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

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 seed of the assurance of his future Deathlessness implanted in him.

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.

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 life and deathlessness ; if that it needs must be that he should live for ever.

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.

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 together 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

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,