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

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 moments of the hours and points of inclination [when they're born] are different.

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.

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.

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 bringingsforth 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 conversions, 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.

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 discoverer of medicine, to whom there is a temple