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