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

" Mr. Mead, whose translation of the Pistis Sophia was a welcome boon, gives us here ' some short sketches among the Gnostics, mainly of the first two centuries.' Most readers, unless they are Theosophists, will think them too long, and Mr. Mead's enthusiasm for the Forgotten Faith of Gnosticism will remind them of the proverb : ' The cow in the meadow, knee deep in clover, often looks over the hedge and longs for the common.' .... Justice was not done to the Gnostics by their opponents, and we cannot wonder. Moderns, like Harnack, however, have tried to make amends, and Mr. Mead has done his best. We commend this book to all who are tired of Christianity, and who want something deeper than the Lord's Prayer, more sublime than Paul's hymn to Love, and more practical than the Sermon on the Mount."— The Christian World.

" Mr. Mead is a sympathetic student, and regards the theosophists, of whom he is one, as the inheritors, more or less, of the ' Knowledge ' of the early Gnostics, who, while anathematised as heretics, powerfully influenced the thought of the Christian Church in its earlier centuries. Mr. Mead is as far removed from the received orthodoxy as the men whose speculations he discusses." — The Manchester Guardian.

" L'opera, cui 1'autore da modestamenti il nome di Brevi studi, e invero il frutto di dotte e pazientissime ricerche, di vasta e profunda erudizione ; e d'interesse grande per il soggetto che tratta ed e accessibile anche a chl non sia uno studioso di religione comparata od un teologo, per la maniera abile e piacevole con cui il sogetto e trattato. L'autore stesso spiega perch e voile cosi 1'opera sua con queste parole : ' poiche io stimo tal sogetto di prof undo interesse umano e non di mera importanza accademica.' H libro, che vide la luce proprio all' alba del nuovo secolo, risponde ad un bisogno del memento o, meglio, risponde ad un bisogno che sempre si e fatto e si fara sentire, ma che mai forse come nell' epocha presents ebbe fra noi tanta intensita." — La Nuova Parola.

GERMAN TRANSLATION.

FRAGMENTE EINES VERSCHOLLENEN GLAUBENS. Ins Deutsche ubersetzt von A. von Ulrich. Berlin : C. A. Schwetschke und Sohn.

This is the First Attempt that has been made to bring together All the Existing Sources of Information on the Earliest Christian Philosophers.

Apollonius of Tyana :

THE PHILOSOPHER-REFORMER OF THE FIRST CENTURY A.D.

A critical Study of the only existing Record of his Life, with some Account of the War of Opinion concerning him, and an Introduction on the Religious Associations and Brotherhoods of the Times and the possible Influence of Indian Thought on Greece.

SYNOPSIS OF CONTENTS.

• i. Introductory, ii. The Religious Associations and Communities of the First Century, hi. India and Greece, iv. The Apollonius of Early Opinion, y. Texts, Translations and Literature, vi. The Biographer of Apollonius. vii. Early Life. viii. The Travels of Apollonius. ix. The Shrines of the Temples and the Retreats of Religion, x. The Gymnosophists of Upper Egypt, xi. Apollonius and the Rulers of the Empire, xii. Apollonius the Prophet and Wonder-Worker, xiii. His Mode of Life. xiv. Himself and his Circle,
• xv. From his Sayings and Sermons, xvi. From his Letters, xvii. The Writings of Apollonius. xviii. Bibliographical Notes.

160 pp. large Svo. Cloth. Ss 6df. net.

SOME PRESS OPINIONS.

" Mr. Mead is already favourably known to scholars as a well-informed writer on the origins of religion. His particular province of study is that which passes by the name of ' occult ' — a word that may be little more than a euphemism for our ignorance. . . . Mr. Mead's work is careful, scholarly, and critical, yet deeply sympathetic with those spiritual ideals of life which are far greater than all the creeds Will be found very useful to English readers." — Bradford Observer.

" With much that Mr. Mead says about Apollonius we are entirely disposed to agree." — Spectator.

THE THEOSOPHICAL PUBLISHING SOCIETY, LONDON AND BENARES,

WORKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR.