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.
40. The Gods engender, son, the kings it has deserved, to rule [the race] that lives on Earth. The rulers are the emanations of the king, of whom the nearer to him is more royal than the rest ; for that the Sun, in that 'tis nearer than the Moon to God, is far more vast and potent, to whom the Moon comes second both in rank and power.
The king, then, is the last of all the other Gods, but first of men ; and so long as he is upon the Earth, he is divorced from his true godship, but hath something that doth distinguish him from men and which is like to God.
The soul which is sent down to dwell in him, is from that space which is above those regions whence [the souls] descend to other men. Down from that space the souls are sent to rule for those two reasons, son.
41. They who have run a noble, blameless race throughout the cycle of their lives, and are about to be changed into Gods, [are born as kings,] in order that by exercise of kingship they may train themselves to use the power the Gods enjoy ; while certain souls who are already Gods, but
1 MS. A adds " of daiinoiies."
have in some slight way infringed the rule of life which God inspired, are born as kings, in order that they may not, in being clothed in bodies, undergo the punishment of loss of dignity as well as nature, and that they may not, when they are enfleshed, have the same lot as other men, but have when bound what they enjoyed when free.
42. The differences which are, however, in the dispositions shown by those who play the part of kings, are not determined by distinguishing their souls, for these are all divine, but by the constitution of the angels and the daimons who attend on them. For that such souls as these descending for such purposes do not come down without a guard and escort ; for Justice up above knows how to give to each what is its due estate e'en though they be made exiles from their country ever fair.
When, then, my son, the angels and the daimons who bring down the soul are of a warlike kind, it has to keep firm hold of their proclivities, forgetting its own proper deeds, but all the more remembering the doings of the other host attached to it.
When they are peaceful, then the soul as well doth order its own course in peace.
When they love justice, then it too defends the right.
When they are music-lovers, then it also sings.
And when they are truth-lovers, then it also doth philosophize.
For as it were out of necessity these souls keep a firm hold of the proclivities of those that bring them here ; for they are falling down to man's estate, forgetting their own nature, and the farther they depart from it, the more they have in memory the disposition of those [powers] which shut them [into bodies].
43. Well hast thou, mother, all explained, said
Horus. But noble souls, — how they are born,
thou hast not told me yet.
As on the Earth, son Horus, there are states which differ one from other, so also is it in the case of souls. For they have regions whence they start ; and that which starts from a more glorious place, hath nobler birth than one which doth not so. For just as among men the free is thought more noble than the slave — (for that which is superior in souls and of a ruling nature of necessity subjects what is inferior) — so also, son, . . . -1
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44. And how are male and female souls produced ?
Souls, Horus, son, are of the self-same nature in themselves, in that they are from one and the same place where the Creator modelled them ; nor male nor female are they. Sex is a thing of bodies, not of souls.
1 A lacuna, unfortunately, here occurs in the text, and must be of some extent, for the way of both of these souls is not given.
That which brings it about that some of them are stouter, some more delicate, is, son, that [cosmic] "air" in which all things are made. " Air " for the soul is nothing but the body which envelopes it, an element which is composed of earth and water, air and fire.1
As, then, the composition of the female ones has more of wet and cold, but less of dry and warm, accordingly the soul which is shut in a plasm of this kind, becomes relaxed and delicate, just as the contrary is found to be in case of males.
For in their case there's more of dry and warm, and less of cold and wet ; wherefore the souls in bodies such as these are sturdy and more active.