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

Hence it is brought about that man investigates 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.

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.

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.

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 arithmetic, 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.