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

1 ruv 4v pvxv- I do not know what is the exact meaning of this expression. Everard translates " things that are in darkness or secret " ; Parthey, " qua sunt in dbdito " ; Me"nard, " dans Us profondeurs " ; Chambers, " those in secrecy." I suggest that the technical term juux<k, signifying generally a shut-in or locked-up place (conclave, as Damascius translates it), is to be referred, along the line of Platonic and Pythagorean tradition, to Pherecydes. Porphyry (De Antro Nymph., c. 31) tells us that the synonyms "/*ux<>£ (chambers?), recesses (or pits), caverns, doors, gates" were used by Pherecydes as symbolical expressions to signify " the geneses and apogeneses of souls," whatever these terms may mean exactly. The "birth" and "decease" of a soul, in this connection, presumably mean its coming into the world of genesis out of the womb of the World-soul, and its reception back again into the bosom of the great Mother. If this be so, our text would seem to indicate that things are in two states, — in a state of change (that is, in the active condition), and again in a passive condition, in the state which Indian philosophers call laya or pralaya. See for the pvxoi of Pherecydes Sturz's Pherecydis Fragmenta, pp. 43 ff. (Leipzig, 1824).

2 Or genesis.

[so made] by being made by its own self ; but it must needs be made by being made by other. Without the "Maker" "made" is neither made nor is ; for that the one without the other doth lose its proper nature by deprivation of that other.

If,1 then, all things have been admitted to be two, — the " that which is being made " and " that which makes," — [all then] are one in union of these, — the " that which leadeth " and the " that which folio weth."

The making God is " that which leadeth " ; the " that which is being made," whatever it be, the "that which followeth."

7. And do not thou be chary of things made because of their variety, from fear of attribution of a low estate and lack of glory unto God.

For that His Glory's one, — to make all things ;
and this is as it were God's Body, — the making
[of them].2

But by the Maker's self naught is there thought or bad or base.

These things are passions which accompany the making process, as rust doth brass and filth doth body; but neither doth the brass-smith make the rust, nor the begetters of the body filth, nor God [make] evil.

1 From here to the end of the sermon, with the exception of the final sentences of § 7 and § 10, and the third sentence of § 9, and with a few very slight verbal variants, is quoted by Cyril, Gontra Julianum, ii. 64 (Migne, col. 598 D).

2 Cf. C. H., xvi. 18.

It is continuance in the state of being made l that makes them lose, as though it were, their bloom ; and 'tis because of this God hath made change, as though it were the making clean of genesis.

8. Is it, then, possible for one and the same painter man to make both heaven, and gods, and earth, and sea, and men, and all the animals, and lifeless things, and trees, and yet impossible for God to make all things ?

What monstraus lack of understanding ; what want of knowledge as to God ! 1

For such the strangest lot of all do suffer ; for though they say they worship piously and sing the praise of God, yet by their not ascribing unto Him the making of all things, they know not God ; and, added unto this not-knowing, they're guilty even of the worst impiety to Him — passions to Him attributing, or arrogance, or im potency.

For if He doth not make all things, from arrogance He doth not make, or not being able, — which is impiety [to think].

9. One Passion hath God only — Good ; and
He who's Good, is neither arrogant nor impotent.

For this is God — the Good, which hath all power of making all.

1 Or genesis.

And all that can be made is made by God, — that is, by [Him who is] the Good and who can make all things.1

But would'st thou learn how He doth make, and how things made are made, thou may'st do so.

10. Behold a very fair and most resemblant image — a husbandman casting the seed into the ground; here wheat, there barley, and there [again] some other of the seeds !

Behold one and the same man planting the vine, the apple, and [all] other trees !

In just the selfsame way doth God sow
Immortality in Heaven, and Change on Earth,
and Life and Motion in the universe.

These are not many, but few and easy to be numbered ; for four in all are they, — and God Himself and Genesis, in whom are all that are.

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