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

these are turned into quadrupeds, and those which have more heat are stronger than the rest. Those which have equal earth and water, are made into reptiles. These through their lack of fire lack courage and straightforwardness ; while through their having water in them they are cold ; and through their having earth they heavy are and torpid ; yet through their having air, they can move easily if they should choose to do so.

Those which have in them more of wet, and less of dry, these are made into fish. These through their lack of heat and air are timorous and try to hide themselves, and through excess of wet and earthy elements, they find their home, through their affinity, in fluid earth and water.

17. It is according to the share [they have] in every element and to the compass of that share, that bodies reach full growth [in man] ; according to the smallness of their share the other animals have been proportioned — according to the energy which is in every element.1

Moreover, 0 my well-beloved, I say, that when, out of this state [of things], the blend based on the first commixture [of the elements in any case], and the resultant vapour 2 from it, so far preserve their own peculiarity, that neither the hot part takes on another heat, nor [does] the aery [take] another air, nor [does] the watery part another wetness, nor [yet] the earthy [take] another density, then doth the animal remain in health.

1 The text is utterly corrupt and has not yet been even plausibly emended. 2 Cf. 15 and 20.

18. But if they do not, son, remain in the proportions which they had from the beginning, but are too much increased — (I do not mean in energy according to their compass or in the change of sex and body brought about by growth, but in the blend, as we have said before, of the component elements, so that the hot, for instance, is increased too much or too much lessened, and so for all the rest) — then will the animal be sick.

19. And if this [increase] doth take place in both the elements of heat and air, the soul's tentfellows, then doth the creature fall into symbolic dreams and ecstasies ; for that a concentration of the elements whereby the bodies are dissolved has taken place. For 'tis the earthy element itself which is the condensation of the body ; the watery element in it as well is a fluidity to make it dense. Whereas the aery element is that in us which has the power of motion, and fire is that which makes an end of all of them.

20. Just then as is the vapour l which ariseth

1 Qf. 15 and 17.

from the first conjunction and co-blending of the elements, as though it were a kindling or an exhalation, — whatever it may be, it mingles with the soul and draws it to itself, so that it shares its nature good or bad. And if the soul remains in its original relationship and common life with it, it keeps its rank.

But when there's added from without some larger share than what was first laid down for it, — either to the whole mixture, or to its parts, or to one part of it, — then the resulting change effected in the vapour doth bring about a change or in the disposition of the soul or of the body.

The fire and air, as tending upward, hasten upward to the soul, which dwells in the same regions as themselves ; the watery and the earthy elements, as tending down, sink down upon the body, which doth possess the self-same seat.

COMMENTAEY

ARGUMENT

The Sermon from which this Extract is taken plainly belonged to the same class of literature as the K. K. Excerpts. The writer is an initiate of a higher degree, imparting instruction to his pupil by word of mouth.

He himself, however, professes to have "seen," for he has been plunged in the Cup of Immortality, and his feet have crossed the Plain of Truth (3).

1. The subject is the excarnate state of souls (1-3).
The instruction is given by an analogy and a similitude
(4). Each soul seeks naturally its proper habitat in
the unseen world.

5. The ordering of the spaces of the excarnate souls is then described. These spaces are all in the " great air," the sublunary region, extending from the earth surface to the moon.