Thrice-Greatest Hermes, Vol. III — G. R. S. Mead (1906)
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For this cause (logos) then, my son, nature on earth according to the change of deeds above doth model out the vessels and shape out the tents in which the souls are cast.1 Two energies, experience and memory, assist her.
And this is memory's task, [to see] that nature guards the type of every thing sent down out of its source and keeps its mixture as it is above ; while of experience [the work is this, to see] conformably to every one of the descending souls it may have its embodiment, and that the plasms may be made effective1 — that for the swift ones of the souls the bodies also may be swift, for slow ones slow, for active active ones, for sluggish sluggish ones, for powerful powerful, and for crafty crafty ones, and in a word for every one of them as it is fit.
1 The text is exceedingly imperfect, and in its present state quite untranslatable.
10. For not without intention hath she clad winged things with plumage ; and tricked out with senses more than ordinary and more exact those which have reason ; and some of the fourfooted things made strong with horns, some strong with teeth, some strong with claws and hoofs ; while creeping things she hath made supple with bodies clad in easy-moving scales, which easily can glide away.
And that the watery nature of their body may not remain entirely weak, she doth provide the sharpened fangs of some of them with power ; so that by reason of the fear of death [they cause] they're stronger than the rest.
The swimming things being timorous, she gives to dwell within an element where light can exercise nor one nor other of its powers, for fire in water gives nor light nor heat. But each of them, swimming in water clad in scales or spines, flees from what frightens it where'er it will, using the water as a means of hiding it from sight.
1 The text is again very imperfect.
11. For souls are shut in each class of these bodies according to their similarity [to them]. Those which have power of judgment go down into men ; and those that lack it into quadrupeds, whose [only] law is force ; the crafty ones [go] into reptiles, for none of them attack a man in front, but lie in wait and strike him down ; and into swimming things the timid ones or those which are not worthy to enjoy the other elements. In every class, however, there are found some which no longer use their proper nature.
How [meanest thou] again, my mother ?
Horus said.
And Isis answered :
A man, for instance, son, o'ersteps his power of judgment; a quadruped avoids the use of force ; and reptiles lose their craftiness ; and birds their fear of men. So much [then] for the ordering of [souls] above and their descent, and for the making of their bodies.
12. In every class and kind of the above, my son, there may be found some regal souls ; others also descend with various natures, some fiery, and some cold, some overbearing, and some mild, some skilled, some unskilled, some idle, some industrious, some one thing, some another. And this results from the arrangement of the regions whence the souls leap down to their embodiment.
For from the regal zone they leap down [into birth], the soul of the like nature ruling them l ; for there are many sovereignties. Some are of souls, and some of bodies, and some of arts, and some of sciences, and some are of ourselves.
How [meanest thou] again, my mother, " of ourselves " ?
For instance, son, it is thy sire Osiris who is [the ruler] of the souls of them born after us up to this time 2 ; whereas the prince of every race [is ruler] of their bodies ; [the king] of counsel is the father and the guide of all, Thrice-greatest Hermes ; of medicine Asclepius, Hephaestus' son ; of power and might again Osiris, and after him thyself, my son ; and of philosophy Arnebeschenis ; of poetry again Asclepius-Imuth.
13. For generally, my son, thou'lt find, if thou inquirest, that there are many ruling many things and many holding sway o'er many. And he who rules them all, my son, is from the highest space ; while he who rules some part of them, doth have the rank of that particular realm from which he is.
Those who come from the regal zone, [have] a more ruling [part to play ; those from the zone