Thrice-Greatest Hermes, Vol. II (the Corpus Hermeticum) — G. R. S. Mead (1906)

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.

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.

been in the Creator before they were created. Nor is He called unfitly "All," in that His members are the " All."

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").

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 multiform 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.

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 director of all bodies ; bodies' increasings and decreasings are ruled by Sun and Moon.

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 Contemplativa, 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

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.