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.
" Let loves in quick succession sway their souls, hopes, manifold desires, sometimes fulfilled, and sometimes unfulfilled, that the sweet bait of their success may draw them into struggle amid direr ills.
" Let fever lay its heavy hand on them, that losing heart they may submit desire to discipline."
28. Thou grievest, dost thou, Horus, son, to hear thy mother put these things in words ? Art thou not struck with wonder, art thou not terror-struck at how poor man was grievously oppressed ? Hear what is sadder still !
When Momos said these things Hermes was pleased, for what he said was said out of affection for him ; and so he did all that he recommended, speaking thus :
"Momos, the Nature of the Breath Divine which doth surround [all things] shall not become inert. The Master of the universe appointed me as steward and as manager.
" Wherefore the overseer of His command will be the keen-eyed Goddess of the all, Adrasteia l ; and I will skilfully devise an instrument, mysterious, possessed of power of sight that cannot err, and cannot be escaped, whereto all things on earth shall of necessity be subject, from birth to final dissolution, — an instrument which binds together all that's done. This instrument shall rule all other things on Earth as well [as man]."
29. These words, said Hermes, did I speak to Momos, and forthwith the instrument was set a-going.
When this was done, and when the souls had entered in the bodies, and [Hermes] had himself been praised for what was done, again the Monarch did convoke the Gods in session. The Gods assembled, and once more did He make proclamation, saying :
" Ye Gods, all ye who have been made of chiefest Nature, free from all decay, who have
1 Nemesis, the karmic deity, " she from whom none can escape, according to the generally accepted derivation of the iiame.
received as your appointed lot for ever more to order out the mighty Mon, through whom all universal things will never weary grow surrendering themselves in turn the one to other, — how long shall we be rulers of this sovereignty that none can ever know? How long these things, shall they transcend the power of sight of Sun and Moon ?
" Let each of us bring forth according to his power. Let us by our own energy wipe out this inert state of things ; let chaos seem to be a myth incredible to future days. Set hand to mighty work ; and I myself will first begin."
30. He spake ; straightway in cosmic order there began the differentiation of the up-to-then black unity [of things]. And Heaven shone forth above tricked out with all his mysteries ; Earth, still a-tremble, as the Sun shone forth grew harder, and appeared with all the fair adornments that bedeck her round on every side. For beautiful to God are even things which men think mean, in that in truth they have been made to serve the laws of God.
And God rejoiced when now He saw His works a-moving ; and filling full His Hands, which held as much as all surrounding space, with all that Nature had produced, and squeezing tight the handfuls mightily, He said :
" Take [these], 0 holy Earth, take those, all-honoured one, who art to be the mother of all things, and henceforth lack thou naught ! "
31. God spake, and opening His Hands, such Hands as God should have, He poured them all into the composition of the world. And they in the beginnings were unknown in every way ; for that the Souls as newly shut in prison, not enduring their disgrace, began to strive in emulation with the Gods in Heaven, in full command of their high birth, and when held back, in that they had the same Creator, made revolt, and using weaker men as instruments, began to make them set upon each other, and range themselves in conflict, and make war among themselves.
Thus strength did mightily prevail o'er weakness, so that the strong did burn and massacre the weak, and from the holy places down they cast the living and the dead down from the holy shrines, until the Elements in their distress resolved to go to God their Monarch [to complain] about the savage state in which men lived.
The evil now being very great, the Elements approached the God who made them, and formulated their complaint in some such words as these :
32. It was moreover Fire who first received authority to speak. He said :
" 0 Lord, Artificer of this new World, thou