Thrice-Greatest Hermes, Vol. III — G. R. S. Mead (1906)
The text is shown on its own: no facing layer is held for this issue.
1 Or give worship unto God, —
2 In its true sense of wisdom-loving. 5 fvtrp6vtf
4 Gf. C. ff., xiii. (xiv.) 3, Comment.
6 Cf. P. S. A., ix. 1 ; xii. 3.
with forgetfulness l of every ill, and can no more keep from the Good.
4. Let this be, 0 [my] son, the goal of piety ; — to which if thou attain, thou shalt both nobly live, and happily depart from life, for that thy soul no longer will be ignorant of whither it should wing its flight again.
This is the only [Way], my son, — the Path [that leads] to Truth, [the Path] on which our forebears,2 too, did set their feet, and, setting them, did find the Good.3
Solemn and smooth this Path, yet difficult to tread for soul while still in body.
5. For first it hath to fight against itself, and make a great dissension, and manage that the victory should rest with the one part [of its own self].
For that there is a contest of the one against the two,4 — the former trying to flee, the latter dragging down.
1 Where A^0r? (forgetfulness) is opposed to fyoos (love), — that is to say, reminiscence, the secret of the fide-no-is (mathesis) of the Pythagoreans, the knowledge of the Author of our being or of our "race5* Within, — tyvx)) /taflotVo caurfjs T&O irpotrdropa (cf.
Ex. iii. 6).
2 Cf. a H., x. (xi.) 5 ; P. S. A., xi. 4 ; xxxvii. 3 ; Lact., D. /., i. 11.
3 Of. G. #.,xi.(xii.)21.
4 The " one" is the rational element (r& \oytK6v) and the " two " f are the passional (rb flu/xi*^) and desiderative (T& &rt0u/*irriK(fc>) elements of the irrational nature (TO &\oyov, or rb alffOnrbv as below), the "heart "and the "appetite." Cf. Ex. xvii. ; see also
" Orphic Psychology " in my Orpheus (London, 1896), pp. 273-275.
And there's great strife and battle [dire] of these with one another.— the one desiring to escape, the others striving to detain.
6. The victory, moreover, of the one or of the others l is not resemblant.
For that the one doth hasten [upwards] to the
Good, the others settle [downwards] to the bad.
The one longs to be freed ; the others love their slavery.
If [now] the two be vanquished, they remain deprived of their own selves and of their ruler 2 ; but if the one be worsted, 'tis harried by the two, and driven about, being tortured by the life down here.
This 3 is, [my] son, the one who leadeth thee upon the Thither 4 Path.
Thou must, [my] son, first leave behind thy body,5 before the end [of it 6 is reached], and come out victor in the life of conflict, and thus as victor wend thy way towards home.
7. And now, [my] son, I will go through the things that are by heads 7 ; for thou wilt understand the things that will be said, if thou remember what thy ears have heard.
All things that are, are [then] in motion ; alone the that which is not, is exempt from it.
1 Lit. of the two. 2 That is, the one. 3 Sc. the one.
4 tKetfff— that is, to the Good and True, or God.
5 Of. Ex. ix. 12. o Sc. the Path.
7 Or summarily ; cf. §16 below.
Every body is in a state of change ; [but] all bodies are not dissolvable ; some bodies [only] are dissolvable.
Not every animal is mortal ; not every animal, immortal.
That which can be dissolved, can [also] be destroyed ; the permanent [is] the unchangeable ; the that which doth not change, [is] the eternal.
What doth become 1 for ever, for ever also is destroyed 2 ; what once for all becomes, is never more destroyed, nor does it [ever more] become some other thing.
8. First God ; second the Cosmos; third [is] man.3
The Cosmos, for man's sake ; and man, for God's.
The soul's irrational part 4 is mortal ; its rational part, immortal.
All essence [is] immortal ; all essence, free from change.
All that exists 5 [is] twofold ; naught of existing things remains.
Not all are moved by soul ; the soul moves all that doth exist.6
1 Or is born. 2 Or dies.
3 irpSarov 6 6ebs, Sevrfpov 6 /c^(T/xos, rp'nov & Hi/Opuiros. Gf. P. S. A. , x. : " The Lord of the Eternity (^Eon) is the first God ; second is Cosmos ; man's the third."
4 Lit. sensible part, — rb atV0irrrfir.
5 irav rb 8v, — as opposed to ovffia. (essence).
6 The meaning of ex-istence, being the coming out of pure being into the state of becoming.
9. All that suffereth [is] sensible ; not all that's sensible, doth suffer.
All that feels pain, doth also have experience of pleasure, — a mortal life l ; not all that doth experience pleasure, feeleth [also] pain, — a life immortal.