Thrice-Greatest Hermes, Vol. III — G. R. S. Mead (1906)

, — used by Plato (ap. Clem. Alex., 703), and the Pythagoreans (Timseus Locr., 100 A, 101, c, E), and the Later Platonists, for the body as the tabernacle of the soul. See especially the response of the Oracle at Delphi, when consulted concerning the state of the soul of Plotinus after death, as quoted by Porphyry in his Life of Plotinus : " But now since thou hast struck thy tent, and left the tomb of thy angelic soul" (see my " Lives of the Later Platonists" in The Theosophical Rmiew (July, 1896), xviii. 372. Cf. Ex. iii. 1 and 5 ; and U. H., xiii. (xiv.) 12 and 15. 2 Added by Heeren to complete the sense.

converting into body the fresh supply of matter that flows in, apportioning to each its proper [kind], — the water to the blood, the earth to bones and marrow, the air to nerves and veins, the fire to sight.1

Wherefore the body, too, feels keen delight in sleep, for it is sleep that brings this [feeling of] delight into activity.

COMMENT

Patrizzi's title is by no means descriptive of the main contents of the excerpt, which is evidently from the Sermons of Hermes to Tat, and from the same collection of these from which Stobaeus has taken the previous two extracts, — that is, presumably, the Expository Sermons.

1 Gf. 0. H., xvi. 7, note.

VOL. III.

EXCERPT VIII.

OF ENERGY AND FEELING

(Title from Patrizzi (p. 44); preceded by "Of Thricegreatest Hermes."

Text: Stob., Phys., xxxv. 6, under the heading: "From
the [Sermons] to Tat"; G. pp. 284-291; M. i. 198-203;
W. i. 284-289.

Menard, Livre IV., No. ii. of "Fragments from the Books of Hermes to his Son Tat," pp. 231-237.)

1. Tat. Rightly hast thou explained these things, 0 father [mine]. Now give me further teaching as to those.

For thou hast said somewhere1 that science and that art do constitute the rational's energy.2

But now thou say'st that the irrational lives,3 through deprivation of the rational, are and are called ir-rational.

According to this reasoning, [therefore], it follows of necessity that the irrational lives are without any share in science or in art, through deprivation of the rational.

1 That is in some previous sermon.

2 Action or operation, — fvepyeiav tlvai TOV \OJIKOV. Cf. § 11 below.

3 Or animals.

2. Her. [It follows] of necessity, [my] son.

Tat. How, then, 0 father, do we see some of irrational [creatures] using [both] intelligence, and art? — the ants, for instance, storing their food for winter, and in like fashion, [too,] the creatures of the air building their nests, and the four-footed beasts [each] knowing their own holes.1

Her. These things they do, 0 son, neither by science nor by art, but by [the force of] nature.

Science and art are teachable ; but none of these irrationals is taught a thing.

Things done by nature are [so] done by reason of the general energy of things.

Things [done] by art and science are achieved by those who know, [and] not by all.

Things done by all are brought into activity 2 by nature.

3. For instance, all look up [to heaven] ; but all [are] not musicians, or [are] all archers, or hunters, or the rest.

But some of them have learned one thing,

1 Kal TO. ctepia £a>a <5/xota>s KaXias eavrois (rvvnOevTa, r& Se yvuplfrvTa roi»s <f)(i>\foi>s rovs ISiovs. Compare Matt. viii. 20 = Luke ix. 58 (word for word) : of aA.c$7re>ces <pw\eovs fxovffiv Ka^ T« irfretva

TOV ovpavov KaTcto-xiivAffeis — " The foxes have holes and the birds of the air nests." The first and third Evangelists here copy verbally from their " Logia " source.

2 Or energized.

[others another thing], science and art being active l [in them].

In the same way, if some ants only did this thing, and others not, thou would'st have rightly said they acted by [the light] of science, and stored their food by means of art.

But if they all without distinction are driven by their nature to [do] this, though [it may be] against their will, — 'tis plain they do not do it or by science or by art.

4. For Tat, these energies, though [in themselves] they are incorporal, are [found] in bodies, and act through bodies.

Wherefore, 0 Tat, in that they are incorporal, thou sayest that they are immortal ; but, in so far as without bodies they cannot manifest activity,2 I say that they are ever in a body.

Things once called into being for some purpose, or some cause, things that come under Providence and Fate, can never stay inactive of their proper energy.

For that which is, shall ever be ; for that this
[being] is [the very] body and the life of it.