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

5. [Ta£.] And even man, — is he riot true, 0 father?

[Her.'] As man, — he is not true, 0 son. For that the True is that which has its composition from itself alone, and in itself stays as it is.

But man has been composed of many things, and does not stay in his own self.

He changes and he alters, from age to age, from form to form, and that too, even while he's still in [one and] the [same] tent.2

Nay, many fail to recognize their children,

1 Taking eVflaS* with the preceding clause. * Of. § 1 above.

when a brief space of time comes in between ; and so again of children with their parents.

That, then, which changes so that it's no longer recognized, — can that be true, 0 Tat ?

Is it not, rather, false, coming and going,1 in the [all] varied shows of its [continual] changes ?

But do thou have it in thy mind that a true thing is that which stays and lasts for aye.

But " man " is not for ever ; wherefore it 2 is not true. " Man's " an appearance. And appearance is extreme untruth.

6. [^otf.] But these external bodies,3 father, too, in that they change, are they not true ?

[HerJ] All that is subject unto genesis and change, is verily not true ; but in as much as they are brought to being by the Forefather4 [of them all], they have their matter true.

But even they have something false in that they change ; for naught that doth not stay with its own self is true.

[ Tat.~\ True, father [mine] ! Is one to say, then, that the Sun alone, — in that in greater measure than the rest of them he doth not change but stayeth with himself, — is Truth ?

[Her.~\ [Nay, rather, but] because he, and

1 Lit. becoming.

2 Neuter, that is, the series of temporary appearances of the true man.

3 The heavenly bodies presumably.

4 TOV -KpoTrdropos ; cf. Ex. i. 3.

he only, hath entrusted unto him the making of all things in cosmos,1 ruling all and making all ; — to whom I reverence give, and worship pay unto his Truth, and recognise him as the Demiurge after the One and First.

[Ta£.] What then, 0 father, should'st thou say is the first Truth ?

[Her.~\ The One and Only, Tat, — He who is not of matter, or in body, the colourless, the figureless, the changeless [One], He who doth alter not, who ever is.

But the untrue, 0 son, doth perish. All things, however, on the earth that perish, — the Forethought of the True hath comprehended [them], and doth and will encompass [them].

For birth without corruption 2 cannot be ; corruption followeth on every birth, in order that it may be born again.

For that things that are born, must of necessity be born from things that are destroyed 3 ; and things that have been born, must of necessity be [once again] destroyed, in order that the genesis of things existent may not stop.

First, [then], see that thou recognize him4 as the Demiurge for birth-and-death 5 of [all] existent things.

1 Cf. Ex. vii. 2, and § 7 below. - Or perishing.

8 Or are corrupted, or perish.

4 That is, the Sun ; c/. § 6 above. 5 Lit. genesis.

8. Things that are born out of destruction, then, must of necessity be false, — in that they are becoming now these things, now those. For 'tis impossible they should become the same.

But that which is not " same,": — how can it possibly be true ?

Such things we should, then, call appearances, [my] son ; for instance, if we give the man his proper designation, [we ought to designate him] a man's 1 appearance ; — [and so] the child a child's appearance, the youth a youth's appearance, the man a man's appearance, the old man an appearance of the same.

For man is not a man, nor child a child, nor youth a youth, nor grown up man a grown up man, nor aged man a [single] aged man.

But as they change they are untrue, — both pre-existent things and things existent.

But thus think of them, son, — as even these untruths being energies dependent from above from Truth itself.

And this being so, I say untruth is Truth's in- working.2

COMMENT

The excerpt seems complete in itself, but whether it lay before Stobseus as a single sermon or as a part of a sermon it is impossible to say.

1 Lit. manhood's. 2 Or operation ;

EXCERPT IV.

[GOD, NATUKE AND THE GODS]

(Patrizzi(p. 51b) gives no title; but simply the heading
"In Another [Book]."

Text: Stob., Phys., xxxv. 11, under the heading: "Of
Hermes"; G. pp. 295, 296; M. i. 206; W. i. 293.

Menard, Livre IV., No. iv. of "Fragments Divers," p.
274).