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

1 Reading affca/jLara for ff(a/j.ara.

2 The words I have translated by " act," " active " and " action," may be more literally rendered by "energize," "energic" and " energy." The " motionless " has " energy " because it is the cause of motion to that which it moves.

(logos) equal to immortality. He hath the mind for knowing God and uttered speech (logos) for eulogy of Him.1

And if one useth these for what he ought, he'll differ not a whit from the immortals.2 Nay, rather, on departing from the body, he will be guided by the twain unto the Choir of Gods and Blessed Ones.

13. Tat. Why, father mine ! — do not the other lives make use of speech (logos) ?

Her. Nay, son ; but use of voice ; speech is far different from voice. For speech is general among all men, while voice doth differ in each class of living thing.

Tat. But with men also, father mine, according to each race, speech differs.

Her. Yea, son, but man is one ; so also speech is one and is interpreted, and it is found the same in Egypt, and in Persia, and in Greece.

Thou seemest, son, to be in ignorance of Reason's (Logos) B worth and greatness. For that the Blessed God, Good Daimon, hath declared :

" Soul is in Body, Mind in Soul ; but Reason (Logos) is in Mind, and Mind in God ; and God is Father of [all] these."

1 Following the emendation of R.

2 The critical text of the above paragraphs is given R. 156, n. 6.

3 It is impossible to bring out the word-play of the original in English ; and so the double meaning is lost.

14. The Reason, then, is the Mind's image, and Mind God's [image]; while Body is [the image] of the Form ; and Form [the image] of the Soul.

The subtlest part of Matter is, then, Air ; of Air, Soul ; of Soul, Mind ; and of Mind, God.1

And God surroundeth all and permeateth all 2 ;
while Mind surroundeth Soul, Soul Air, Air
Matter.

Necessity3 and Providence and Nature are instruments of Cosmos and of Matter's ordering ; while of intelligible things each is Essence, and Sameness is their Essence.

But of the Bodies4 of the Cosmos each is many ; for through possessing Sameness, [these] composed Bodies, though they do change from one into another of themselves, do natheless ever keep the incorruption of their Sameness.

15. Whereas in all the rest of composed bodies, of each there is a certain number; for without number structure cannot be, or composition, or decomposition.

Now it is units that give birth to number and increase it, and, being decomposed, are taken back again into themselves.

1 This sentence is tagged on to the end of (7. #., v. (vi.) by some scribe.

2 a/. § 20 below.

3 Beading avdyicr) for avdyKrj • see § 21 below.

4 Sc. the elements.

Matter is one ; and this whole Cosmos — the mighty God and image of the mightier One, both with Him unified, and the conserver of the Will and Order of the Father— is filled full of Life.1

Naught is there in it throughout the whole of Mou, the Father's [everlasting] Re-establishment,2 — nor of the whole, nor of its parts, — which doth not live.

For not a" single thing that's dead, hath been, or is, or shall be in [this] Cosmos.

For that the Father willed it should have Life as long as it should be. Wherefore it needs must be a God.

16. How, then, 0 son, could there be in the God, the image of the Father,3 in the plenitude 4 of Life— dead things 5 ?

For that death is corruption, and corruption is destruction.

How then could any part of that which knoweth no corruption be corrupted, or any whit of him the God destroyed ?

Tat. Do they not, then, my father, die — the lives in it, that are its parts ?

Her. Hush, son ! — led into error by the term in use for what takes place.

1 Lit. a Pler5ma of Life.

3 Reading varp^s for vavr6s. * Pleroma.

6 A critical text of the last five paragraphs is given R. 25, n. 1.

They do not die, my son, but are dissolved as compound bodies.

Now dissolution is not death, but dissolution of a compound ; it is dissolved not so that it may be destroyed, but that it may become renewed.

For what is the activity of life? Is it not motion ? What then in Cosmos is there that hath no motion ? Naught is there, son !

17. Tat. Doth not Earth even, father, seem to thee to have no motion ?

Her. Nay, son ; but rather that she is the only thing which, though in very rapid motion, is also stable.

For how would it not be a thing to laugh at, that the Nurse of all should have no motion, when she engenders and brings forth all things ?

For 'tis impossible that without motion one who doth engender, should do so.