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

1 Compare yviaa-is ayia, <JHi>Ti<rQth avit <rov (§ 18) ; 0wTi£e <f>d>s (§ 19) ; d vovs (§ 21).

"(Strive therefore?) to know yourselves, and ye
shall know ye are Sons of the (almighty?) Father;
(and?) ye shall know that ye are in (the City of
God?1), and ye are (the City?2)."

1 Sc. the Ogdoad.

2 Cf. 1. Pet. ii. 5 : "Ye are built up as living stones, a spiritual house for service."

CORPUS HEEMETICUM XIV. (XV.)

[A LETTER] OF THRICE- GREATEST HERMES TO ASCLEPIUS

UNTO ASCLEPIUS GOOD HEALTH OF SOUL I1

(Text: P. 128-134; Pat. 49, 50.)

1. SINCE in thy absence my son Tat desired to learn the nature of the things that are, and would not let me hold it over, as [natural to] a younger son fresh come to gnosis of the [teachings] on each single point, — I was compelled to tell [him] more, in order that the contemplation2 [of them] might be the easier for him to follow.

1 el (ppovt'iv. I do not know the exact meaning of this expression. Everard translates "to be truly wise " ; Parthey, " rede sapere" following Patrizzi ; Menard, " sagesse " ; Chambers, "to be rightly wise." I would suggest that €<5 Qpovtlv was the form used among these disciples of the Inner Way for the usual xaipeiv. Instead of wishing one another happiness, they wished each other wisdom, good thought, right thinking, good health of soul.

VOL. II. 257 17

I would, then, choosing out the chiefest heads of what was said, write them in brief to thee, explaining them more mystic-ly,1 as unto one of greater age and one well versed in Nature.

2. If all things manifest have been and are being made, and made things are not made by their own selves but by another ; [if] made things are the many, — nay more, are all things manifest and all things different and not alike ; and things that are being made are being made by other [than themselves] ; — there is some one who makes these things ; and He cannot be made, but is more ancient than the things that can.

For things that can be made, I say, are made by other [than themselves] ; but of the things that owe their being to their being made, it is impossible that anything should be more ancient than them all, save only That which is not able to be made.

3. So He is both Supreme, and One, and
Only, the truly wise in all, as having naught
more ancient [than Himself].

For He doth rule o'er both the number, size and difference of things that are being made, and o'er the continuity of their making [too].

Again, things makeable are seeable; but He cannot be seen.

1 That is to say, more fully and profoundly, as to one more advanced in the mystic science.

For for this cause He rnaketh, — that He may not be able to be seen.

He, therefore, ever maketh l ; and therefore can He ne'er be seen.

To comprehend Him thus is meet ; and comprehending, [it is meet] to marvel; and marvelling, to count oneself as blessed, as having learnt to know one's Sire.

4. For what is sweeter than one's own true Sire ? Who, then, is He ; and how shall we learn how to know Him ?

Is it not right to dedicate to Him alone the name of God, or that of Maker, or of Father, or rather [all] the three ; — God for His Power, and Maker for His Energy, and Father for His Good?

Now Power doth differ from the things which are being made ; while Energy consisteth in all things being made.

Wherefore we ought to put away verbosity and foolish talk, and understand these two — the made and Maker. For that of them there is no middle [term] ; there is no third.

5. Wherefore in all that thou conceivest, in all thou nearest, these two recall to mind ; and think all things are they, reckoning as doubtful naught, nor of the things above, nor of the things below, neither of things divine, nor things

1 Cf. C. H., xvi is.

that suffer change or things that are in obscuration.1

For all things are [these] twain, Maker and made, and 'tis impossible that one should be without the other ; for neither is it possible that " Maker " should exist without the " made," for each of them is one and the same thing.

Wherefore 'tis no more possible for one from other to be parted, than self from self.

6. Now if the Maker is naught else but That which makes, Alone, Simple, Uncompound, it needs must do this [making] to Itself, — to Which its Maker's making is " its being made."

And as to all that's being made, — it cannot be