Thrice-Greatest Hermes, Vol. II (the Corpus Hermeticum) — G. R. S. Mead (1906)
The text is shown on its own: no facing layer is held for this issue.
Most blessed sight were it, my son, to see all these beneath one sway — the motionless in motion, and the unmanifest made manifest ; whereby is made this order of the cosmos and the cosmos which we see of order.
6. If thou would'st see Him too through things that suffer death,2 both on the earth and in the deep,3 think of a man's being fashioned in the womb, my son, and strictly scrutinize the art of Him who fashions him, and learn who fashioneth this fair and godly image of the Man.4
1 Namely, that which lacketh place, number, and order ; that is, disorder, chaos.
2 As opposed to the immortal world-order.
3 Cf. § 9 below, where it almost seems to mean " water."
4 The Heavenly Man of " The Shepherd " treatise ; man is the image of The Man, the Logos or Image of God. This and the following passage is referred to by Lactantius, D. Institt., ii. 10.
Who [then] is He who traceth out the circles of the eyes ; who He who boreth out the nostrils and the ears ; who He who openeth [the portal of] the mouth ; who He who doth stretch out and tie the nerves ; who He who channels out the veins ; who He who hardeneth the bones ; who He who covereth the flesh with skin ; who He who separates the fingers and the joints ; who He who widens out a treading for the feet ; who He who diggeth out the ducts; who He who spreadeth out the spleen ; who He who shapeth heart like to a pyramid ; who He who setteth ribs together ; who He who wideneth the liver out ; who He who maketh lungs like to a sponge ; who He who maketh belly stretch so much ; who He who doth make prominent the parts most honourable, so that they may be seen, while hiding out of sight those of least honour ?
7. Behold how many arts [employed] on one material, how many labours on one single sketch ; and all exceeding fair, and all in perfect measure, yet all diversified ! Who made them all ? What mother, or what sire, save God alone, unmanifest, who hath made all things by His Will ?
8. And no one saith a statue or a picture comes to be without a sculptor or [without] a painter ; doth [then] such workmanship as this exist without a Worker ? What depth of blindness, what deep impiety, what depth of ignorance !
See, [then] thou ne'er, son Tat, deprivest works of Worker !
Nay, rather is He greater than all names, so great is He, the Father of them all.1 For verily He is the Only One ; and this His work, to be a father.
9. So, if thou forcest me somewhat too bold, to speak, His being is conceiving of all things and making [them].2
And as without its maker it is impossible that anything should be, so ever is He not unless He ever makes all things, in heaven, in air, in earth, in deep, in all of cosmos, in every part that is and that is not of everything. For there is naught in all the world that is not He.
He is Himself, both things that are and things that are not. The things that are He hath made manifest, He keepeth things that are not in Himself.
10. He is the God beyond all name ; He the unmanifest, He the most manifest; He whom the mind [alone] can contemplate, He visible unto the eyes [as well] ; He is the one of no body, the one of many bodies, nay, rather He of every body.
Naught is there which He is not. For all are
1 The translation of this sentence is conjectural ; for the text is not only corrupt, but there appears to be a lacuna in it.
2 The male and female energies of the Divine Parent.
He and He is all.1 And for this cause hath He all names, in that they are one Father's. And for this cause hath He Himself no name, in that He's Father of [them] all.2
Who, then, may sing Thee praise of Thee, or
[praise] to Thee ?
Whither, again, am I to turn my eyes to sing
Thy praise ; above, below, within, without ?