  ;  that  is  to  say,  eastern. 
6  Gf.  xxxviii.  1  above. 


THE    PERFECT   SERMON  389 

But  let  us  worship,  pouring  forth  our  thanks. 
For  this  is  the  best  incense  in  God's  sight, — 
when  thanks  are  given  to  Him  by  men.1 

3.  [We  give]  Thee  grace,  Thou  highest  [and] 
most  excellent !     For   by  Thy  Grace   we   have 
received  the  so  great  Light  of  Thy  own  Gnosis. 

0  holy  Name,  fit  [Name]  to  be  adored,  0 
Name  unique,  by  which  the  Only  God 2  is  to  be 
blest  through  worship  of  [our]  Sire, — [of  Thee] 
who  deignest  to  afford  to  all  a  Father's  piety, 
and  care,  and  love,  and  whatsoever  virtue  is 
more  sweet  [than  these],  endowing  [us]  with 
sense,  [and]  reason,  [and]  intelligence; — with 
sense  that  we  may  feel  Thee ;  with  reason  that 
we  may  track  Thee  out  from  the  appearances  of 
things 3 ;  with  means  of  recognition  that  we  may 
joy  in  knowing  Thee. 

4.  Saved  by  Thy  Power  divine,  let  us  rejoice 
that  Thou  hast  shown  Thyself  to  us  in  all  Thy 
Fullness.     Let  us  rejoice  that  Thou  hast  deigned 
to  consecrate  us,  [still]  entombed  in  bodies,  to 
Eternity. 

For  this  is  the  sole  festival  of  praise  worthy 
of  man, — to  know  Thy  Majesty. 

We  have  known  Thee ;  yea,  by  the  Single 
Sense  of  our  intelligence,  we  have  perceived 

1  For  the  three  preceding  paragraphs,  see  Lact.,  D.  /.,  vi.  25. 

2  The  Cosmos,  presumably,  as  the  One  God. 

3  Suspicionibus  ;  hints,  perhaps,  and  so  phenomena. 


390  THRICE-GREATEST   HERMES 

Thy  Light  supreme, — 0  Thou  true  Life  of  life, 
0  Fecuiid  Womb  that  giveth  birth  to  every 
nature ! 

5.  We  have  known  Thee,  0  Thou  completely 
filled  with  the  Conception  from  Thyself  of 
Universal  Nature ! 

We  have  known  Thee,  0  Thou  Eternal 
Constancy ! 

For  in  the  whole  of  this  our  prayer  in  worship 
of  Thy  Good,  this  favour  only  of  Thy  Goodness 
do  we  crave ; — that  Thou  wilt  keep  us  constant 
in  our  Love  of  knowing  Thee,1  and  let  us  ne'er 
be  cut  off  from  this  kind  of  Life. 

With  this  desire  we  [now]  betake  us  to  [our] 
pure  and  fleshless  meal.2 


COMMENTARY 

THE  TITLE 

The  titles  in  the  Latin  MSS.  vary.  The  heading 
preferred  by  Hildebrand  is  "  Asclepius,  or  a  Dialogue 
of  Thrice-greatest  Hermes " ;  while  in  the  Bipontine 
edition,  the  title  stands :  "  Thrice-greatest  Hermes  Con- 
cerning the  Nature  of  the  Gods ;  A  Sermon  addressed 
to  Asclepius."  Menard,  the  French  translator,  prefers : 
"  A  Sermon  of  Initiation,  or  Asclepius." 

The  treatise  begins  with  a  transparent  gloss,  in  all 
probability  originally  the  marginal  note  of  some  scribe, 
1  Or  of  Thy  Gnosis.  2  Cosnam. 


THE    PERFECT    SERMON  391 

or  student,  which  has  improperly  crept  into  the  text. 
It  runs :  "  This  Asclepius  is  my  Sun-god " ;  that  is 
to  say,  apparently :  "  This  Sermon  '  Asclepius '  has 
illumined  me  " ;  from  which  it  is  evident  that  the  title 
lying  before  the  scribe  was  "  Asclepius  "  simply,  as  may 
be  seen  from  §  2  :  "It  is,  however,  with  thy  name  I  will 
inscribe  this  treatise."  Stobseus,  moreover,  in  quoting 
from  the  original  Greek  (of  xxvii.  4),  heads  his  extract 
simply,  "  Of  Hermes  from  the  [Sermons]  to  Asclepius." 

On  the  other  hand,  the  Church  Father  Lactantius, 
writing  at  the  beginning  of  the  fourth  century,  and 
quoting  from  the  Greek  original,  says  twice,  categorically 
(D.  /.,  iv.  6  and  vii.  8) :  "  Hermes  in  illo  libro  qui  Ao'yo? 
reAef09  VMcribtowr" \  that  is,  "Hermes  in  the  Book 
entitled  'The  Perfect  Sermon,'  or  'The  Sermon  of 
Initiation ' " ;  while  Johannes  Laurentius  Lydus  on 
three  occasions  quotes  from  this  "  Perfect  Sermon "  of 
Hermes,  and  on  each  occasion  so  names  it. 

I  have  accordingly  preferred  this  as  the  main  title, 
and  added  "  The  Asclepius  "  as  an  alternative. 

THE  OLD  LATIN  TRANSLATION  AND  THE  GREEK 
ORIGINAL 

Of  the  Greek  original  we  have  quotations  or 
references  by  Lactantius  (see  viii.  1  and  3;  xxv.  4: 
xxvi.  1 ;  xli.  2),  Johannes  Laurentius  Lydus  (see 
xix.  3 ;  xxviii.  1 ;  xxxix.  1,  2),  and  Stobaeus  (see 
xxvii.  4). 

If  we  compare  these  Greek  quotations  with  our 
Latin  translation,  we  shall  find,  not  only  that  the  Latin 
is  an  exceedingly  free  rendering  of  the  Greek,  showing 
many  expansions  and  contractions,  and  often  missing 
the  sense  of  the  original,  but  also  that  even  in  Greek 
there  were  probably  several  recensions  of  the  same  text.1 
1  See  R.  195,  2. 


392  THRICE-GREATEST   HERMES 

Indeed,  the  free  rendering  of  our  translation  is  of 
such  a  nature  that  it  is  impossible  to  base  upon  it  any 
certain  conclusions  as  to  the  date  of  the  original  or  its 
precise  worth  in  the  history  of  religion.1 

That,  however,  our  Latin  translation  is  an  ancient 
one  is  proved  by  Augustine's  verbal  quotations  from  it 
(see  xxiii.  1 ;  xxiii.  3-xxiv.  2 ;  xxiv.  3 ;  xxvii.  1-4). 
It  was  thus  in  existence  about  400  A.D.  at  least.2 

Tradition,  however,  has  assigned  to  it  a  far  higher 
antiquity,  attributing  it  to  no  less  distinguished  a 
writer  than  Appuleius,  and  so  referring  it  to  the  first 
half  of  the  second  century. 

This  attribution  has,  of  course,  for  long  been 
questioned  by  modern  criticism,  and  Keitzenstein, 
though  he  does  not  discuss  the  subject,  accepts  the 
adverse  verdict  and  refers  us  to  a  "  Pseudo- Appuleius." 

Hildebrand,  whose  minute  acquaintance  with 
Appuleius'  peculiar  style  and  neologisms  is  a  guarantee 
of  his  competence,  has  thoroughly  gone  into  the  matter ; 
and  though  he  sums  up  against  tradition,  it  is  in  a 
half-hearted  way.  The  translation,  if  not  by  Appuleius, 
is  at  any  rate  in  old  African  Latin,  and  there  is  nothing 
in  the  style  which  absolutely  forbids  the  possibility 
of  its  being  by  the  author  of  The  Golden  Ass  and  the 
initiate  of  Isis.  The  strongest  point,  other  than  philo- 
logical, against  tradition  is  that  Augustine  does  not  say 
the  translation  was  by  Appuleius;  but  this  seems  to 
me  to  be  unworthy  of  serious  consideration. 

It  is,  of  course,  difficult  to  turn  possibilities  into 
probabilities,  but  I  see  no  reason  why  the  Greek 
original  of  our  Sermon  should  not  be  assigned  to  the 

1  The  so-founded  opinions  of  Bernays  and  Zeller  are  char- 
acterized by  Reitzenstein  (p.  195)  as  of  as  little  value  as  the 
opinions  which  made  the  whole  of  our  literature  dependent  on 
New  Platonism. 

2  Augustine's  date  is  354-430  A.D. 


THE   PERFECT    SERMON  393 

earlier  Hermes-Asclepian  dialogues  as  well  as  to  any 
others.  That  it  was  one  of  the  most  famous  is  evident 
by  its  wide  quotation,  and  by  the  fact  that  several 
recensions  of  the  Greek  text  were  in  circulation. 

OF  THE  WRITER  AND  THE  PERSONS  OF  THE  DIALOGUE 

The  Latin  translator  retains  a  number  of  the  original 
Greek  technical  terms,  and  if  we  could  only  rely  on 
his  translation  giving  us  the  substance  of  the  original 
in  all  cases,  we  should  be  presented  in  several  passages 
with  phenomena  which  would  persuade  us  that  the 
writer  of  the  original  intended  his  readers  to  think  he 
was  an  Egyptian,  and  that  his  native  nomenclature 
was  other  than  Greek,  as  is  also  the  case  in  C.  E.  (xvi.). 

For  instance,  in  vii.  2,  "  the  man  '  essential,' l  as  say 
the  Greeks," — but  this  may  be  a  gloss  of  the  Latin 
translator. 

Again,  in  x.  2 :  "  So  that  .  .  .  *  World '  seems  most 
fitly  called  c  Cosmos '  in  Greek," — which  seems  to  be 
the  original. 

Yet  again,  the  "  multifarious  reasoning "  of  xii.  3 
reminds  us  strongly  of  "the  philosophizing  of  the 
Greeks — the  noise  of  words,"  in  C.  If.,  xvi.  2. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  phrase,  "  which  we  in  Greek 
(grcece)  believe  to  be  the  Cosmos,"  would  seem  to  make 
the  original  author  forget  his  Egyptian  role. 

While  "  its  bottom  ...  is  called  in  Greek  A-eides," 
coupled  with  "  in  Greek  they  are  called  Hades  ...  in 
Latin  Inferi "  (xvii.  3),  may  be  assigned  to  a  gloss  of 
the  translator. 

In  xxiv.  1,  however,  the  sentence,  "Dost  thou  not 

know,  Asclepius,  that  Egypt  is  the  image  of  the  Heaven  ? 

.  .  .  This  land  of  ours  is  shrine  of  the  whole  world " 

—coupled  with  the  rest  of  the  chapter,  and  Ch.  xxv. 

i  Cf.  C.  H.,  xiii.  (xiv.)  14 


394  THRICE-GREATEST    HERMES 

— could  hardly  have  been  written  by  a  Greek.  In 
xxviii.  1,  moreover,  the  "weighing  of  the  merit"  of 
the  soul  is  strongly  Egyptian,  and  so  with  the  image 
and  animal-cult. 

As  to  the  persons  of  the  dialogue,  I  would  suggest 
that  originally  the  sermon  was  addressed  to  Asclepius 
alone,  and  that  the  slight  narrative  indications  were 
added  later  to  adapt  it  to  wider  circles. 

The  chief  disciple  is  evidently  Asclepius;  he  it  is 
who  is  already  "  well  versed  in  Nature,"  according  to 
G.  H.,  xiv.  (xv.)  1 ;  that  is  to  say,  he  has  progressed 
beyond  the  stage  of  Hearer,  for  he  questions  Hermes, 
whereas  Tat  does  not  ask  questions,  but  listens  only, 
he  is  "the  one  who  is  to  hear"  (i.  1).  To  them  is 
added  Ammon  on  the  proposal  of  Asclepius;  and 
Ammon  is  admitted  on  the  ground  that  he  had  already 
had  much  written  to  him,  but  apparently  had  not  yet 
been  admitted  to  oral  teaching. 

The  teaching  is  delivered  in  solemn  surroundings  in 
the  holy  place  or  shrine  (i.  2),  and  teacher  and  pupils 
constitute  the  "  sacred  four."  Hermes  teaches  in  a 
state  of  exaltation;  the  place  is  filled  with  "God's 
goodly  presence,"  and  "Love  Divine"  instructs  them, 
through  Hermes'  lips,  in  answer  to  the  Pure  and  Single 
Love  of  Philosophy  in  their  hearts  (cf.  xii.  3 ;  xiv.  1). 

The  same  hand  that  wrote  the  warning  against 
revealing  the  sermon  to  others  in  i.  2  also  probably 
wrote :  "  And  ye,  0  Tat,  Asclepius  and  Ammon,  in 
silence  hide  the  mysteries  divine  within  the  secret 
places  of  your  hearts,  and  breathe  no  word  of  their 
concealment ! "  (xxxii.  4) ;  he  also,  presumably,  glossed 
"Asclepius"  (xxxiv.  2)  with  "and  ye  who  are  with 
him,"  and  added  the  naive  whisper  of  Asclepius  to 
Tat  (xli.  1). 

This  redactor  (if  our  analysis  is  correct),  moreover, 


THE   PERFECT   SERMON  395 

was  a  member  of  a  select 1  ascetic  community,  judging 
at  any  rate  by  his  last  sentence  (xli.  5) ;  in  which  case 
Ammon  can  hardly  be  equated  with  any  King  Ammon, 
but  must  be  taken  as  standing  for  some  grade  of  the 
community.  I  would  suggest  that  this  grade  was  similar 
to  that  of  the  Exoterici  of  the  Pythagoreans  or  the  outer 
circles  of  the  Essenes,  of  which  the  members  still  lived 
in  the  world,  but  received  instruction.  In  this  case, 
however,  the  "  we  "  of  the  last  sentence  would  have  to 
be  taken  as  referring  to  Asclepius  and  Tat,  and  not  to 
Ammon. 

As  to  the  dependence  of  our  sermon  on  the  rest  of 
the  literature,  I  find  more  points  of  contact  between 
it  and  C.  ff.,  x.  (xi.),  "The  Key"  sermon  addressed 
to  Tat ;  none  of  the  references,  however,  which  I  have 
given  in  the  notes,  show  any  literal  dependence. 

THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  WILL  OF  GOD 

In  the  general  doctrine  the  stress  laid  on  the  concept 
of  the  Will  of  God2  is  to  be  specially  noticed.  This 
Will  seems  to  be  almost  personified,  and  is,  of  course, 
a  fundamental  doctrine  of  the  Trismegistic  religio- 
philosophy.3 

In  xxvi.  1  it  is  identified  with  the  Goodness4  of 
God,  and  the  Nature  of  God.5  But  what  it  seems  to 
correspond  to  most  nearly  is  the  ^Eon  or  Eternity-idea 
which  is  set  forth  very  clearly  in  xxx.-xxxii. — in  fact, 
more  clearly  than  anywhere  else  in  the  Trismegistic 

1  Cf.  for  references  to  the  "  few,"  xxii.  1  ;  xxiii.  1  ;  xxxiv.  3  ; 
xl.  1. 

2  Cf.  vii.  3  ;  viii.  2  ;   xi.  4  ;   xiv.  1  ;   xvi.  3  ;   xix.  4  ;   xx.  3  ; 
xxii.  4  ;  xxv.  2  ;  xxvi.  1,  2  and  3. 

3  Cf.  especially  G.  H.t  iv.  (v.)  1  ;  x.  (xi.)  i. 

4  In  the  Greek  text  of  Lactantius  this  is  "  the  Good." 
6  Cf.  vi.  1  ;  xiv.  3. 


396  THRICE-GREATEST    HERMES 

literature.  God  and  Mon  are  the  sources  of  all  things  ; 
and  ^Eon  is  "  the  Eternity  of  God,  in  Truth  itself  sub- 
sisting, the  Fullness  of  all  things"  (xxxii.  1).  The 
Will  of  God  is  thus  the  ^Eon  or  Pleroma,  the  Wisdom, 
the  Energy,  the  Spouse  of  the  Supreme. 

This  Will  rules  Cosmos  with  Law  and  Holy  Eeason 
(xl.);  Cosmos  being  the  Order  of  things  involved  in 
Fate  and  Necessity  the  instruments  of  the  Divine  Will.1 

Our  sermon  is  also  characterized  by  the  frequent 
use  it  makes  of  the  terms  Spirit  and  Sense. 

CONCERNING  SPIRIT  AND  THE  ALL-SENSE 

The  Spirit  is  evidently  Cosmic  Life  (vi.  4 ;  xxvii.  1) 
and  individual  life  (x.  4).2  The  exposition  of  it  begins 
with  xiv.  2 ;  Spirit  and  Matter,  or  the  Nature  of  the 
Cosmos  (xiv.  3),  are  practically  regarded  as  the  Positive 
and  Negative,  or  Masculine  and  Feminine  Energies  of 
the  Divine. 

Spirit  is  the  Kuler  (xvii.  1)  of  all  things  in  Cosmos 
or  Nature ;  it  is  the  immediate  Instrument  of  the  Will 
of  God  (xvi.  3) ;  and  is,  indeed,  loosely  identified  with 
that  Will  (xix.  4) ;  while  in  still  looser  fashion  Spirit 
seems  to  be  symbolized  by  "  Heaven  "  and  the  Sensible 
Cosmos  by  "  Earth  "  (xix.  2). 

It  is  very  probable  that  this  doctrine  of  Spirit  as 
Divine  Breath  is  fundamentally  Egyptian,  and  owes 
nothing  to  immediate  Semitic  influence.  However  this 
may  be,  the  use  of  the  term  Sense,  as  apparently  in 
some  way  superior  to  Reason  (vi.  4;  x.  4),  is  very 
striking,  and,  as  in  some  cases  opposed  to  the  exaltation 
of  the  Eeason  found  elsewhere  in  our  tractates,  under 
the  influence  of  this  leading  idea  of  Greek  philosophy, 
discloses  an  Egyptian  point  of  view. 

1  Cf.  also  G.  H.,  xiii.  (xiv.)  19,  20,  and  R.  39,  n.  1. 

2  Cf.  G.  H.t  x.  (xi.)  13,  and  Commentary. 


THE    PERFECT    SERMON  397 

We  have  already  noticed  this  use  of  the  term  in 
some  of  our  tractates,  but  in  our  present  sermon  it  is 
brought  into  great  prominence.  This  Sense  is  not  the 
differentiated  senses,  but  a  Unit  or  Cosmic  Sense. 

It  is  "  the  Divine  Sense  of  intelligence,"  and  is  found 
only  in  God  and  in  man's  reason  (vii.  1 ;  xxxii.  2). 

It  is  the  "Higher  Sense  (with  which  Celestial  Gift 
mankind  alone  is  blest)  " — characterized  as  the  "  feeder 
of  the  mind "  (xviii.  1) ;  yet  on  the  other  hand  this 
"  Higher  Sense  "  is  that  "  which  by  good  chance  a  man 
perceives  by  mind,  when  out  of  all  his  senses." 

This  Sense  is  in  some  fashion  closely  connected 
with  Nature  and  Cosmos  (xxi.  1) ;  through  it  man 
"disciplines  his  soul,"  and  "cures  his  intellect,"  thus 
gaining  "  intelligence  of  God-like  Eeason  "  (xxii.  1),  and 
finally  "  mingling  himself  with  the  All-sense  of  the 
Divine  Intelligence  "  (xxix.  2). 

This  All-sense  is  the  same  as  the  "  Whole  Sense  of 
Divinity,"  and  is  the  Likeness  of  God  ;  it  is  "  in  its  own 
self  immoveable,"  and  yet  "  doth  set  itself  in  motion 
within  its  own  stability "  (xxxii.  1).  Man  must  make 
himself  like  unto  this  Likeness. 

This  Likeness  is  evidently  the  -#Con  or  Intelligible 
Cosmos ;  for  the  "  Cosmic  Sense  is  the  Container  of 
all  sensibles"  (xxxii.  2). 

In  man  its  chief  normal  characteristic  is  the  reten- 
tiveness  of  memory,  "  through  which  man  is  made 
ruler  of  the  Earth"  (xxxii.  2).  This  Sense  is  then 
man's  continuum,  the  germ  of  everlastingness  in  him, 
the  root-ground  of  consciousness  (xxxii.  3),  the  Single 
Sense  of  the  intelligence  (xli.  4),  which  is  fully  brought 
to  birth  only  when  a  man  "  is  wholly  plunged  in  con- 
sciousness of  life  (in  sensu  vitce)"  (xxxvii.  3), — the 
"  spiritual  life "  of  the  Christian  Gnostics. 

The  fact  that  we  have  only  a  translation  to  deal  with 


398  THRICE-GREATEST    HERMES 

prevents  us  laying  too  much  stress  on  details,  but  the 
general  idea  is  clear  enough ;  so  too  with  the  rest  of 
this,  the  longest  of  our  sermons,  we  must  be  content 
to  refer  only  to  general  points,  the  chief  of  which  are 
the  "  prophetic  "  utterances. 

THE  PKOPHETIC  UTTERANCES 

These  present  us  with  problems  of  very  great 
difficulty,  and,  so  far,  I  have  neither  seen  any  solution 
nor  has  any  occurred  to  me. 

So  much  work  has  been  done  on  contemporary  pro- 
phetic utterances  of  this  nature,  especially  on  the 
Sibylline  Literature,  that  it  may  be  said  that  the 
scholastic  mind  has  reached  certain  general  criteria 
with  regard  to  such  pronouncements — the  chief  of 
which  is  that  the  hypothesis  of  genuine  prophecy  is  not 
to  be  entertained. 

In  the  Sibylline  literature,  indeed,  this  is  clearly 
established;  for  much  of  it  consists  of  traditional 
history  written  in  the  prophetical  tense,  so  to  say; 
when  the  history  comes  to  an  end  the  date  of  the 
"  prophetical "  writer  is  at  once  detected,  for  all  that 
follows  has  no  longer  any  relation  to  historical  events. 

In  the  case  of  our  "  prophecies,"  however,  we  have 
nothing  of  this  nature  to  guide  us.  All  we  can  say  is 
that  they  seem  to  have  been  written,  most  probably,  at  a 
time  when  the  Trismegistic  communities  were  being 
persecuted. 

That  this  was  in  the  course  of  the  fourth  century, 
however,  as  Eeitzenstein  (p.  213)  supposes,  seems  to 
me  to  be,  so  far,  destitute  of  any  sure  objective  con- 
firmation ;  it  not  only  compels  us  to  suppose  that  the 
prophecies  are  later  interpolations  (which  they  may 
possibly  be),  but  that  these  interpolations  are  later  than 
Lactantius;  whereas  there  is  every  probability  that 


THE   PERFECT    SERMON  399 

the  Church  Father  had  the  text  of  them  before  him,1 
and  his  date  is  the  beginning  of  the  fourth  century. 

On  the  other  hand,  Zosimus,  writing  somewhere  about 
the  end  of  the  third  and  beginning  of  the  fourth  century, 
breathes  no  word  of  persecution,  and  leads  us  to  suppose 
that  the  community  was  still  flourishing.  We  are  thus 
still  in  the  gravest  uncertainty. 

The  first  of  our  "prophecies"  is  in  xii.  3:  "For  I 
will  tell  thee  as  though  it  were  propheticly  " — addressed 
to  Asclepius,  and,  therefore,  probably  not  due  to  the 
redactor  who  we  have  supposed  added  the  narrative 
sentences. 

The  lament  of  the  writer  is  that  "  the  Single  Love, 
the  Love  of  Pure  Philosophy,"  is  fast  disappearing 
from  the  world ;  he  can  hardly  have  had  Christianity 
in  mind  when  writing  these  words,  for  he  contrasts  the 
"  Pure  Philosophy  "  with  "  multifarious  reasoning  "  and 
"  divers  sciences,"  and  the  latter  can  hardly  be  said  to 
be  characteristic  of  General  Christianity. 

If,  however,  his  words  may  be  said  to  include  also 
Gnostic  Christianity,  then  he  was  clearly  not  in  sym- 
pathy with  it ;  but  this  can  hardly  be  the  case,  seeing 
that  the  resemblances  between  the  Trismegistic  and 
Christian  Gnosis  are  of  a  very  intimate  nature. 

THE  PROSCRIPTION  OF  THE  WORSHIP  OF  THE  GODS 

Turning  next  to  xxiv.  2,  we  meet  with  the  clear 
statement  that  the  worship  of  the  Gods  will  be  legally 
proscribed  by  the  "  barbarian  "  masters  of  Egypt  (also 
xxv.  3). 

Such  a  general  proscription  in  this  emphatic  sense 
took  place  in  Egypt  only  with  the  destruction  of  the 
Serapeum  by  the  Christians  themselves  in  389  A.D. 

1  See  xxv.  4,  and  note. 


400  THRICE-GREATEST    HERMES 

Of  persecutions  of  the  Christians  by  the  Eoman 
authorities  in  Egypt  prior  to  this  we  get  clear  indica- 
tions in  the  writings  of  the  Christian  Gnostic  Basilides, 
who  flourished  at  Alexandria  at  the  beginning  of  the 
second  century,  and  wrote  specially  of  martyrdom. 
But  this  will  little  help  us  for  the  proscription  of  a 
cult  that  favoured  the  worship  of  the  Gods  and  of 
their  images. 

Can  it,  then,  be  possible  that  these  prophetic  utterances 
were  written  at  a  time  when  many  of  the  same  nature 
were  being  penned  by  Jew  and  Christian  ?  For  our 
author,  as  for  Jewish  and  Christian  writers,  the  "  End 
of  the  World  "  was  at  hand ;  his  expectation  is  in  this 
precisely  the  same  as  that  of  the  writers  of  the  New 
Testament  documents. 

The  cause  of  this  dire  event  is  that  Egypt,  the 
"  shrine  of  the  whole  world,"  the  "  Holy  Land " l  par 
excellence,  will  be  polluted  with  all  iniquity  and  violence. 
The  Cult  of  the  Gods  will  cease,  and  the  Gods  will 
leave  the  Earth  and  mount  to  Heaven.  The  man's 
whole  heart  is  bleeding  for  Egypt,  even  as  the  heart  of 
a  Jew  for  Jerusalem. 

If  there  is  any  immediate  historical  references  in 
these  heartfelt  utterances,  we  must  seek  them  in  such 
phrases  as :  "  This  holiest  land,  seat  of  our  shrines  and 
temples,  shall  be  choked  with  tombs  and  corpses  "  (xxiv. 
3) ;  "  the  tale  of  tombs  shall  far  exceed  the  number  of 
the  quick "  (ibid.,  §  4) 2 ;  and  "  Egypt  shall  be  made 
the  home  of  Scyth  or  Indian,  or  someone  like  to  them 
— that  is,  a  foreign  neighbour." 

It  is  true  that  the  Christians  were  ever  reproached 

1  The  "  image  of  the  Heaven"  ;  cf.  K.  K.,  46-48. 

2  This  is  very  different  language  from  the  more  moderate  tone 
of  G.  H.,  ix.  (x.)  4,  where  we  are  told  about  the  Gnostics,  "they 
are  thought  mad  and  laughed  at ;  they're  hated  and  despised, 
and  sometimes  even  put  to  death." 


THE    PERFECT   SERMON  40  J 

with  worshipping  the  dead,  and  building  churches  over 
the  bones  of  the  dead — an  act  of  utter  pollution  accord- 
ing to  all  Pagan  notions ;  but  the  words  of  our  author, 
even  allowing  for  all  hyperbole,  can  hardly  be  construed 
in  this  sense. 

People  like  Scyths  or  Indians,  again,  if  we  are  to 
suppose  any  historical  reference,  can  hardly  be  imagined 
to  refer  to  the  Komans ;  while  the  Goths  under  Alaric, 
who  ravaged  Greece  in  395,  396  A.D.,  are  too  late  even 
for  Eeitzenstein.  Moreover,  we  have  already  in  our 
notes  pointed  to  the  strange  conjunction  of  Scyth  and 
Barbarian  in  our  text  as  being  also  found  in  Colossians. 

On  the  other  hand,  nothing  but  the  entire  State 
suppression  of  the  Pagan  Keligion  in  all  its  forms  can 
satisfy  xxv.  3,  and  this  just  suits  the  end  of  the  fourth 
century. 

If,  however,  we  cannot  entertain  so  late  a  date,  and 
I  do  not  think  we  can,  there  seems  nothing  for  it  but 
to  give  the  writer  some  credit  for  his  prognostication  of 
the  future ;  for  eventually  things  certainly  turned  out 
for  him  and  all  he  held  most  dear  very  much  as  he 
imagined  or  feared  they  would. 

THE  LAST  HOPE  OF  THE  KELIGION  OF  THE  MIND 

At  any  rate  the  last  hope  of  the  Pure  Love,  the 
Religion  of  the  Mind,  is  in  the  Trismegistic  Com- 
munities, if  indeed  it  is  so  permitted  to  interpret 
xxvii.  3: 

"  Yea,  they  who  rule  the  earth  shall  be  distributed 
[through  all  the  lands],  and  finally  be  gathered  in  a 
state, — at  top  of  Egypt's  upper  part, — which  shall  be 
founded  towards  the  setting  sun,  and  to  which  all  the 
mortal  race  shall  speed." 

We  need  not  insist  upon  details,  for  our  translator 

VOL.  n.  26 


402  THRICE-GREATEST    HERMES 

may  have  gone  wide  of  the  original ;  for  instance,  the 
"  race  "  may,  instead  of  being  "  mortal "  in  the  original, 
have  been  the  "  Kace  "  of  which  we  have  already  heard 
so  much  in  Philo  and  these  tractates  ;  but  the  similarity 
of  the  idea  cannot  fail  to  remind  us  of  Philo  when,  in 
writing  of  the  Eedeemed  of  Spiritual  Israel,  he  says : 

"  Those  who  were  but  scattered  in  Hellas  and  non- 
Grecian  (Barbarian)  lands,  over  islands  and  over 
continents,  shall  rise  up  with  one  impulse,  and  from 
diverse  regions  flock  together  unto  the  one  spot  revealed 
to  them." ! 

And  with  this  further  compare  the  famous  passage 
on  the  Therapeuts: 

"  Now  this  Eace  of  men  is  to  be  found  in  many  parts 
of  the  inhabited  world,  both  the  Grecian  and  non- 
Grecian  world,  sharing  in  the  Perfect  Good. 

"In  Egypt  there  are  crowds  of  them  in  every 
province,  or  nome  as  they  call  it,  and  especially  round 
Alexandria.  For  they  who  are  in  every  way  (or  in 
every  nome)  the  most  highly  advanced,  come  as 
colonists,2  as  it  were,  to  the  Therapeutic  fatherland."  3 

Moreover,  just  as  the  Therapeuts  in  the  immediately 
following  lines  of  Philo  are  said  to  have  their  community 
on  a  hill,  so  too  in  our  text  we  immediately  find  mention 
of  the  Trismegistic  communities  as  having  their  chief 
centre  on  the  Libyan  Hill, — a  community  which  is 
spoken  of  as  "  very  large  "  in  numbers,  and  so  is  some- 
what of  a  contradiction  to  the  numbers  of  the  Pious 
given  in  xxii.  1,  where  we  are  told  "  they  may  be 
counted  even  in  the  world,"  unless  the  sentence  is  to 
be  taken  as  rhetorical. 

1  De  Execrat.,  §  9  ;  M.  ii.  435,  436  ;  P.  937  (Ri.  v.  255). 

2  Cf.  in  our  Sermon,  xxv.    1  :    Egypt,   "  the   sole   colony  of 
holiness." 

3  D.  V.  a,  C.  56  ff ;  M.  i.  474  ;  P.  892.     Cf.  F.  F.  F.,  69. 


THE    PERFECT    SERMON  403 

This  Hill  is  called  the  Libyan  Mount,  a  vague  enough 
title  ;  nor  is  this  vagueness  removed  when  we  find  it 
again  referred  to  (in  xxxvii.  3)  as  the  place  of  burial 
of  the  body  of  the  First  Asclepius,  and  obtain  the 
additional  information  that  it  is  "  hard  by  the  shore  of 
crocodiles,"  for  this  can  hardly  refer  to  Crocodilopolis 
in  the  Fayyum,  the  most  northern  of  the  towns  so  named, 
seeing  that  the  Libyan  Mount  is  "  at  the  top  of  Egypt's 
upper  part,"  and  "  towards  the  setting  sun." 

This,  however,  corresponds  admirably  with  the  location 
of  Philo's  Therapeut  community  on  the  southern  shore 
of  Lake  Mareotis,  just  south  of  Alexandria;  but  few 
indeed  will  be  found  to  entertain  the  possibility  even 
that  Philo  and  our  author  may  be  speaking  of  the  same 
people  from  different  standpoints  and  under  different 
names. 

As  far  as  I  can  see,  there  is  no  certainty  in  the 
matter;  and,  therefore,  I  leave  it  as  a  problem  of 
immense  interest  that  has  not  as  yet  found  a  solution. 


PRINTED  BY  NEILL  AND  CO.,   LTD.,   EDINBURGH. 


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