Corpus Hermeticum

For that all living bodies are ensouled ; whereas, upon the other hand, those that live not, are matter by itself. 1 From the maker of the immortals. 2 Sc. makers. 3 Sc. of matter and life. And, in like fashion, Soul when in its self is, after its own maker, cause of life ; but the cause -of all life is He who makes the things that cannot die. Her. How, then, is it that, first, lives subject unto death are other than the deathless ones ? And, next, how is it that that Life which knows no death, and maketh deathlessness, doth not make animals immortal? 11. Mind. First, that there is some one who does these things, is clear ; and, next, that He is also One, is very manifest. For, also, Soul is one, and Life is one, and Matter one. Her. But who is He ? Mind. Who may it other be than the One God ? Whom else should it beseem to put Soul into lives but God alone ? One, then, is God. It would indeed be most ridiculous, if when thou dost confess the Cosmos to be one, Sun one, Moon one, and Godhead l one, thou shouldst wish God Himself to be some one or other of a number !

12. All things, therefore, He makes, in many [ways]. And what great thing is it for God to make life, soul, and deathlessness, and change, when thou [thyself] dost do 2 so many things ? For thou dost see, and speak, and hear, and 2 Or make ; a play on the double meaning of the Greek verb. smell, and taste, and touch, and walk, and think, and breathe. And it is not one man who smells, a second one who speaks, a third who touches, another one who smells, another one who walks, another one who thinks, and [yet] another one who breathes. But one is he who doth all these. And yet no one of these could be apart from God. For just as, shouldst thou cease from1 these, thou wouldst no longer be a living thing, so also, should God cease from them (a thing not law to say), no longer is He God. 13. For if it hath been shown that no thing can inactive2 be, how much less God? For if there's aught He doth not make (if it be law to say), He is imperfect. But if He is not only not inactive, but perfect [God], then He doth make all things.

Give thou thyself to Me, My Hermes, for a little while,3 and thou shalt understand more easily how that God's work is one, in order that all things may be — that are being made, or once have been, or that are going to be made. And this 4 is, My beloved, Life ; this is the Beautiful ; this is the Good ; this, God. 1 Lit. become inactive of 2 A word has here dropped out in the text, which I have supplied by apybv (inactive), and not by the usual conjecture " apart from God." 3 Of. P. S. A., iii. 1 : " Now lend to me the whole of thee." 4 Sc. work, doing, making, or creating. 14. And if them wouldst in practice 1 understand [this work], behold what taketh place with thee desiring to beget. Yet this is not like unto that, for He doth not enjoy. For that indeed He hath no other one to share in what He works, for working by Himself, He ever is at work, Himself being what He doth.2 For did He separate Himself from it,3 all things would [then] collapse, and all must die, Life ceasing.

But if all things are lives, and also Life is one ; then, one is God. And, furthermore, if all are lives, both those in Heaven and those on Earth, and One Life in them all is made to be by God, and God is it 4 — then, all are made by God. Life is the making-one of Mind and Soul ; accordingly Death is not the destruction of those that are at-oned,5 but the dissolving of their union. 15. ^Eon, moreover, is God's image; Cosmos [is] ^Eon's ; the Sun, of Cosmos ; and Man, [the image] of the Sun. The people call change death, because the body is dissolved, and life, when it's dissolved, withdraws to the unmanifest. But in this , in deed, in work. 2 Or makes. 3 Sc. His work, or creation. 4 Viz., this Life. 6 That is, Mind and Soul, sc. the Logos and World-Soul, or ego and animal soul. sermon (logos), Hermes, my beloved, as thou dost hear, I say the Cosmos also suffers change, —for that a part of it each day is made to be in the unmanifest, — yet it is ne'er dissolved. These are the passions of the Cosmos — revolvings and concealments ; revolving is conversion and concealment renovation.

16. The Cosmos is all-formed, — not having forms external to itself, but changing them itself within itself. Since, then, Cosmos is made to be all-formed, what may its maker be ? For that, on the one hand, He should not be void of all form ; and, on the other hand, if He's allformed, He will be like the Cosmos. Whereas, again, has He a single form, He will thereby be less than Cosmos. What, then, say we He is? — that we may not bring round our sermon (logos) into doubt ; for naught that mind conceives of God is doubtful. He, then, hath one idea,1 which is His own alone, which doth not fall beneath the sight, being bodiless, and [yet] by means of bodies manifesteth all [ideas].2 And marvel not that there's a bodiless idea. 17. For it is like the form of reason (logos)3 1 The root of form ; used also loosely in Greek to denote form. 2 Or forms. 3 Or idea of the sermon. and mountain- tops in pictures.1 For they appear to stand out strongly from the rest, but really are quite smooth and flat. And now consider what is said more boldly, but more truly !

Just as man cannot live apart from Life, so neither can God live without [His] doing good.2 For this is as it were the life and motion as it were of God — to move all things and make them live. 18. Now some of the things said 3 should bear a sense peculiar to themselves. So understand, for instance, what I'm going to say. All are in God, [but] not as lying in a place. For place is both a body and immovable, and things that lie do not have motion. Now things lie one way in the bodiless, another way in being made manifest. Think, [then,] of Him who doth contain them all ; and think, that than the bodiless naught is more comprehensive, or swifter, or more potent, but it is the most comprehensive, the swiftest, and most potent of them all. 19. And, thus, think from thyself, and bid 1 Kal fr rats 7pa0cu* aKpefyeicu. All the translators talk of "margins" in MSS., and make entire nonsense of the passage. I can find absolutely no authority for translating a.Kpd>ptiat margins. 2 Or making the Good ; that is, 3 Or points of the sermon. thy soul go unto any land ; and there more quickly than thy bidding will it be. And bid it journey oceanwards ; and there, again, immediately 'twill be, not as if passing on from place to place, but as if being there.

And bid it also mount to heaven ; and it will need no wings, nor will aught hinder it, nor fire of sun, nor aether, nor vortex-swirl,1 nor bodies of the other stars ; but, cutting through them all, it will soar up to the last Body [of them all].2 And shouldst thou will to break through this as well, and contemplate what is beyond — if there be aught beyond the Cosmos3; it is permitted thee. 20. Behold what power, what swiftness, thou dost have ! And canst thou do all of these things, and God not [do them] ? Then, in this way know 4 God ; as having all things in Himself as thoughts, the whole Cosmos itself. If, then, thou dost not make thyself like unto God, thou canst not know Him. For like is knowable to like [alone]. Make, [then,] thyself to grow to the same stature as the Greatness which transcends all 1 ^ SIJ/TJ, presumably the vortex or " whorl " of the solar system (cf. " Vision of Er"). 2 Sc. the body or limit of the whole cosmos. 3 Cf. C. H., iv. (v.) 5 : "And things above the heaven— if there be aught." * QT think.

measure ; leap forth from every body ; transcend all Time ; become Eternity l ; and [thus] shalt thou know God. Conceiving nothing is impossible unto thyself, think thyself deathless and able to know all, — all arts, all sciences, the way of every life.2 Become more lofty than all height, and lower than all depth. Collect into thyself all senses of [all] creatures, — of fire, [and] water, dry and moist. Think that thou art at the same time in every place, — in earth, in sea, in sky ; not yet begotten, in the womb, young, old, [and] dead, in after-death conditions.3 And if thou knowest all these things at once,4 — times, places, doings, qualities, and quantities ; thou canst know God.6 21. But if thou lockest up thy soul within thy body, and dost debase it, saying : I nothing know ; I nothing can ; I fear the sea ; I cannot scale the sky ; I know not who I was, who I shall be ; — what is there [then] between [thy] God and thee ? For thou canst know naught of things beautiful and good so long as thou dost love thy body and art bad.

1 Lit. jEon. 2 ira-vT^s £(?ov $dos, — or nature of every animal, s Cf. G. H., xiii. (xiv.) 11. 4 Or art simultaneously conscious of. 5 A critical text from "Make, then, thy self" to here is given by R., p. 238. The greatest bad there is, is not to know God's Good l ; but to be able to know [Good], and will, and hope, is a Straight Way, the Good's own [Path], both leading there and easy.2 If thou but sett'st thy foot thereon, 'twill meet thee everywhere, 'twill everywhere be seen, both where and when thou dost expect it not, — waking, sleeping, sailing, journeying, by night, by day, speaking, [and] saying naught. For there is naught that is not image of the Good. 22. Her. Is God unseen ? Mind. Hush ! Who is more manifest than He ? For this one reason hath He made all things, that through them all thou mayest see Him. This is the Good of God, this [is] His Virtue, —that He may be made manifest through all.3 For naught's unseen, even of things that are without a body. Mind sees itself4 in thinking, God in making.5 So far these things have been made manifest to thee, Thrice- greatest one ! Reflect on all the rest in the same way within thyself, and thou shalt not be led astray.

— lit. the Godly, or Divine. 2 a/. Ex. i. 4. 3 The preceding question and answer is quoted with very slight verbal variants by Cyril, Contra Julianum, ii. 52. 4 Or is seen. 5 Or doing. The title in the MSS. is simply " Mind to Hermes." When, therefore, Cyril, in quoting the first three paragraphs of § 22 of our treatise, says that Hermes wrote these words <c to his own mind," x he is evidently either a very careless reader,2 or had not seen at first hand the treatise from which he quotes. From its contents, moreover, it is very evident that our treatise, as far as its form is concerned, looks back to the " Poemandres" as the type of instruction to Hermes (or to a Hermes). This highly authoritative form of enunciating doctrine was evidently chosen because it was desired to impart a more intimate instruction than that of the " General Sermons " and the like, — to wit, the inculcation of the ^Eon-doctrine, in connection with the marvellous doctrine of At-one-ment with all things which constitutes the Path of the Good. The doctrine is no longer " Become (or make thyself like) Cosmos," but " Become ^on"(§ 20).

Now it is remarkable that the instruction given in our treatise by the Mind to Hermes is, almost point for point, the " esoteric " teaching of which the Sermon of Hermes to Tat, entitled the " Cup or Monad "— G. H.t iv. (v.) — is the " exoteric " form. That the instruction in these Trismegistic schools of initiation was divided into grades is manifest on all sides ; and, therefore, nothing is more natural than to find these two sermons standing in such intimate relations to one another as to doctrine, the one containing 1 C. Jul., ii. 52 ; ed. Migne, col. 580 B. 2 Gf. R. 128, i. ; 196, 3. the more intimate and advanced explanation of the more general instruction of the other. And that this inner instruction on the "Cup" doctrine must have been thought to be of very great value, is evident when we reflect that " The Cup " sermon was one of the most famous of all the treatises of Hermes, for, as we have seen, its title was worth being plagiarized, and the Baptism of the Cup, of which it treated, constituted the goal of the endeavour of the disciples of the School, as Zosimus tells us.

Mystically, then, the main interest of our treatise centres in the doctrine of the At-one-ment (as the inner consummation of the Baptism in the Cup or Monad), to which the ^Eon-idea is but a formal introduction ; historically, however, the introduction of the ^Eon-idea presents itself as a critical problem, for the term is not found in the '•' Poemandres," and, therefore, presumably was not used in the earliest documents of the School. When, then, did this ^Eon-idea impose itself ujton the older form of tradition of the Trismegistic schools ? This is a most important question ; for if we can in any way answer it, we shall be in a position to assign a termimis ad quern for the earlier forms of Hermetic doctrine. The answer to the question seems to me to be involved in the supposition that the ^Eon-doctrine must have influenced " Hermeticisrn " at more or less the same date as that at which it influenced " Gnosticism." Now " Gnosticism," in its Christianized forms, is practically never found without the ^Eon-lore. The earliest forms of Christian Gnosis referred to by the later Patristic haeresiologists are bound up with ^onology. Not only so, but the very earliest reference to Gnosticism by any Christian writer presupposes the ^Eon-doctrine, and uses it in illustration of the spiritual state of the writer.1

The widespread influence of the ^Eon-doctrine can thus be traced back to at least the origins of Christianity. Now as the Gnosis existed before any Christian form of it was developed, the question of the date when the ^Eon-doctrine was introduced into it must be referred to pre-Christian times. And, indeed, the very simple character of the ^Eonlore in our treatise,2 as compared with the mindbewildering complexity and transcendency of first and second century Christian Gnosticism, is all in favour of an early date for its introduction into " Hermeticism," which is only another name for " Gnosticism " of a preponderatingly Hellenic form. If this line of reasoning holds good, we have in it a very strong presumption that the older forms of the Trismegistic treatises were pre-Christian. And that this is so may be seen by the absolute identity of the teaching of our treatise (§2) with that of Philo, when he writes : " But God is the Artificer of Time as well. For He is Father of its Father; and Time's Father is the Cosmos, which manifests its motion in the genesis of Time. . . . " This [Cosmos] then, the Younger Son, the Sensible, being set a-moving, has caused Time's nature to appear

1 Namely, Paul in his Letters, which are the earliest of all Christian documents. See my article, "Some Notes on the Gnostics," in The Nineteenth Century and After (Nov. 1902), pp. 822-835 ; and D. J. L., pp. 353 ff. 2 Perhaps the clearest exposition is to be found in P. S. A., xxx. and xxxi. and disappear ; so that there nothing is which future is with God, who has the very Bounds of Time subject to Him. For 'tis not Time, but Time's Archetype and Paradigm, Eternity (or J£on), which is His Life.1 But in Eternity naught is past, and naught is future, but all is present only." 2 This passage of Philo is of the utmost importance for estimating the date of our treatises; for not only does it prove that the oldest forms of the Trismegistic literature were pre-Christian, but it further persuades us that our treatise, which belongs to a later type of this literature, may be dated as contemporary with Philo. Chapter xi. in the Prolegomena, "Concerning the ^Eon-Doctrine," should be taken in close connection with this treatise, for it is not only introductory to it, but frequently refers directly to it. For the rest, it is not necessary to attempt any detailed comments, since the instruction of the writer is clear enough for any careful reader to follow with ease after making himself acquainted with the general ideas in the preceding treatises. One or two notes on special points, however, may be attempted.

Thus in § 16, the sentence: "The Cosmos is allformed (7ra^To/xo/o0o9), — not having forms external to itself, but changing them itself within itself," — reminds us of P. S. A., xix. 3: "The 'Thirty-six' who have the name of Horoscopes are in the self -same space as the fixed stars; of these the essence-chief, or prince, 1 Cf. C. H., i. 6 ; the Union of the Logos and Mind — or FirstBorn Son and Father — is Life ; they are united in Mon. 2 Quod Deus Ira., § 6 ; M. i. 277 ; P. 298 (Ri. ii. 72, 73). VOL. II. 13 is he whom they call Pantomorph, or Omniform (TravTOfjioptyosiVel 0w7w/brmw),whofashioneth the various forms for various species " ; and also of P. S. A., xxxv. : " But they are changed as many times as there are moments in the hour of that revolving circle in which abides that God whom we have called All-form." Compare also C. H., xiii. (xiv.) 12, where, speaking of the "Circle of the types of life," Hermes says it is "composed of elements, twelve in number, but of one nature, an omniform idea." With this compare Hermes-Prayer iv., addressed to Thoth as the Logos:

"Thee I invoke alone, thou who alone in all the Cosmos dost impose order on gods and men, who dost transform thyself in holy forms, making to be from things that are not, and from the things that are, making the not to be." But the main interest of our treatise is not that the Intelligible Cosmos or Logos can create and destroy and transmute all forms at will, but that man as the microcosm has potential in him this great magic power. The daring instruction given to Hermes in §§ 19 and 20 is distinctly a discipline of the Egyptian Wisdom ; for though it is here set forth plainly and without circumlocution, as a straightforward intimate instruction, stripped of all mysterious hints or hesitating subterfuges,1 it is clearly in the same circle of ideas of which popular Egyptian theurgy had some inkling. But whereas the philosopher-mystic was bidden to do this for himself of his own volition and achievement, the theurgist had to beg some god to do it for him. 1 Or, as the writer of the Pistis Sophia would say, tv irapp-n o(^ " face to face without a parable." Thus in the same Prayer, to which we have already referred, we read (§§ 2, 3):

"0 holy Thoth, the true sight of whose face none of the gods endures ! Make me to be in every creature's name [or ' true form '], — wolf, dog, or lion, fire, tree, or vulture, wall, or water, or what thou will'st, for thou art able so to do." So also in P. S. A., vii., we have the same idea, for certainly the phrasing of the sentences suggests something beyond the ordinary powers of the mind or imagination. " He mingles with the elements by reason of the swiftness of his mind. He plunges into the sea's depths by means of its profundity. He puts his values on all things. " Heaven does not seem too high for him ; for it is measured by the wisdom of his mind as though it were quite near. "No darkness of the air obstructs the penetration of his mind. No density of earth impedes his work. No depth of water blunts his sight. " Though still the same, yet is he all, and everywhere is he the same." It is indeed a marvellous "yoga" system that is sketched for us in our treatise. There is no question here of abstraction or negation, but a courageous identification or At-one-ment of oneself with all that lives and breathes. This is the Path of the Gnosis, the Way to Know God.

In other words, man is to copy his prototype, the Mind, and just as the Mind or Man, in the "Poamandres" treatise, "had a mind to break right through the Boundary of the spheres" (§ 13), so is our philosopher bidden to " soar up to the Last Body of them all " (§ 19), that Last Body being the One Element of Cosmos itself. "And shouldst thou will to break through this as well, and contemplate what is beyond — if there be aught beyond the Cosmos; it is permitted thee." That the hard and fast distinctions which modern commentators would draw between words, in considering these mystical treatises, would have been laughed at by the writers of them, is amply manifested when the writer with enthusiastic fervour bursts forth : " Then in this way know God, as having in Himself as thoughts the whole Cosmos itself. " If, then, thou dost not make thyself like unto God,1 thou canst not know Him.2 For like is knowable to like [alone]. Make, then, thyself to grow to the same stature as the Greatness which transcends all measure; leap forth from every body; transcend all time; become Eternity; and thus shalt thou know God."

Every body or space must be transcended, even the Body of Cosmos itself ; for the man must grow into the " stature of the Greatness that transcends all measure," that is, the intelligible superspatial Pleroma, the Mon as the Logos and Paradigm of Cosmos. And every time and all Time must also be transcended; for the man must become Eternity — that is, the Mon as the Paradigm of Time. In no scripture that I know is this Path more admirably set forth — the Good's own Path. All things, all spaces, and all times have to be realized as being within oneself simultaneously ; if this is realized or known, not only imagined, then a man becomes a true Knower of God, a Gnostic. 1 Sc. as Cosmos. 2 Sc. as Father of this Only Son. Nor has ever a truer sentence been written than the wonderful words concerning this Path to the Supreme : "If thou but sett'st thy foot thereon, 'twill meet thee everywhere, 'twill everywhere be seen, both where and when thou dost expect it not — waking, sleeping, sailing, journeying, by night, by day, speaking, and saying naught. For there is naught that is not image of the Good."

In conclusion, I would only point out that if for the hopeless reading in the first sentence of § 19 we were to take Patrizzi's emendation, which has been adopted by Parthey, we should have the interesting sentence : " And, thus, think from thyself, and bid thy soul go unto India." If this should be the original reading, it is remarkable that India should have been selected of all places. We know, however, from a study of what is known of the life of Apollonius of Tyana, that this "Gnostic" philosopher made an enormous propaganda of Indian ideas among the philosophic and mystic communities and schools of the first century. Apollonius must have known something, perhaps a great deal, concerning the siddhis acquired by ?/0#a-practices. At any rate, we find his biographer Philostratus making him write the following letter to his Eastern hosts on his return from India : " I came to you by land and ye have given me the sea ; nay, rather, by sharing with me your wisdom ye have given me power to travel through heaven. These things will I bring back to the mind of the Greeks, and I will hold converse with you as though ye were

present, if it be that I have not drunk of the Cup of Tantalus in vain." l That an intensely great interest was taken in Indian ideas at Alexandria is shown by the fact that we find Plotinus himself in 242 starting off with the expedition of Gordian to the East in the hope of coming in contact with the Indian Wisdom. But all these considerations, though interesting in themselves, do not immediately concern us, unless we are subjectively persuaded that the emendation of Patrizzi is firmly established. Should, however, this reading in any way be confirmed by objective evidence, we should have to reconsider the question of date by the light of it, though, I fear, with little chance of any definite result. For though the propaganda of Indian ideas by Apollonius could not have begun prior to the middle of the first century, we have in this fact no very sure criterion, for " India " must have been in the air, and strongly in the air, even prior to Apollonius' visit to India, or why should he have been induced to make so long and dangerous a journey ? Indeed, " India " had been in the air ever since the expedition of Alexander — that is, from the beginning of the Alexandrian period — the second quarter of the fourth century B.C. onwards.

1 Philos., Vit. Ap., iii. 51. Of. my Apollonius of Tyana, the Philosopher Reformer of the First Century A.D. (London, 1901), p. 88. (Text: P. 99-113; Pat. 23b-25b.) 1 Hermes. The Mind, 0 Tat, is of God's very essence — (if such a thing as essence of God l there be) — and what that is, it and it only knows precisely. The Mind, then, is not separated off from God's essentiality, but is united unto it, as light to sun. This Mind in men is God, and for this cause some of mankind are gods, and their humanity is nigh unto divinity. For the Good Daimon said : " Gods are immortal men, and men are mortal gods." 2. But in irrational lives Mind is their nature. For where is Soul, there too is Mind ; just as where Life, there is there also Soul. 1 That is, if we can use such a term with respect to God. 199 But in irrational lives their soul is life devoid of mind l ; for Mind is the in- worker of the souls of men for good ; — He works on them for their own good. In lives irrational He doth co-operate with each one's nature ; but in the souls of men He counteracteth them.

For every soul, when it becomes embodied, is instantly depraved by pleasure and by pain. For in a compound body, just like juices, pain and pleasure seethe, and into them the soul, on entering in, is plunged.2 3. O'er whatsoever souls the Mind doth, then, preside, to these it showeth its own light, by acting counter to their prepossessions, just as a good physician doth upon the body prepossessed by sickness, pain inflict, burning or lancing it for sake of health. In just the selfsame way the Mind inflicteth pain upon the soul, to rescue it from pleasure, whence comes its every ill. The great ill of the soul is godlessness 3 ; then 1 That is, of the mind manifested in xnan as distinguished from the general Mind. Of. C. H., x. (xi.) 8, 9 : " And the soul's vice is ignorance " ; and § 20 : " What greater chastisement of any human soul, can there be, son, than lack of piety?" The only way of salvation from the bonds of Fate is thus " piety " or " godliness." See R. 102, 1, for references. followeth fancy l for all evil things and nothing good.

So, then, Mind counteracting it doth work good on the soul, as the physician health upon the body. 4. But whatsoever human souls have not the Mind as pilot, they share in the same fate as souls of lives irrational. For [Mind] becomes co-worker with them, giving full play to the desires towards which [such souls] are borne, — [desires] that from the rush of lust strain after the irrational ; [so that such human souls,] just like irrational animals, cease not irrationally to rage and lust, nor ever are they satiate of ills. For passions and irrational desires are ills exceeding great; and over these God hath set up the Mind to play the part of judge and executioner. 5. Tat. In that case, father mine, the teaching (logos) as to Fate,2 which previously thou didst explain to me, risks to be over-set. For that if it be absolutely fated for a man to fornicate, or commit sacrilege, or do some other evil deed, why is he punished, — when he hath done the deed from Fate's necessity ? Her. All works, my son, are Fate's; and without Fate naught of things corporal — or good, or ill — can come to pass.

1 5<fa. 2 Heimarmene. But it is fated too, that he who doeth ill, shall suffer. And for this cause he doth it — that he may suffer what he suffereth, because he did it. 6. But for the moment, [Tat,] let be the teaching (logos) as to vice and Fate, for we have spoken of these things in other [of our sermons] ; but now our teaching (logos) is about the Mind : — what Mind can do, and how it is [so] different, — in men being such and such, and in irrational lives [so] changed ; and [then] again that in irrational lives it is not of a beneficial nature, while that in men it quencheth out the wrathful and the lustful elements. Of men, again, we must class some as led by reason, and others as unreasoning. 7. But all men are subject to Fate, and genesis and change, for these1 are the beginning and the end of Fate. And though all men do suffer fated things, those led by reason (those whom we said the Mind doth guide) do not endure like suffering with the rest ; but, since they've freed themselves from viciousness, not being bad, they do not suffer bad.

Tat How meanest thou again, my father? Is not the fornicator bad ; the murderer bad ; and [so with] all the rest ? Her. [I meant not that;] but that the 1 Sc. genesis and change. Mind -led man, my son, though not a fornicator, will suffer just as though he had committed fornication, and though he be no murderer, as though he had committed murder. The quality of change he can no more escape than that of genesis. But it is possible for one who hath the Mind, to free himself from vice. 8. Wherefore I've ever heard, my son, Good Daimon also say — (and had He set it down in written words, He would have greatly helped the race of men ; for He alone, my son, doth truly, as the First-born God, gazing upon all things, give voice to words (logoi) divine) — yea, once I heard Him say : " All things are one, and most of all the bodies which the mind alone perceives. Our life is owing to [God's] Energy and Power and Mou. His Mind is Good, so is His Soul as well. And this being so, intelligible things know naught of separation. So, then, Mind, being Kuler of all things, and being Soul of God, can do whate'er it wills."

9. So do thou understand, and carry back this word (logos) unto the question thou didst ask before, — I mean about Mind's Fate. For if thou dost with accuracy, son, eliminate [all] captious arguments (logoi), thou wilt discover that of very truth the Mind, the Soul of God, doth rule o'er all — o'er Fate, and Law, and all things else ; and nothing is impossible to it, — neither o'er Fate to set a human soul,1 nor under Fate to set [a soul] neglectful of what comes to pass. Let this so far suffice from the Good Daimon's most good [words].2 Tat. Yea, [words] divinely spoken, father mine, truly and helpfully. But further still explain me this. 10. Thou said'st that Mind in lives irrational worked in them as [their] nature, co-working with their impulses. But impulses of lives irrational, as I do think, are passions. Now if the Mind co-worketh with [these] impulses, and if the impulses of [lives] irrational be passions, then is Mind also passion, taking its colour from the passions. Her. Well put, my son ! Thou questionest right nobly, and it is just that I as well should answer [nobly]. 11. All things incorporal when in a body are subject unto passion, and in the proper sense they are [themselves] all passions.

For every thing that moves [another] is incorporal ; while every thing that's moved is body. 1 Of. Lack, D. /., ii. 15. 2 The critical text of this paragraph is given R. 78. Incorporate are further moved by Mind, and movement's passion. Both, then, are subject unto passion — both mover and the moved, the former being ruler and the latter ruled. But when a man hath freed himself from body, then is he also freed from passion. But, more precisely, son, naught is impassible, but all are passible. Yet passion differeth from passibility ; for that the one is active, while the other's passive. Incorporate l moreover act upon themselves, for either they are motionless 2 or they are moved ; but whichsoe'er it be, it's passion. Bat bodies are invariably acted on, and therefore are they passible. Do not, theD, let terms trouble thee ; action and passion are both the selfsame thing. To use the fairer sounding term, however, does no harm. 12. Tat. Most clearly hast thou, father mine, set forth the teaching (logos). Her. Consider this as well, my son ; that these two things God hath bestowed on man beyond all mortal lives — both mind and speech

1 Reading affca/jLara for ff(a/j.ara. 2 The words I have translated by " act," " active " and " action," may be more literally rendered by "energize," "energic" and " energy." The " motionless " has " energy " because it is the cause of motion to that which it moves. (logos) equal to immortality. He hath the mind for knowing God and uttered speech (logos) for eulogy of Him.1 And if one useth these for what he ought, he'll differ not a whit from the immortals.2 Nay, rather, on departing from the body, he will be guided by the twain unto the Choir of Gods and Blessed Ones. 13. Tat. Why, father mine ! — do not the other lives make use of speech (logos) ? Her. Nay, son ; but use of voice ; speech is far different from voice. For speech is general among all men, while voice doth differ in each class of living thing. Tat. But with men also, father mine, according to each race, speech differs. Her. Yea, son, but man is one ; so also speech is one and is interpreted, and it is found the same in Egypt, and in Persia, and in Greece.

Thou seemest, son, to be in ignorance of Reason's (Logos) B worth and greatness. For that the Blessed God, Good Daimon, hath declared : " Soul is in Body, Mind in Soul ; but Reason (Logos) is in Mind, and Mind in God ; and God is Father of [all] these." 1 Following the emendation of R. 2 The critical text of the above paragraphs is given R. 156, n. 6. 3 It is impossible to bring out the word-play of the original in English ; and so the double meaning is lost. 14. The Reason, then, is the Mind's image, and Mind God's [image]; while Body is [the image] of the Form ; and Form [the image] of the Soul. The subtlest part of Matter is, then, Air ; of Air, Soul ; of Soul, Mind ; and of Mind, God.1 And God surroundeth all and permeateth all 2 ; while Mind surroundeth Soul, Soul Air, Air Matter. Necessity3 and Providence and Nature are instruments of Cosmos and of Matter's ordering ; while of intelligible things each is Essence, and Sameness is their Essence. But of the Bodies4 of the Cosmos each is many ; for through possessing Sameness, [these] composed Bodies, though they do change from one into another of themselves, do natheless ever keep the incorruption of their Sameness.

15. Whereas in all the rest of composed bodies, of each there is a certain number; for without number structure cannot be, or composition, or decomposition. Now it is units that give birth to number and increase it, and, being decomposed, are taken back again into themselves. 1 This sentence is tagged on to the end of (7. #., v. (vi.) by some scribe. 2 a/. § 20 below. 3 Beading avdyicr) for avdyKrj • see § 21 below. 4 Sc. the elements. Matter is one ; and this whole Cosmos — the mighty God and image of the mightier One, both with Him unified, and the conserver of the Will and Order of the Father— is filled full of Life.1 Naught is there in it throughout the whole of Mou, the Father's [everlasting] Re-establishment,2 — nor of the whole, nor of its parts, — which doth not live. For not a" single thing that's dead, hath been, or is, or shall be in [this] Cosmos. For that the Father willed it should have Life as long as it should be. Wherefore it needs must be a God. 16. How, then, 0 son, could there be in the God, the image of the Father,3 in the plenitude 4 of Life— dead things 5 ?

For that death is corruption, and corruption is destruction. How then could any part of that which knoweth no corruption be corrupted, or any whit of him the God destroyed ? Tat. Do they not, then, my father, die — the lives in it, that are its parts ? Her. Hush, son ! — led into error by the term in use for what takes place. 1 Lit. a Pler5ma of Life. 3 Reading varp^s for vavr6s. * Pleroma. 6 A critical text of the last five paragraphs is given R. 25, n. 1. They do not die, my son, but are dissolved as compound bodies. Now dissolution is not death, but dissolution of a compound ; it is dissolved not so that it may be destroyed, but that it may become renewed. For what is the activity of life? Is it not motion ? What then in Cosmos is there that hath no motion ? Naught is there, son ! 17. Tat. Doth not Earth even, father, seem to thee to have no motion ? Her. Nay, son ; but rather that she is the only thing which, though in very rapid motion, is also stable. For how would it not be a thing to laugh at, that the Nurse of all should have no motion, when she engenders and brings forth all things ?

For 'tis impossible that without motion one who doth engender, should do so. That thou shouldst ask if the fourth part l is not inert, is most ridiculous ; for that the body which doth have no motion, gives sign of nothing but inertia. 18. Know, therefore, generally, my son, that all that is in Cosmos is being moved for decrease or for increase. Now that which is kept moving, also lives ; but there is no necessity that that which lives, should be all same. 1 Sc. element. VOL. II. 14 For being simultaneous, the Cosmos, as a whole, is not subject to change, my son, but all its parts are subject unto it ; yet naught [of it] is subject to corruption, or destroyed. It is the terms employed that confuse men. For 'tis not genesis that constituteth life, but 'tis sensation ; it is not change that constituteth death, but 'tis forgetfulness. Since, then, these things are so, they are immortal all, — Matter, [and] Life, [and] Spirit, Mind [and] Soul, of which whatever liveth, is composed. 19. Whatever then doth live, oweth its immortality unto the Mind, and most of all doth man, he who is both recipient of God, and coessential with Him.

For with this life alone doth God consort ; by visions in the night, by tokens in the day, and by all things doth He foretell the future unto him, — by birds, by inward parts, by wind, by tree. Wherefore doth man lay claim to know things past, things present and to come. 20. Observe this, too, my son ; that each one of the other lives inhabiteth one portion of the Cosmos, — aquatic creatures water, terrene earth, and aery creatures air ; while man doth use all these, — earth, water, air, [and] fire ; he seeth heaven, too, and doth contact it with [his] sense. But God surroundeth all, and permeateth all,1 for He is energy and power ; and it is nothing difficult, my son, to conceive God. 21. But if thou wouldst Him also contemplate, behold the ordering of the Cosmos, and [see] the orderly behaviour of its ordering ; behold thou the Necessity of things made manifest, and [see] the Providence of things become and things becoming ; behold how Matter is all-full of Life ; [behold] this so great God in movement, with all the good and noble [ones] — gods, daimones and men !

Tat. But these are purely energies, 0 father mine ! Her. If, then, they're purely energies, my son, — by whom, then, are they energized except by God ? Or art thou ignorant, that just as Heaven, Earth, Water, Air, are parts of Cosmos, in just the selfsame way God's parts are Life and Immortality, [and] Energy, and Spirit, and Necessity, and Providence, and Nature, Soul, and Mind, and the Duration2 of all these that is called Good ? And there is naught of things that have become, or are becoming, in which God is not. 22. Tat. Is He in Matter, father, then ? Her. Matter, my son, is separate from God, 1 Gf. § 14 above. 2 Sc. Mon. in order that thou may'st attribute unto it the quality of space. But what thing else than mass1 think'st thou it is, if it's not energized? Whereas if it be energized, by whom is it made so ? For energies, we said, are parts of God. By whom are, then, all lives enlivened ? By whom are things immortal made immortal ? By whom changed things made changeable ? And whether thou dost speak of Matter, or of Body, or of Essence, know that these too are energies of God ; and that materiality is Matter's energy, that corporality is Bodies' energy, and that essentiality doth constitute the energy of Essence ; and this is God — the All.

23. And in the All is naught that is not God. Wherefore nor size, nor space, nor quality, nor form, nor time, surroundeth God ; for He is All, and All surroundeth all, and permeateth all. Unto this Reason (Logos), son, thy adoration and thy worship pay. There is one way alone to worship God ; [it is] not to be bad.2 1 Probably in the sense of "quantity." 2 Lactantius, D. I., vi. 25, translates the last two sentences into Latin, with the strange remark that Hermes so spake in treating "About Justice." See the following Commentary on § 6, and Ex. xi. This Sermon has as its subject the Common or General Mind — Great Mind, Good Mind, Good Daimon. For Mind, as we are told (§ 2), is the Benefactor of men (evepyerns avOpwTrcw) ; He is the Good Shepherd, the Good Husbandman, the Good Physician, as He is called in different tractates. From a critical standpoint, the point of greatest interest is that our Hermes in no less than three places (§§ 1, 8, 13) quotes certain Sayings of the Good Daimon. Now the first of these quotations (§ 1) — " Gods are immortal men, and men are mortal Gods " — is one of the most cited Sayings of Heracleitus.1 Hermes, however, does not mean to say that Heracleitus was Agothodaimon, but that Heracleitus was the mouthpiece of the Good Mind when he uttered this " word " (logos).

Nor was this the opinion of Hermes only ; it was the belief apparently of Heracleitus himself when he declared : " Not because you hear me say so, but because you hear the Eeason (Logos) so declare, is it wise to confess that All are One."2 At any rate the term Logos, as used by Heracleitus, in connection with such a declaration, is taken by Hippolytus3 to mean the All-pervading Eeason, and not the normal reason of man. What, then, is our surprise to find the second of 1 Diels, 62 ; Bywater, 67 ; Fairbanks, 67 (p. 40), which see for references to ancient authors who quote it. 2 Diels, 50 ; Bywater, 1 ; Fairbanks, 1 (p. 24). 3 PMlos., ix. 9. Hermes' quotations of a Saying of the Good Daimon qualified by the words (§ 8) : " And had He set it down in written words " or " in writing," when that quotation begins with the words : " All are One " 1 — the rootformula of Heracleitus. Such Sayings of Heracleitus must have been the common property of all the philosophers of the time and of their pupils. But the quotation of Hermes does not end with the formula of Heracleitus ; it continues, how far exactly it is difficult to determine. Eeitzenstein (p. 127) would apparently make it end with the word " ^Eon, " but I am inclined to think it goes to the end of § 8. In either case it includes the term " ^Eon."

If, now, we turn to the third quotation from the Sayings of the Good Daimon (§ 13), we are at once struck with its remarkable resemblance to the form of teaching in C. H.} xi. (xii.) 4. Though there is no precise verbal agreement, there is a striking identity of style of formula. In our treatise, however, the Saying is used in authoritative illustration of the meaning of the Eeason (Logos), whereas in the " Mind to Hermes," — that is, in the Sermon of the Good Daimon Himself to Hermes — Eeason is omitted, Mind and Eeason being there transcended by ^Eon and Mind. Moreover, the whole style of what follows this quotation in our treatise is exactly the same as the style of instruction in C. H., xi. (xii.) — short categorical formulae; and, further, the previous quotation (§ 8) contains the key-word ^Eon, which characterizes the teaching of the " Mind to Hermes." I therefore conclude that our Hermes is using a more 1 Cf. C. H., x. (xi.) 25, and xvi. ("Definitions of Asclepius") 3 ; for references to the Magical and Alchemical literature, see R. 39, 1 ; 106, 5 ; 127, 3. intimate instruction, known only to the Hermes-grade, and not published* for the Tat-degree; and that this is the meaning of his saying that it has not been written down. He means simply that it has not yet been allowed to be published for those in the Tat-stage.

There were, then, other treatises now lost of the same type as that of the " Mind to Hermes " ; in them there were quotations from the Sayings of Heracleitus ; the " Obscure Philosopher " being regarded as one who had come into direct contact with the Logos or Mind, and as one, therefore, who spoke with the authority of direct revelation. The next point of critical interest is the sentence in §7: " I meant not that, but that the Mind-led man, my son, though not a fornicator, will suffer just as though he had committed fornication, and though he be no murderer, as though he had committed murder." If we now turn to the quotation which Clement of Alexandria l gives us from Book XXIII. of the Exegetica, of Basilides, we read : " For just as the babe, who, although it hath done no wrong previously, or actively committed any sin, yet hath the capacity of sin in it, — whenever it is subjected to suffering, is advantaged and reaps many benefits, which otherwise are difficult to gain ; in just the selfsame way is it, that although a perfect man may not have sinned in act, and yet doth suffer pains, he suffereth them in just the selfsame fashion as a babe; having within himself the tendency to sin, but refusing to embrace the opportunity to sin, he doth not

., IV. xii., § 82 (P. 600 ; S. 217) : Dindorf., ii. 363. sin. So that even for such a man as this we ought not to suppose the incapacity for sin. " For just as it is the will to commit fornication that constitutes the fornicator, even though he does not find the opportunity of actually committing fornication, and the will to commit murder that constitutes the murderer, although he may not be actually able to effect his purpose ; so also in the case of the ' sinless ' man I mean, if I see him suffering, even if he has actually done no sin, I shall say he is evil by his will to sin. For I will say anything rather than that Providence is evil." 1 Providence, as in our treatise, is here the instrument of the Good (§ 14), of the Will of God ; it is the will of man that is the source of evil, as we learn from C. H., iv. (v.) 8 : " For 'tis not God, 'tis we who are the cause of evil things, preferring them to good." In our treatise, then, the very same problem is treated as in the Exegetica of Basilides. Hermes speaks of the " Mind-led man," the " man who has the Logos in him " ; Basilides speaks of the " perfect man." So also in C. H., iv. (v.) 4, the "perfect man" is he who has " received the Mind."

The ideas of Hermes and of Basilides are practically identical ; the words of both are strikingly similar when they cite fornication and murder as typical sins, and these and no others. Compare again with this idea of the babe in Basilides the words of Hermes in G. H., x. >(xi.) 15 : <{ Behold an infant's soul, my son, that is not yet cut off, because its body is still small and not as yet come unto its full bulk. ... A thing of beauty altogether is such a soul to see, not yet befouled with body's passions, still all but hanging from the Cosmic Soul." 1 See F. F. F., 274, 275. And with this compare what Hippolytus l tells us of Valentinus : " Valentinus says that he once saw a babe that had only just been born, and that he proceeded to question it to find out who it was. And the babe replied and said it was the Logos." And also the Psalm of Valentinus quoted by the same heresiologist 2 : All things depending from Spirit I see ; All things supported by Spirit I view ; Flesh from Soul depending ; Soul by Air supported ;

Air from ^Ether hanging ; Fruits borne of the Deep ; Babe borne of the Womb. Here, then, as in other instances, we have intimate points of contact between the Hermetic and Christian Gnosis. Is there, however, any question of direct plagiarism ? I think not ; but that the Christian doctors and the Hermetic philosophers were both in contact with the same body of inner teaching. 4. With the action of the Mind on the soul in incarnation (§ 4) compare C. JET., x. (XL), 18, 19, where the office of the Mind in respect to the soul out of incarnation is graphically described. 6. In § 6 Hermes tells us that he has already spoken about Fate in others of his Sermons; while in §§14 and 21 he three times refers to Necessity and Providence. In this connection it is to be noticed that Lactantius (D. /., vi. 25), in quoting the last two sentences of our 1 Philos., vi. 42 (D. and S., 302) ; F. F. F., p. 306. 2 Philos., vi. 37 (D. and S., 290) ; see emended text in Hilgenfeld (A.), Die Ketzergeschichte des Urchristenthums (Leipzig, 1884), p. 304 ; F. F. F., p. 307.

treatise, says that he takes them from a Sermon by Hermes " On Justice." Now, Stobseus has preserved for us an Extract (xi.) from a Sermon dealing with Justice, Providence, Necessity and Fate; also an Extract (x.) from a Sermon of Hermes to Tat dealing with Fate, and ending with the words : " Such is the Sermon on the rule of Providence, Necessity and Fate." We have also an Extract (xiii.) " Of Hermes from the Books to Ammon," entitled " Of the General Economy," which deals with Providence, Necessity and Fate. There were, then, according to Hermes, already existing not one but several Sermons on Fate, and, as we learn from Stobseus, not only in the Tat-literature but also in the Ammon-literature. It seems, then, probable that in the collection used by Lactantius the Tat-Sermons on Fate immediately preceded our treatise, and that one of these sermons (the one immediately preceding our treatise, presumably) was entitled "On Justice," thus confirming the title I have prefixed to the Stobseus Extract xi. 22. Finally, in § 22 it has to be noticed that with the express teaching that Matter and Body are so far from being evil that they are Energies of God — His materiality and corporality — the charge of dualism against our philosophers must for ever be abandoned. Their doctrine was that of pan-monism ; and, therefore, wherever we find signs of dualism, or even distinct statements of an indubitably dualistic nature, we must understand that this was a formal convenience for the better insistence upon the need of strenuous exertion to solve the mystery of the opposites, rather than an essential doctrine of the Gnosis.

(Text: R. 339-348; P. 114-128; Pat. 15b-17b.) 1. Tat. [Now] in the General Sermons,1 father, thou didst speak in riddles most unclear, conversing on Divinity ; and when thou saidst no man could e'er be saved before Rebirth,2 thy meaning thou didst hide. Further, when I became thy Suppliant, in Wending up the Mount,3 after thou hadst conversed with me, and when I longed to learn the Sermon (Logos) on Rebirth (for this beyond all 1 ev TO?S yevtKo'is. Of. C. H., x. (xi.) 1 and 7. 3 Reading e*l rrjs rov Zpovs fAfrapdffews with P., and not Kara- with R. Gf. G. H., x. (xi.) 15 ; Jamb., D. M., viii. 6. other things is just the thing I know not), thou saidst, that thou wouldst give it me — " when thou shalt have become a stranger to the world." 1 Wherefore I got me ready and made the thought in me a stranger 2 to the world-illusion. And now do thou fill up the things that fall short 3 in me with what thou saidst would give me the tradition 4 of Eebirth, setting it forth in speech or in the secret way. I know not, 0 Thrice-greatest one, from out what matter and what womb Man comes to birth, or of what seed.6

2. Hermes. Wisdom that understands6 in silence 7 [such is the matter and the womb from out which Man is born], and the True Good the seed. Tat. Who is the sower, father ? For I am altogether at a loss. Her. It is the Will of God, my son. Tat. And of what kind is he that is begotten, father ? For I have no share of that essence in 2 Reading dirrjAAoTpiWa with the majority of the editors, and not the air-fiSpiora of R. 3 T& vffTfp-fimara avairK-hpaiffov. 4 wopaSovj/cu, the word used for the giving of this lesson or inner instruction is the technical term for the "handing on" of a doctrine or being initiated into it. 5 R.'s reading would make this refer to Hermes : " I know not from what womb thou com'st to birth." But the whole instruction seems to favour the usually accepted reading. voepd. 7 Cf. G. H.t X. (XI.) 6. me, which doth transcend the senses.1 The one that is begot will be another one from God, God's Son ? Her. All in all, out of all powers composed. Tat. Thou tellest me a riddle, father, and dost not speak as father unto son.

Her. This Kace,2 my son, is never taught; but when He willeth it, its memory is restored by God. 3. Tat. Thou sayest things impossible, 0 father, things that are forced. Hence answers would I have direct unto these things. Am I a son strange to my father's race ? Keep it not, father, back from me. I am a true-born son ; explain to me the manner of Kebirth. Her. What may I say, my son ? I can but tell thee this. Whene'er I see within myself the Simple Vision3 brought to birth out of God's mercy,4 I have passed through myself into a Body that can never die. And now I am not what I was before ; but I am born in Mind. The way to do this is not taught, and it cannot be seen by the compounded5 element by means of which thou seest. 1 rrjs ev e/iol ovfftas TTJS I/OIJTTJS. 2 Cf. Ex. i. 3. 3 &ir\affTov, that is to say, not made up, non-fictitious, not compounded ; that is, simple — the opposite of compounded. 4 Cf. below, § 7 : the man " who hath been taken pity on by God " ; and also § 10.

Yea, I have had my former composed form dismembered for me. I am no longer touched, yet have I touch ; I have dimension too ; and [yet] am I a stranger to them now. Thou seest me with eyes, my son ; but what I am thou dost not understand [even] with fullest strain of body and of sight. 4. Tat. Into fierce frenzy and mind-fury hast thou plunged me, father, for now no longer do Her. I would, my son, that thou hadst e'en passed right through thyself, as they who dream in sleep yet sleepless. Tat. Tell me this too ! Who is the author 1 of Kebirth ? Her. The Son of God, the One Man, by God's Will. 5. Tat. Now hast thou brought me, father, unto pure stupefaction. Arrested from the senses which I had before, . . . . 2 ; for [now] I see thy Greatness identical with thy distinctive form. Her. Even in this thou art untrue3; the mortal form doth change with every day. 'Tis turned by time to growth and waning, as being an untrue thing.4 6. Tat. What then is true, Thrice-greatest One ? 2 A lacuna unfortunately follows.

Her. That which is never troubled, son, which cannot be defined ; that which no colour hath, nor any figure, which is not turned, which hath no garment, which giveth light ; that which is comprehensible unto itself [alone], which doth not suffer change ; that which no body can contain.1 Tat. In very truth I lose my reason, father. Just when I thought to be made wise by thee, I find the senses of this mind of mine blocked up. Her. Thus is it, son : That which is upward borne like fire, yet is borne down like earth, that which is moist like water, yet blows like air,2 how shalt thou this perceive with sense — the that which is not solid nor yet moist, which naught can bind or loose, of which in power and energy alone can man have any notion, — and even then it wants a man who can 3 perceive the Way of Birth in God *? 7. Tat. I am incapable of this, 0 father, then ? Her. Nay, God forbid, my son ! Withdraw into thyself, and it will come ; will, and it comes to pass ; throw out of work the body's senses, and thy Divinity shall come to birth ; purge from thyself the brutish torments — things of matter.

Tat. I have tormentors then in me, 0 father ? 1 Of. P. S. A., xxxi..3. 2 Of. 0. H., iv. (v.) 1. 3 Retaining the reading 4 TV e'v 0e$ yeveffiv—cf. § 10. Her. Ay, no few, my son; nay, fearful ones and manifold. Tat. I do not know them, father. Her. Torment the first is this Not-knowing,1 son; the second one is Grief; the third, Intemperance ; the fourth, Concupiscence ; the fifth, Unrighteousness ; the sixth is Avarice ; the seventh, Error 2 ; the eighth is Envy ; the ninth, Guile 3 ; the tenth is Anger ; eleventh, Eashness ; the twelfth is Malice. These are in number twelve ; but under them are many more, my son ; and creeping through the prison of the body 4 they force the man that's placed within 5 to suffer in his senses. But they depart (although not all at once) from him who hath been taken pity on by God6; and this it is which constitutes the manner of Rebirth. And . . . . 7 the Reason (Logos). 8. And now, my son, be still and solemn silence keep ! Thus shall the mercy that flows on us from God not cease.

Henceforth rejoice, 0 son, for by the Powers of God thou art being purified for the articulation of the Reason (Logos). 1 Hyvoia. z foraTTj. 3 $6\os. 4 Gf. C.H., XVi. 15. 6 6 Cf. above, § 3 : " brought to birth out of God's mercy " ; and also § 10. 7 A lacuna in the text. Gnosis of God hath come to us, and when this comes, my son, Not-knowing is cast out. Gnosis of Joy hath come to us, and on its coming, son, Sorrow will flee away to them who give it room. The Power that follows Joy do I invoke, thy Self-control. 0 Power most sweet ! Let us most gladly bid it welcome, son ! How with its coming doth it chase Intemperance away ! 9. Now fourth, on Continence I call, the Power against Desire. . . . . * This step, my son, is Righteousness' firm seat. For without judgment2 see how she hath chased Unrighteousness away. We are made righteous, son, by the departure of Unrighteousness. Power sixth I call to us, — that against Avarice, Sharing- with-all. 8 And now that Avarice is gone, I call on Truth. And Error flees, and Truth is with us.

See how [the measure of] the Good is full, my 1 Something has here evidently fallen out in the text. 2 x»P^ Kpifffcas, If, however, we must read Kriffews with the majority of the editors, I cannot understand the various translations. Everard gives " without labour " ; Parthey, " nulla contentione" ; Menard, "sans combat"; Chambers, "without contention." I would, therefore, render it : " See how she hath chased out Unrighteousness without a home " ; for it seems to me that in x<ap\s /crierews we have the exact antithesis of e'Spaer/xo. Righteousness has here her firm seat or abode, and Unrighteousness is thus naturally without a home. son, upon Truth's coming. For Envy hath gone from us ; and unto Truth is joined the Good as well, with Life and Light. And now no more doth any torment of the Darkness venture nigh, but vanquished [all] have fled with whirring wings. 10. Thou knowest [now], my son, the manner of Rebirth. And when the Ten is come, my son, that driveth out the Twelve, the Birth in understanding1 is complete, and by this Birth we are made into Gods. Who then doth by His mercy gain this Birth in God, abandoning the body's senses, knows himself [to be of Light and Life 2] and that he doth consist of these, and [thus] is filled with Bliss.

11. Tat. By God made steadfast, father, no longer with the sight my eyes afford I look on things, but with the energy the Mind doth give me through the Powers.3 In heaven am I, in earth, in water, air ; I am in animals, in plants ; I'm in the womb, before the womb, after the womb ; I'm everywhere ! But further tell me this : How are the torments of the Darkness, when they are twelve in number, driven out by the ten Powers ? What is the way of it, Thrice-greatest one ? 1 roep& yeveffts, lit., intellectual birth. 2 Completed from C. H., i. 22. 3 ry 5to Swdfiewv vo-rjriKy 12. Her. This dwelling-place1 through which we have just passed, my son, is constituted from the circle of the types-of-life, this being composed of elements, twelve in number, but of one nature, an omniform 2 idea. For man's delusion there are disunions 3 in them, son, while in their action they are one. Not only can we never part Rashness from Wrath ; they cannot even be distinguished. According to right reason (logos), then, they4 naturally withdraw once and for all, in as much as they are chased out by no less than ten powers, that is, the Ten.

For, son, the Ten is that which giveth birth to souls. And Life and Light are unified there, where the One hath being from the Spirit. According then to reason (logos) the One contains the Ten, the Ten the One. 13. Tat. Father, I see the All, I see myself in Mind. Her. This is, my son, Rebirth — no more to look on things from body's view-point (a thing three ways in space extended),5 . . .6 though this Sermon (Logos) on Rebirth, on which I did not 1 o-KTjj'os, — tent or tabernacle of the human soul. Cf. below, §15. 2 Cf. commentary on G". H., xi. (xii.) 1C. 3 SiaCvyal — the opposite of avfryiai. 4 That is, the Twelve. 5 As opposed to some other dimension, presumably. 6 Some words are evidently missing. comment * ; — in order that we may not be calumniators 2 of the All unto the multitude, to whom indeed the God Himself doth will we should not. 14. Tat. Tell me, 0 father : This Body which is made up of the Powers, is it at any time dissolved ? Her. Hush, [son] ! Speak not of things impossible, else wilt thou sin and thy Mind's eye be quenched.

The natural body which our sense perceives is far removed from this essential birth. The first must be dissolved, the last can never be ; the first must die, the last death cannot touch. Dost thou not know thou hast been born a God, Son of the One, even as I myself ? 15. Tat. I would, 0 father, hear the Praisegiving with hymn which thou didst say thou heardest then when thou wert at the Eight [the Ogdoad] of Powers. Her. Just as the Shepherd did foretell [I should], my son, [when I came to] the Eight.3 Well dost thou haste to " strike thy tent," 4 for thou hast been made pure. 1 See § i. 2 5ia£oA.ot, compare § 22. The lacuna probably contained some reference to keeping silence. 3 Cf. G. H., i. 26. 4 \v<rai rb ffKrivos. Gf. above, § 12. The meaning is generally to free oneself from the trammels of the body. Compare the Pythian Oracle concerning Plotinus : " But now since thou hast The Shepherd, Mind of all masterhood,1 hath not passed on to me more than hath been writ down, for full well did He know that I should of myself be able to learn all, and hear what I should wish, and see all things.

He left to me the making of fair things 2 ; wherefore the Powers within me, e'en as they are in all,3 break into song. 16. Tat. Father, I wish to hear; I long to know these things. Her. Be still, my son ; hear the Praise-giving now that keeps [the soul] in tune, Hymn of Re-birth — a hymn I would not have thought fit so readily to tell, had'st thou not reached the end of all. Wherefore this is not taught, but is kept hid in silence. Thus then, my son, stand in a place uncovered to the sky, facing the southern wind,4 about the sinking of the setting sun, and make thy worship ; so in like manner too when he doth rise, with face to the east wind. Now, son, be still ! struck thy tent and left the tomb of thy daimonic soul" (y\>v 5' #T6 5$; (T/cfjf oy nfi> e\u(Too, (TTjjua 5' f\€ityas tyvxy5 Sai/Aoyfrjj). Porphyry, Plotini Vita, xxii. ; c/. Ex. vii. 3 ; Ex. iii. 1. 1 Cf. C. H., i. 2. 2 Sc. psalms and praise-giving. 4 Also used of the south-west quarter. The " south wind " is thought to have extended from SSE. to W.

17. Let every nature of the World receive the utterance of my hymn ! Open thou Earth ! Let every bolt of the Abyss be drawn for me. Stir not, ye Trees ! I am about to hymn creation's Lord, both All and One. Ye Heavens open, and ye Winds stay still ; [and] let God's deathless Sphere receive my word (logos) \ For I will sing the praise of Him who founded all; who fixed the Earth, and hung up Heaven, and gave command that Ocean should afford sweet water [to the Earth], to both those parts that are inhabited and those that are not, for the support and use of every man ; who made the Fire to shine for gods and men for every act. Let us together all give praise to Him, sublime above the Heavens, of every nature Lord ! 'Tis He who is the Eye of Mind ; may He accept the praise of these my Powers ! 18. Ye Powers that are within me, hymn the One and All ; sing with my Will, Powers all that are within me ! 0 blessed Gnosis, by thee illumined, hymning through thee the Light that mind alone can see,1 I joy in Joy of Mind.

1 rb voifrbv 0«*. Sing with me praises all ye Powers ! Sing praise, my Self - control ; sing thou through me, my Eighteousness, the praises of the Righteous ; sing thou, my Sharing-all, the praises of the All ; through me sing, Truth, Truth's praises f Sing thou, 0 Good, the Good ! 0 Life and Light, from us to you our praises flow ! Father, I give Thee thanks, to Thee Thou Energy of all my Powers ; I give Thee thanks, 0 God, Thou Power of all my Energies ! 19. Thy Reason (Logos) sings through me Thy praises. Take back through me the All into [Thy] Reason — [my] reasonable oblation l ! Thus cry the Powers in me. They sing Thy praise, Thou All ; they do Thy Will. From Thee Thy Will2; to Thee the All. Receive from all their reasonable oblation. The All that is in us, 0 Life, preserve ; 0 Light illumine it ; 0 God in-spirit it.3 It is Thy Mind that plays the Shepherd4 to Thy Word,5 0 Thou Creator, Bestower of the Spirit [upon all].6 1 Cf. below, § 21. 2 Cf. P. S. A., Comment, and R. 39, n. 1.

3 The Spirit being Light and Life. 4 iroipaivfi, acts as a shepherd or feeds ; Poemandres is thus the Shepherd of men or the feeder of men, He who gives them the heavenly food. 5 The Word or Reason or true Man in man. 20. [For] Thou art God; Thy Man1 thus cries to Thee through Fire, through Air, through Earth, through Water, [and] through Spirit, through Thy creatures. 'Tis from Thy Mon I have found Praise-giving ; and in Thy Will,2 the object of my search, have I found rest. Tat. By thy good pleasure 3 have I seen this Praise-giving being sung,4' 0 father ; I have set it in my Cosmos too. Her. Say in the Cosmos that thy mind alone can see, my son. Tat. Yea, father, in the Cosmos that the mind alone can see ; for I have been made able by thy Hymn, and by thy Praise-giving my mind hath been illumined. Bat further I myself as well would from my natural mind send praise-giving to God. 21. Her. But not unheedfully, my son. Tat. Ay. What I behold in mind, that do I say. To thee, thou Parent of my Bringing into Birth, as unto God I, Tat, send reasonable offerings. 6 0 God and Father, thou art the Lord, thou art the Mind. Keceive from me oblations

1 Cf. G. H., i. 32. 2 fiov\4i. 8 4 Cf., for instance, The Ascension of Isaiah, i. 6 : " In the twentieth year of the reign of Hezekiah, Isaiah had seen the words of this prophecy."— Charles' Trans. (London, 1900), p. 5. 5 Cf. above, § 18. reasonable as thou would'st wish ; for by thy Will all things have been perfected. Her. Send thou oblation, son, acceptable to God, the Sire of all ; but add, my son, too, " through the Word " (Logos). Tat. I give thee, father, thanks for showing me to sing such hymns. 22. Her. Happy am I, my son, that thou hast brought the good fruits forth of Truth, products that cannot die. And now that thou hast learnt this lesson from me, make promise to keep silence1 on thy virtue, and to no soul, my son, make known the handing on to thee the manner of Kebirth, that we may not be thought to be calumniators.2 And now we both of us have given heed sufficiently, both I the speaker and the hearer thou. In Mind 3 hast thou become a Knower of thyself and of our [common] Sire. 1 Of. P. S. A., xxxii. 4.

2 Sid&oXoi, slanderers, calumniators ; compare § 13 ; also Ex. i. 16. "The Secret Sermon on the Mountain" is the main title given in all the MSS., with the exception of A ; the subsidiary contents-title is evidently derived from the same edition to which we owe the other contentstitles preserved in our Corpus. Eeitzenstein (p. 193), however, thinks that the main title has arisen by mistake. What the mistake is he does not tell us; perhaps he means that in our Sermon there is no mention of " On a Mountain," but rather, as in § 1, if we accept his reading, of " Down a Mountain." But in this we cannot follow him ; for the whole teaching is precisely " On the Mount " — to the top of which Tat has now come. For the " Mountain " was symbolic of stages of inner development, and in § 9 we are told precisely : " This step (the fifth) is Kighteousness' firm seat," — showing that the Mountain was conceived as an ascent or stair of steps as is so often seen in Egyptian frescoes. Again, with regard to the title, the term " Secret " (a7roKpv(po$ — apocryphal) is used in its original sense of hidden away, meaning esoteric or not put into circulation, as applied to a logos or sermon, or a collection of logoi or sayings.

A logos in this sense had very much the same meaning for our Ancients as the Sanskrit malici-vakyam (" great saying") has to-day for an Indian theosophist who applies the term to the great mystical utterances of the Upanishads ; such as : " That art thou " ( Tat tvam asi), etc. In classical antiquity these logoi or logia were regarded as words of wisdom, and were the most sacred legacies of the sages to humanity. These oracular utterances were frequently collected together, and even prior to the days of syncretism formed the most sacred " deposits " (SiaOrJKai) of various nations ; the same term being subsequently given to the Christian Bible. Thus Herodotus calls Onomacritus, the first collector of the archaic Orphic Hymns, a " depository of oracles " (SiaOeryv x/owiwi/), — the word carrying the meaning of " one who arranges," corresponding exactly to the term Vyasa in Sanskrit, the supposed " author " of the Mahabharata. Such collections of logoi or logia were then generally called " deposits," the word also sometimes bearing the meaning of " testaments " as containing the expression of the Divine will or dispensation. The same term is used by Strabo (x. 482) of the Laws of Lycurgus ; it was also applied by the Orphics and Pythagoreans to such sacred laws l ; while Ecclesiastical writers subsequently used it in reference to the Canonical Books. 2

The Orphics and Pythagoreans also called these collections " sacred utterances " (lepol \6yoi) ', and even Clement of Alexandria refers to such a saying of Orpheus as "that truly sacred utterance" (TOP ovrw lepov \6yov). That such collections were kept secret is not surprising ; indeed, such must have been the case from time immemorial. But even on the ground of purely Greek and Eoman history, we are not without information of collections of oracles carefully guarded as the secret scriptures or bibles of nations. Cicero3 speaks of such a bible of the Veii. The Athenians, in the time of the Kings, possessed a similar 1 Grotius, ap. Jablonski, ii. 397 ; Lobeck, Aglaoph., p. 714. 2 Euseb., Chron. , 99 A. 3 De Div.t i. 44. bible of logia1; and Dinarchus2 tells us that the safety of the State depended on this secret scripture (cnroppriTOV? SiaOrJKai)- These occult sayings (airoQevTa eirrj) are further called by Suidas (s.v.) "withdrawn volumes" (/3iB\la avaKexwprjKOTa) — that is to say, books withdrawn from public perusal, or, in other words, apocryphal, hidden or secret (aTroKpvQa). And not only was this the case with the ancient writings themselves, but also with the commentaries upon them, and by degrees with everything referring to them, until finally we find Themistius the rhetorician, in the fourth century, speaking of that "mass of Archaic wisdom not open to the public or in general circulation, but scarce and occult." 3

We have, therefore, translated the term by " secret " as conveying the proper meaning of the epithet in the title, and not by " apocryphal," a word that nowadays connotes the judgment of a theological canon. 1. In the first paragraph Tat definitely refers to three Stages of Probation, before he is deemed fit to hear the Sermon on Eebirth. (i) First there is the General or Preliminary Instruction contained in a collection of discourses called the General Sermons (TcviKol Aoyot). (ii) Next is the Stage where Tat becomes the Suppliant of Hermes, a stage characterized by Conversation or Dialogue (SioXexOrjvai) ; that is to say, Tat was allowed to ask questions. This is further 1 Herod., v. 90. 2 Or. c. Demos., 91, 20. 3 Or., IV. 60 : " ffrtyos fy>xa2«* ffo<j>las, ov Koivijs ouSe cV /ue'o> KV\IVSoi/fteVrjs a\\k fftraviov Kal airoderov." symbolically described by a phrase, enl T?? TOV opov$ juera/Sacrea)?, which is difficult to translate, but which seems to mean either Passing up, or Wending up, the Mountain, or Wending over the Mountain. That is to say, that Hermes was gradually leading Tat to the top of the Mountain, in plain words, as far as his normal intellect could carry him ; the Top of the Mountain representing the highest point of unaided mental faculty.

This stage was, I believe, represented by the collection of Sermons to Tat, or Dialogues with Tat, known as the AiegoSiicol Ao'yo* — a term somewhat difficult to translate precisely. The fundamental meaning of Sie£oSo$ is a "way through and out," a " pathway " or " passage," or " means of escape." It thus comes to mean the course of a narrative, or a detailed narrative, exposition, discussion. Hence also a " passage " of Scripture. As set over against yeviicos (General), therefore, StegoSucos would mean Detailed or Expository ; but at the same time it would to the Greek ear suggest the meaning of the Means of Escape or the Way out of Ignorance. (iii) The third Stage is that of Moral and Mental Purification. "Wherefore I got me ready and made the thought (TO <f>povrjfJLa) in me a stranger to the world-illusion" (r/7? TOV KOO-JULOV awards) — the Error that in § 7 sums up the first six vices, and is in § 9 driven out by Truth. Stage ii. may have been technically known as that of the Suppliant, though, of course, of this we cannot be sure. In any case the term must be considered in close connection with Philo's treatise On the Contemplative Life, which, as Conybeare tells us, most probably formed Book IV. of Philo's voluminous work, or rather apology, De Legatione. The alternative title of this

work was The Suppliants. By " Suppliant " Philo tells us he means " one who has fled to God and taken refuge with Him." l Here, however, the term is used in a narrower sense, as adapted to the personal relationship of disciple to master, who, during the time of probation, stands to him as the representative of God. The master is his spiritual father, the image of God the Father.2 As to the symbolic use of the term Mountain, I need hardly remind my readers that it was perhaps the most common figure employed in the apocalypses of the time. Instances come immediately crowding into the mind, such as the " Mount of Galilee " in the Askew and Bruce Gnostic Codices, on which all the great initiations and rites are performed by the Kisen Lord ; or the Mount Tabor3 of The Gospel according to the Hebrews, " My Mother the Holy Spirit took me by one of the hairs of the head and carried me unto Mount Tabor " ; or in the Acts of John, where the Vision of the Spiritual Crucifixion is shown to John on the Mount; or in The Gospel of Eve, where the Vision of the Great and Little Man is seen on the Mount ; or in The Shepherd of Her mas, where the Angel of Repentance bears off Hermas to the Mount of Arcadia, etc. In every case the Mountain is no physical mountain, but the height of contemplation, an interior state of spiritual consciousness.

Stage in., again, is of interest because of the terms in 1 De Sac. Ab. et G., i. 186, 33. 2 See the praise-giving of Tat, § 21. 3 " The Mountain of Light," the traditional scene of the Transfiguration. which it is described ; they may be compared with the same teaching in the Behnesa logos : Jesus saith : " Except ye fast to the world, ye shall in nowise find the Kingdom of God." Again, in Tat's prayer for the consummation of his probation : " And now do thou fill up the things that fall short in me " (TCI v(rT€prj/maTa avaTrXijpcoarov), it should be noticed that we have the well-known technical terms of the Christianized Gnosis, the Pleroma and Hysterema, or Fullness and Insufficiency. The time has come for Tat to receive, through his master, the touch of the true Mind-consciousness, the Christ is to be born in his heart, the light of the Pleroma is to shine into his inmost being. It is to be a New Birth, a Regeneration (TraAiyyeVo-/?), or Ee-birth (di/ayevvrjcris), in the sense of being born from Above (avcoOev). Compare John iii. 3: "Amen, Amen, I say unto thee; Except a man be born from Above, he cannot see the Kingdom of God." And also 7 : " Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye (pi.) must be born from Above," — where the comment on a prior saying, " Ye must be born from Above," formally unsuited to the scheme of a dialogue between Jeschu and Eabbi Nakdimon, reveals the work of the Haggadist.

So also in 1 Pet. i. 22, 23 : " Having made your souls holy by hearkening to the Truth l . . . being Re-born (avayeycvvrjfjLevoi) not from the seed of destruction, but from the Seed that cannot be destroyed, through the Word 2 (Logos) of God, who lives and endures." 3 1 Precisely as did Tat. 2 Cf. precisely the same formula in our treatise, § 21 . 3 That is, of God as Mon and God as Life, which is the union of God as Mind and Logos. These passages from the New Testament Scriptures are not, of course, cited to show any dependence of our Hermetic authors on the New Testament writers ; but simply to show how they mutually explain one another. For indeed the doctrine of the New Birth and of the Sacred Marriage was beyond all else the crowning mystery of the Spiritual Way for all the mystic schools of the time.1 2. The secret that Tat would learn is the Mystery of the Birth from the Virgin Womb — the Birth of Man, the Great Mystery of Eegeneration. Many illustrations of the meaning of this pivot-doctrine of the Christian teaching might be quoted from Gnostic writings, but it will be sufficient to remind the reader of what the Jewish Commentator in the Naassene Document (§ 28) has written in contrasting the Great Mysteries (or the heavenly ones) with the Little Mysteries (those of fleshly generation). Speaking of the Mysteries of Eegeneration, he writes :

" For this is the Gate of Heaven, and this is the House of God, where the Good God dwells alone ; into which no impure [man] shall come, but it is kept under guard for the spiritual alone, — where when they come, they must cast away their garments, and all become bridegrooms, obtaining their true manhood, through the Virginal Spirit. For this is the Virgin big with child, conceiving and bearing a Son. And to this the Christian Commentator adds : — " not psychic, not fleshly, but a blessed Mon of JSons." 1 The antiquity of the ideas connected with this spiritual mystery may be seen from what Reitzenstein (pp. 227 ff.) has to say concerning mystic ffwov<rla or congress ; of it, as perhaps of nothing so much in the world, may it be said corruptio optimipessima. The Jewish Commentator uses the language of Philo, who, as we have shown, centred his ideas round the conception of the Sacred Marriage and the Virginal Spirit. So, too, does our treatise. The Womb is Silence, the silence of contemplation, the image of the Great Silence the Mother of the ^Eons in many a Christianized Gnostic System ; the Matter is Wisdom ; the ^Eon's coming to consciousness in man is the Birth of Man the Son of God ; and the Seed is the Good or Logos sown by the Will of the Father. This is the Birth of the Christ in man, the Great Mystery that awaits us when we have made ourselves strangers to the world-illusion.

Is this Son then, asks Tat, other than God ? No, answers Hermes ; it is the Mystery of Sameness, not of Difference ; it is the Pleroma, not the Insufficiency, — " All in all, out of all powers composed," the Common Fruit of the Pleroma, as the Valentinians would have expressed it. It is a Eace, not an individual ; it is We and no longer I.1 This is the Eace of the Logos ; the Self-taught Eace of Philo ; or, as Hermes says : " This Eace, my son, is never taught, but when He willeth it, its memory is restored by God." This is the avd/uLvrja-is of Pythagoras and Plato, — the regaining of the consciousness of the Divine State ; it must be self -perceived. And so Philo tells us : " But as for the Eace of Devotees who are taught ever more and more to see, let them strive for the intuition of That-which-is ; let them transcend the sun which men perceive [and gaze upon the Light beyond, the 1 Compare the Song of tlie Powers in Pistis Sophia (pp. 16, 17), where the " We " alternates with the " I."

True Sun or Logos], nor ever leave this rank which leads to Perfect Blessedness. Now they who betake themselves to the [Divine] Service, [do so] not because of any custom, or some one's advice or appeal, but are carried away by Heavenly Love." * They are of the Eace of Elxai, the Hidden Power or Holy Spirit, the Spouse of lexai, the Hidden Lord or Logos.2 3. Hermes cannot teach to Tat this Birth in words, even as Isis is not permitted to declare it openly to Horus (K. K., 36) : " I may not tell the story of this Birth ; for it is not permitted to describe the origin of thy descent, 0 Horus, son of mighty power, lest afterward the Way-ofBirth of the immortal Gods should be known unto men " — that is, the Mystery of the Birth of Horus. Hermes can only guide Tat towards the realisation of the Blessed Sight, by putting himself into that sublime state of consciousness, so that Tat, so to speak, bathes, or is baptized in, his master's spiritual presence, the Cup of the Mind. This, as we have seen already from several treatises, was the way of transmission of the Power of the powers, the true Laying-on of Hands.

Hermes describes the change that takes place in himself when he passes into the higher spiritual consciousness. He seems to "pass through himself" — to "involve" himself, as it is said somewhere in the Mahabharata of the Eishis — "into a Body that can never die," that is, into a, or rather the, Essential or Cosmic Body,3 that embraces the cosmos within it. The 1 D. V. ft, M. 473, 10 ; P. 891. 2 See D. J. L.t pp. 374, 375. 3 Of. R. 52. But compare especially § 6, and C. H.t iv. (v.) 1. way to do this is not taught, for it cannot be understood from any sensible experience, the outer physical form of the adept remaining as it was before. It is an inner change. The Birth of a Christ is the striking of a new keynote ; everything remains apparently as it was before, but all things receive a new interpretation. No physical sight, even of the greatest intensity, can penetrate the Veil of this Mystery. " Thou seest me with eyes, my son ; but what I am thou dost not understand." With this compare the marvellous Ritual of Initiation in The Acts of John :

" Who I am thou shalt know when I depart.1 What I am seen to be, that am I not ; but what I am, thou shalt see when thou comest." 2 None but those who have reached the Christ-state can know it ; no teaching will avail to explain its manner and its mysteries. It must be realized. 4. But Tat, who has "made himself ready," is becoming quickened by the power of his master. His spiritual senses are being born ; already he is losing touch with the physical; he no longer sees himself. But this is not enough ; he must not only be able to lose consciousness of his physical body, and see and hear as though with the mind alone, but he must "invert" himself, pass right through himself, and no longer see things as without him, but all things as within him. All this is a New Creation to be accomplished in the man himself. The Author or Genesiurge of Ee-birth, as 1 That is, when the Presence is withdrawn, — by contrast. 2 Texts and Studies, V. i. 14. contrasted with the Maker or Demiurge of Birth, is the One Man, the Logos, the Energic Reason and Will of God ; the one is the Creator of the Immortal Body, the other is the Maker of the mortal frame.

5. The reading of the next sentence is faulty, and it is impossible to extract the correct meaning. The "Greatness" (TO ueyeOoi) and "distinctive form" (yapaKTYip) are terms familiar enough to us in Christian Gnostic writings.1 Greatness connotes the same idea as Mon ; " character " or " distinctive form " or " rank " is generally the impression from a typical original, and here stands for the form by which a man is recognised. 6. Hermes then proceeds to describe the nature of this Greatness or Mon, or Sameness, manifested in difference. It is, alchemically speaking, the One Element, which can only be comprehended by one Born in God — that is, by a God. 7. The way of this Birth is then described as a de-energizing, or throwing out of work of the body's senses, with a corresponding energizing of the One Sense, the Momc Consciousness ; or as a purging out of 1 The term "Greatness," however, is probably of Egyptian derivation. In the Papyrus Insinger, written somewhere during the last half of the first century B.C. and first half of the first century A.D., according to Spiegelberg, God's Wisdom and Providence are praised (coll. xxxv., xxxvi.). The superscription of this section runs : " The Four-and-Twentieth Teaching : The Instruction : Learn the Greatness of God, that thou mayest let it come into thine heart " (xxxv. 17) ; and later on : " He knoweth the Blasphemer who thinketh wickedness, He knoweth the Pious with the Greatness of God in his heart. The tongue, before even it is questioned — its words God knoweth " (xxxvi. 3-5). This is further explained by the sentence : " Thoth is heart and tongue of the Pious ; lo ! his house is God ! " (xxxv. 19). R. 237.

the tendencies of the lower nature, and replacing them by the energies of the Divine Powers. This is the Mystery of Kepentance (pera-vola), not a change of mind only, but a change throughout the whole nature ; all things in the man turn towards God. The forces or energies of the soul have no direction in themselves ; it is the will of man that can turn them " downwards " or " upwards," so that they become vices or virtues. 8., But not only does Hermes set forth a formal exposition of this Eepentance in terms of the conquest and driving out of the Horde of Vices by the Company of Virtues, but at the same time he performs an efficacious theurgic rite of invocation whereby he enables Tat to realize the instruction in immediate experience. The Virtues that Hermes invokes are not abstractions, but definite substantial powers ; they are, in fact, the " filling up " of Tat's " insufficiency " ; in other words, they are what the Christian Gnostics would have called the ^Eons of the Pleroma. Behind all there is a definite scheme of numbering. There is a Twelve and a Ten and a Seven and a Three and a One.

The Torments of the Darkness are the Twelve ; they are not torments in themselves, but only for him who is in Error. They are Twelve yet are they one, for though they are " pantomorph " or " omniform," yet are they of one nature; the Twelve are thus conditioned by the main irrational "types of life," or animal natures, — the so-called zodiac. These divisions are not, however, fundamental, they are solely for man's delusion or error ; in action they are one — that is, they keep man in Error or Ignorance. Thus they can be regarded as one, or two, or three, or four, or six ; and so combined and recombined. Twelve, then, is the nature of the " animal soul " in man — the number of his going-forth into externality. This out-going is arrested when man repents, and turns himself to return, to go within; the cosmogonical is transformed by the soteriological ; the "enformation according to substance " gives place to the " enformation according to gnosis." As Ignorance characterized the Twelve, so does Gnosis characterize the Ten, the Perfect Number or Number of Perfection. The Going-forth was that of the multiplication of species — Twelve (3x4 or 2x6); the Eeturn is Ten, that is the Seven and the Three ; and Seven is addition (3 + 4) and not multiplication.

Multiplication seems here to mean the generation, by two parents, of things of the same kind and power; while addition signifies the intensification of the same nature to a higher power. The Ten is " that which giveth birth to souls " — that is, human souls ; and not only human souls, but, in its consummation, to divine souls. It may, perhaps, be of interest here to set down simple lists of the vices and virtues as given in our treatise, and to append to them the list of vices in C. H., i. 24 and 26. 1. Not-knowing. 1. Gnosis. 2. Grief. 2. Joy. 3. Intemperance. 3. Self-control. 4. Concupiscence. 4. Continence. 5. Unrighteousness. 5. Eighteousness. 6. Avarice. 6. Sharing-with-all. 7. Error. 7. Truth. 9. Guile. 8. The Good. 10. Anger. 9. Life. 11. Eashness. 10. Light. 1. Growth and Waning. First Zone. 2. Device of Evils. Second Zone. 3. Guile of the Desires. Third Zone. 4. Arrogance. Fourth Zone. 5. Daring and Rashness. Fifth Zone. 6. Getting Wealth. Sixth Zone. 7. Falsehood. Seventh Zone. 9. The Powers in a band. Ninth. 10. The Father. Tenth. It is at once seen that the first seven virtues are arranged so as to be the direct antitheses of the first seven vices. The root of the Twelve is Ignorance ; indeed, all the Twelve are permutations of Ignorance. They seem to be twelve, whereas they are but one in nature ; again, not only are they twelve, but manifold

Thus, for instance, Eashness and Wrath or Anger are but one, and so of the rest ; the permutations are infinite. This may be seen from the septenary classification in " The Shepherd " treatise, where we have : Guile of the Desires (3), a combination of Guile (9) and Desire or Concupiscence (4) ; Device of Evils (2), a combination of Guile (9) and Malice (12) ; Unholy Daring and Eashness (5), a combination of Unrighteousness (5) and Eashness (11) ; Getting Wealth by evil means (6), a combination of Guile (9) and Avarice (6). So also just as Anger (10) and Eashness (11) are one, so are Envy (8) and Avarice (6) but aspects of the same thing ; and so again Intemperance (3) and Concupiscence or Desire (4), Grief (2) and Ignorance (1), etc. All are summed up in Ignorance, or Error, just as the seven virtues are summed up in Gnosis or Truth.1 And just as Ignorance is the source of vice, so is Knowledge or Gnosis the beginning of Truth. Gnosis is not the end but the beginning of the Path, the end of it is God or the Good. The difference between the " Poemandres " arrangement and the categories of our treatise is conditioned by the fact that in the former the process of transformation in the case of a good man after death is described, whereas in the latter the Way of Rebirth in a living man is set forth.

That the Virtues (and Vices, therefore) were categorized according to the fundamental numbers of the Gnosis may be seen in most systems of Christian Gnostic aeonology ; indeed, it was a common plan of the general Gnostic theosophy of the time. In our treatise we have set forth the manner of the immediate practical ethical realization of what might be taken by a superficial student of Gnostic seonology as an empty schematology of purely metaphysical abstractions.2 These things, however, meant everything to the Gnostic; they were fullnesses — no abstractions, but transcendent realities. So also in the Shepherd of Hermas (Vis. iii. 8, 7), just as in our treatise, we are presented with the Vision of a Band of seven Women, each the mother of the next, seven Virtues, called : Faith, Continence, Simplicity, Freedom-from-malice, Seriousness, Gnosis (eTaem}/*^), Love. And not only do we have the Seven, but also the 1 Cf. P. S. A., xxix. 2. 2 The usual way, indeed, in which it is taken. Twelve, twelve Maidens (Sim. xv. 1-3): Faith, Continence, Power, Long-suffering, Simplicity, Freedomfrom-malice, Chastity, Joyfulness, Truth, Understanding, Concord, Love. To these are opposed twelve Women in dark robes : Infidelity, Incontinence, Disobedience, Error, Grief, Depravity, Wantonness, Quickness-to-wrath, Falsehood, Folly, Slander, Hate.

Zosimus also speaks of the Twelve Fates (Moi/oat) of Death, and associates them with the Passions.1 But, indeed, the subject is infinite, for it is the consummation of all right endeavour and all true progress in humanity. We must, then, leave it for the present, to avoid running to too great length in these comments. Sufficient for the moment to point to the fact that the Ten is not only the Wedding Garment of Purity, but also the Eobe of Power or Glory. In its consummation also it is the Garment of the Christ, the One Eobe without seam throughout, for the Ten contains the One, and the One contains the Ten. 13. The result of this Potent Invocation of the Powers, —that is to say, the realization of the full meaning of the sacred rite which consummates itself in the consciousness of Hermes, and so communicates itself in some measure to Tat,2 — is that Tat begins to " see " ; "I see the All, I see myself in Mind." " In heaven am I, in earth, in water, air ; I am in animals, in plants ; I'm in the womb, before the womb, after the womb, — I'm everywhere " (§ 11).

Compare this with G. H., xi. (xii.) 22, where Hermes is himself being taught by Mind : " Collect into thyself all senses of all creatures, — of 1 Berthelot, 244 ; R. 214. 2 Cf. G. H., i. 7 ; xi. (ixi.) 6. fire, and water, dry and moist. Think that thou art at the same time in every place, in earth, in sea, in sky ; not yet begotten, in the womb, young, old and dead, in after-death conditions." This is, as we have seen, a pure Egyptian formula, and connotes the opening of the " cosmic consciousness/' This consciousness, whatever else it may be, is a transcending of our three-dimensional limitation of consciousness,— that of the "body's view-point, — a thing three ways in space extended." THE Vow OF SILENCE The mystery of this New Birth in consciousness is to be kept secret; therefore Hermes has not commented on it, presumably in the Expository Sermons ; moreover, it must even now be kept secret (§ 22), and therefore is the treatise a Secret Sermon. The reason for this is given both here and in § 22 : " That we may not be thought to be calumniators" (8id/3o\ot), by the Many or Unknowing. What may be the precise meaning of this phrase I do not know, and can only speculate.

Those who had reached the full grade of Hermes are to keep silence on their " virtue " or power (§ 22) ; they were never to boast of their Gnosis. If they did, it would only bring the G-nosis into contempt ; for they would still appear as ordinary men, would probably often say and do things, when they were not in the higher state of consciousness, which fell below the standard of their high ideals, and so they would be slanderers or calumniators of the Gnosis before the world. 14. The New Birth is further characterized as the Essential Birth (>} ova-Mrjg yeW*?) ; it was the birth of the Essential Man, the God, Son of the One, to which other treatises refer.1 15. Tat now desires to hear the Praise-giving of the Powers, which only those can sing who have reached the stage called Eighth, or the Ogdoad; this is the state above the Harmony or the Hebdomad of Fate (C. H., i. 26). The man is now free and no longer a slave. It is the power of prophetic hymnody, for the man now hears the True Harmony of things and is above the Concatenation of Difference ; it is the state " that keeps the soul in tune." He who has reached this height can ever sing in tune ; it is the state of the Hearer of the Eternal Praise-giving, and those who reach it can express it infinitely, each in his own fashion.

The idea of the Ogdoad is represented in many a Christian Gnostic system, especially in the Valentinian tradition, which has many Egyptian elements in it. So we read in the Excerpts from Theodotus appended to the writings of Clement of Alexandria: " Him whom the Mother 2 brings to birth, she leadeth unto Death and to the world ; but him whom Christ brings to rebirth, He change th into Life, unto the Ogdoad."3 Many were the names given to the Ogdoad by the Christian Gnostics, — such as the Jerusalem Above, Wisdom, the Land flowing with milk and honey, the Holy Spirit, the Land of the Lord, the Mesotes. These terms were, however, with the exception of the last, Jewish synonyms; the term Ogdoad itself 1 Cf. P. 8. A., vii. 2. 2 Sc. the Lower Mother, Nature. 3 Exx. ex Theodot., § 80 (ed. Dindorf, iii. 453). was in all probability Egyptian. Thus in one of the Magic Papyri we read : "Having known the power of the book, thou shalt hide it, my son. For in it there is stored the Authentic Name, which is the Name Ogdoad, — He who doth order and doth regulate all things." l

16. The Hymn that follows is to be kept secret — that is to say, it is to be taken by Tat as an example of the form of prayer he is now to use in his private devotions, and is therefore probably intended to replace some other form of prayer which he had hitherto been using, as was the custom in such communities. The instruction to use it at sunset and sunrise, in the open air, reminds us of the appended passages to " The Shepherd " treatise, where we read (§ 29) : "And when even was come and all sun's beams began to set, I bade them all give thanks to God." 2 Compare also what Philo tells us of the Therapeuts : " Twice a day, at dawn and even, they are accustomed to offer up prayers; as the sun rises praying for the sunshine, the real Sunshine, that their minds may be filled with Heavenly Light, and as it sets praying that their soul, completely lightened of the lust of the senses and sensations, may withdraw to its own Congregation and Council-chamber, there to track out Truth." 3 So also Apollonius of Tyana is said to have prayed and meditated three times a day : at daybreak (Phil., V. A., vi. 10, 18 ; vii. 31), at mid-day (vii. 10), and at

1 Leyden Papyrus W. 8., 139, 45 (Leemans) ; cf. also ibid., 141, 5 ; R. 54. For further comments on the Ogdoad, see Commentary on C. if., i. 26. 2 Of. also P. 8. A., xli. 1. s D. V. a, M. ii. 475 ; P. 893. sundown (viii. 13); and with regard to "keeping silence on their virtue," we are told of the Later Pythagoreans, of whom he was so conspicuous an example : " In particular they kept the rule of silence regarding the Divine Service [that is, the Gnosis]. For they heard within them many Divine and unspeakable things on which it would have been difficult for them to keep silence, had they not first learned that it was just this Silence which spoke to them " (i. I).1 And so the Hymn has to be heard in silence; all earthly sounds must be stilled for the Heavenly Harmony to be heard. 17. It is to be noticed that in four out of the five MSS. the title "Secret Hymnody" is followed by the indication " Logos IV." Eeitzenstein (p. 345, n. 21) thinks that the three prior " Logoi " were : I. "Holy art Thou, 0 God"— C. H., i. 31, 32.

II. " The Glory of all things is God "— 0. H., iii. (iv.). III. " Whither stumble ye, sots ? "—0. H.y vii. (viii.). The latter two, however, are not hymns; the only other hymn in our Corpus being : " Who then may sing Thee praise of Thee ? "—(7. H.y v. (vi.) 10, 11. Our Hymn is a Hymn to the Sun, it is true, but to the Spiritual Sun, not the physical orb of day. It is to the Eye of Mind that these orisons are addressed — to the All-seeing Light. Nor is this Eulogy a formal Te Deum, but a potent theurgic Praise-giving. All nature is to thrill with the joy of this thankfulness. Most beautiful is this Song of Praise, all of it, but we would specially call attention to the words : 1 See my Apollonius of Tyana, pp. 123 and 120. " Thy Reason sings through me Thy praises. Take back through me the All into Thy Reason — my reasonable oblation * ! From Thee Thy Will ; to Thee the All ! " The Outbreathing of the Universe through the Reason or Logos 2 is the manifestation or realisation of the Will of God. The Logos is Son, Will is Mother and God Father.

The Inbreathing of the Universe is through Man (" Thy Man thus cries to Thee," § 20) : " Take back through Me the All." This is accomplished in the first instance by the sacrifice of the reason, of man's small limited reason, to the Great Reason of things. And yet the All, the Universe itself, is not something other than God ; it is all God. " From Thee Thy Will " ; Thou art the Source of all. " To Thee the All"; Thou art the End of all, the Desirable One, The Good. Compare with this the Hymn in the Jewish deposit of the Naassene Document : " From Thee is Father, and Through Thee Mother, — the two Immortal Names, Parents of ^Eons, 0 Thou who hast the Heaven for thy City, 0 Man of Mighty Names ! " Also notice : " The All that is in us, 0 Life, preserve ; 0 Light, illumine it ; 0 God, in-spirit it ! " And compare it with § 12, where we are told : " While Life and Light are unified there, where the One hath being from the Spirit." 1 Of. 1 Pet. ii. 5 : "Ye also as living stones are built up, a spiritual house for holy service, to offer up spiritual oblations acceptable to God through Jesus Christ," And also Rom. xii. 1 : " I beseech you, therefore, brethren, to present your bodies as a living oblation, holy, well-pleasing unto God, — your reasonable service."

2 Hesychius in his Lexicon defines Logos as the "Cause of Activity," or that which underlies action, — y rov Spd/j.a.ros The Prayer is for the Baptism of Light — Illumination by the Gnosis l ; this was the Dowsing in the Mind of " The Cup " treatise, even as true Baptism in primitive Christianity was called Illumination or ^omovAoV 21. Tat now feels himself impelled to utter praises himself. He says what he feels. His master has given him the impulse, has made the conditions for him whereby he is conceived as a Child of God, a Prophet. But as yet he is not grown into the stature of a true Seer. His higher nature has received the germ, but this must have time to develop, and only gradually will its power descend into his lower mind. At present his thankfulness is poured forth to his master, who has performed the theurgic rite of initiation (" All things have been perfected ") for him. But Hermes restrains him ; it is not to the master that his thanks are due, but to God. And if he cannot as yet give thanks direct to God, then let him send those thanks — "acceptable oblations" — to God "Through the Word."

And that this was and is the practice of universal Christendom requires no pointing out; — the most striking parallel to the wording of our treatise being 1 Pet. ii. 5 : " Spiritual oblations acceptable to God through Jesus Christ." Tat has now passed from the rank of Hearer to that of Knower ; he is now a true Gnostic : " Thou hast become a Knower of thyself, and of our Sire." Compare logos 2 of the latest found Sayings at Oxyrhynchus : 1 Compare yviaa-is ayia, <JHi>Ti<rQth avit <rov (§ 18) ; 0wTi£e <f>d>s (§ 19) ; d vovs (§ 21). "(Strive therefore?) to know yourselves, and ye shall know ye are Sons of the (almighty?) Father; (and?) ye shall know that ye are in (the City of God?1), and ye are (the City?2)." 1 Sc. the Ogdoad. 2 Cf. 1. Pet. ii. 5 : "Ye are built up as living stones, a spiritual house for service." (Text: P. 128-134; Pat. 49, 50.) 1. SINCE in thy absence my son Tat desired to learn the nature of the things that are, and would not let me hold it over, as [natural to] a younger son fresh come to gnosis of the [teachings] on each single point, — I was compelled to tell [him] more, in order that the contemplation2 [of them] might be the easier for him to follow.

1 el (ppovt'iv. I do not know the exact meaning of this expression. Everard translates "to be truly wise " ; Parthey, " rede sapere" following Patrizzi ; Menard, " sagesse " ; Chambers, "to be rightly wise." I would suggest that €<5 Qpovtlv was the form used among these disciples of the Inner Way for the usual xaipeiv. Instead of wishing one another happiness, they wished each other wisdom, good thought, right thinking, good health of soul. I would, then, choosing out the chiefest heads of what was said, write them in brief to thee, explaining them more mystic-ly,1 as unto one of greater age and one well versed in Nature. 2. If all things manifest have been and are being made, and made things are not made by their own selves but by another ; [if] made things are the many, — nay more, are all things manifest and all things different and not alike ; and things that are being made are being made by other [than themselves] ; — there is some one who makes these things ; and He cannot be made, but is more ancient than the things that can. For things that can be made, I say, are made by other [than themselves] ; but of the things that owe their being to their being made, it is impossible that anything should be more ancient than them all, save only That which is not able to be made.

3. So He is both Supreme, and One, and Only, the truly wise in all, as having naught more ancient [than Himself]. For He doth rule o'er both the number, size and difference of things that are being made, and o'er the continuity of their making [too]. Again, things makeable are seeable; but He cannot be seen. 1 That is to say, more fully and profoundly, as to one more advanced in the mystic science. For for this cause He rnaketh, — that He may not be able to be seen. He, therefore, ever maketh l ; and therefore can He ne'er be seen. To comprehend Him thus is meet ; and comprehending, [it is meet] to marvel; and marvelling, to count oneself as blessed, as having learnt to know one's Sire. 4. For what is sweeter than one's own true Sire ? Who, then, is He ; and how shall we learn how to know Him ? Is it not right to dedicate to Him alone the name of God, or that of Maker, or of Father, or rather [all] the three ; — God for His Power, and Maker for His Energy, and Father for His Good? Now Power doth differ from the things which are being made ; while Energy consisteth in all things being made.

Wherefore we ought to put away verbosity and foolish talk, and understand these two — the made and Maker. For that of them there is no middle [term] ; there is no third. 5. Wherefore in all that thou conceivest, in all thou nearest, these two recall to mind ; and think all things are they, reckoning as doubtful naught, nor of the things above, nor of the things below, neither of things divine, nor things 1 Cf. C. H., xvi is. that suffer change or things that are in obscuration.1 For all things are [these] twain, Maker and made, and 'tis impossible that one should be without the other ; for neither is it possible that " Maker " should exist without the " made," for each of them is one and the same thing. Wherefore 'tis no more possible for one from other to be parted, than self from self. 6. Now if the Maker is naught else but That which makes, Alone, Simple, Uncompound, it needs must do this [making] to Itself, — to Which its Maker's making is " its being made." And as to all that's being made, — it cannot be 1 ruv 4v pvxv- I do not know what is the exact meaning of this expression. Everard translates " things that are in darkness or secret " ; Parthey, " qua sunt in dbdito " ; Me"nard, " dans Us profondeurs " ; Chambers, " those in secrecy." I suggest that the technical term juux<k, signifying generally a shut-in or locked-up place (conclave, as Damascius translates it), is to be referred, along the line of Platonic and Pythagorean tradition, to Pherecydes. Porphyry (De Antro Nymph., c. 31) tells us that the synonyms "/*ux<>£ (chambers?), recesses (or pits), caverns, doors, gates" were used by Pherecydes as symbolical expressions to signify " the geneses and apogeneses of souls," whatever these terms may mean exactly. The "birth" and "decease" of a soul, in this connection, presumably mean its coming into the world of genesis out of the womb of the World-soul, and its reception back again into the bosom of the great Mother. If this be so, our text would seem to indicate that things are in two states, — in a state of change (that is, in the active condition), and again in a passive condition, in the state which Indian philosophers call laya or pralaya. See for the pvxoi of Pherecydes Sturz's Pherecydis Fragmenta, pp. 43 ff. (Leipzig, 1824).

[so made] by being made by its own self ; but it must needs be made by being made by other. Without the "Maker" "made" is neither made nor is ; for that the one without the other doth lose its proper nature by deprivation of that other. If,1 then, all things have been admitted to be two, — the " that which is being made " and " that which makes," — [all then] are one in union of these, — the " that which leadeth " and the " that which folio weth." The making God is " that which leadeth " ; the " that which is being made," whatever it be, the "that which followeth." 7. And do not thou be chary of things made because of their variety, from fear of attribution of a low estate and lack of glory unto God. For that His Glory's one, — to make all things ; and this is as it were God's Body, — the making [of them].2 But by the Maker's self naught is there thought or bad or base. These things are passions which accompany the making process, as rust doth brass and filth doth body; but neither doth the brass-smith

1 From here to the end of the sermon, with the exception of the final sentences of § 7 and § 10, and the third sentence of § 9, and with a few very slight verbal variants, is quoted by Cyril, Gontra Julianum, ii. 64 (Migne, col. 598 D). 2 Cf. C. H., xvi. 18. make the rust, nor the begetters of the body filth, nor God [make] evil. It is continuance in the state of being made l that makes them lose, as though it were, their bloom ; and 'tis because of this God hath made change, as though it were the making clean of genesis. 8. Is it, then, possible for one and the same painter man to make both heaven, and gods, and earth, and sea, and men, and all the animals, and lifeless things, and trees, and yet impossible for God to make all things ? What monstraus lack of understanding ; what want of knowledge as to God ! 1 For such the strangest lot of all do suffer ; for though they say they worship piously and sing the praise of God, yet by their not ascribing unto Him the making of all things, they know not God ; and, added unto this not-knowing, they're guilty even of the worst impiety to Him — passions to Him attributing, or arrogance, or im potency.

For if He doth not make all things, from arrogance He doth not make, or not being able, — which is impiety [to think]. 9. One Passion hath God only — Good ; and He who's Good, is neither arrogant nor impotent. For this is God — the Good, which hath all power of making all. And all that can be made is made by God, — that is, by [Him who is] the Good and who can make all things.1 But would'st thou learn how He doth make, and how things made are made, thou may'st do so. 10. Behold a very fair and most resemblant image — a husbandman casting the seed into the ground; here wheat, there barley, and there [again] some other of the seeds ! Behold one and the same man planting the vine, the apple, and [all] other trees ! In just the selfsame way doth God sow Immortality in Heaven, and Change on Earth, and Life and Motion in the universe. These are not many, but few and easy to be numbered ; for four in all are they, — and God Himself and Genesis, in whom are all that are. Fabricius, in his BiUiotJieca G-rceca? says that the title should be " On the Nature of the All," and that he has recovered it from Cyril, C. Jul., ii., but I cannot verify this statement.

The form of this treatise is different from any of the 1 This sentence, which appears to be very tautological, is omitted by Cyril. 2 Ed. Harles (4th ed.), vol. i. lib. i. cap. vii. preceding, being that of a letter. It evidently belongs to the Asclepius-Tat type of tradition, as in G. ff., x. (xi.) : " My yesterday's discourse I did devote to thee, Asclepius, and so 'tis only right I should devote to-day's to Tat." The distinction drawn between Tat and Asclepius is of interest; Tat is the younger, — who has only "just come to Gnosis of the teaching on each single point." Can this mean that he has only just been permitted to share in the " Expository Sermons " or " Detailed Discourses " ? It is probable, for C. H., x. (xi.) 1, continues : " And this the more because 'tis the abridgment (epitome) of the General Sermons which he has had addressed to him." Asclepius is older, and already eTrio-Ttjimcw r?? (ftvcrewg — well- versed in the study of Nature. What may be the exact significance underlying these personifications it is very difficult to say ; but the same facts, whatever they may have been, are clearly referred to in K K. (Stob., Eel, i. 49 ; p. 386, 24 W.) ; especially the later accession of " Asclepius " to the School, -and the fact that " Tat," because of his too great "youth," could not have handed on to him the tradition of the complete or all-perfect contemplation (6\oT€\t]9 Oewpia) — that is, of the mathesis or gnosis, or, in other words, the "learning of the things that are, the contemplating of their nature and the knowing God" (C. H., i. 3) ; or the " being taught the nature of the all and the Supreme Vision " (ibid., 27).

This view of the tradition of the School seems to clash entirely with the other view set forth in C. H.y xiii. (xiv.), where Tat has handed on to him the " manner of Kebirth," but a probable explanation has already been attempted in the "Prolegomena," chap, xvi. : " The Disciples of Thrice-greatest Hermes." COMPARE WITH "MiND UNTO HERMES" The treatise itself requires little commentary; the similarity of its doctrine, however, with that of the "Mind unto Hermes" is remarkable. For instance, compare the last sentence of § 7 of our treatise with C. H., xi. (xii.) 14 : " For that indeed He hath no other one to share in what He works, for working by Himself, He ever is at work, Himself being what He doth." Compare also the first sentence of § 8 with C. H., xi. (xii.) 20 : " Behold what power, what swiftness thou dost have ! And canst thou do all of these things, and God not do them ? " With the Good Husbandman " image " (§ 10) compare : " Come unto me, Good Husbandman, Good Daimon, Harpocrates, Chnouphis . . . who rollest down the stream of Nilus,1 and minglest with the Sea ... as man with woman."2

And in the Alchemical literature : "[Come then], and coming contemplate, enquire of Acharantus (?), the Husbandman, and learn of Him, what is it that is sown, and what that which is reaped ; and thou shalt learn that he who soweth corn shall reap corn also, and he who soweth barley shall in like manner reap barley." 3 So also Zosimus in the " Book Concerning the Logos " : " And that I tell thee truth, I call to witness Hermes, when he says : Go unto Achaab (?), the Husbandman, and thou shalt learn that he who soweth corn gives birth to corn." 4 1 The Heavenly River of fructifying essence. 2 Abhandl. d. Berl Akad. (1865), p. 120, 26 ; R. 143. 3 Berthelot, p. 30. 4 Berthelot, p. 89. (Text : R. 348-354 ; Pat. at end.1) 1. GREAT is the sermon (logos) which I send to thee, 0 King — the summing up and digest, as it were, of all the rest. For it is not composed to suit the many's prejudice, since it contains much that refuteth them. Nay, it will seem to thee as well to contradict sometimes my sermons too. Hermes, my master, in many a conversation, both when alone, and sometimes, too, when Tat was there, has said, that unto those who come across my books, their composition will seem most simple and [most] clear ; but, on the contrary, as 'tis unclear, and has the [inner]

1 At the end after P^S. A., but the pages are unnumbered. 266 meaning of its words concealed, it will be still unclearer, when, afterwards, the Greeks will want to turn our tongue into their own, — for this will be a very great distorting and obscuring of [even] what has been [already] written. 2. Turned into our own native tongue,1 the sermon (logos) keepeth clear the meaning2 of the words (logoi) [at any rate]. For that its very quality of sound, the [very] power of the Egyptian names, have in themselves the bringing into act of what is said. As far as, then, thou canst, 0 King — (and thou canst [do] all things) — keep [this] our sermon from translation ; in order that such mighty mysteries may not come to the Greeks, and the disdainful speech of Greece, with [all] its looseness, and its surface beauty,3 so to speak, take all the strength out of4 the solemn and the strong — the energetic 5 speech of Names. The Greeks, 0 King, have novel words, energic of " argumentation " [only] ; and thus is the philosophizing of the Greeks — the noise of words. But we do not use words ; but we use sounds full-filled with deeds.

1 This presumably means from the hieroglyphic into the demotic — rrj Trarpcpa 8ia\fKTca ep/tTjpev^uei/os. 2 Lit. the mind. 3 Or, perhaps, smartness. 4 Make jejune, so to say — ^irij\ov TTO^O-T?. 5 That is, " words of power," words that do things. 3. Thus, then, will I begin the sermon by invocation unto God, the universals' Lord and Maker, [their] Sire, and [their] Encompasser; who though being All is One,1 and though being One is All ; for that the Fullness of all things is One, and [is] in One, this latter One not coming as a second [One], but both being One. And this is the idea 2 that I would have thee keep, through the whole study of our sermon, Sire! For should one try to separate what seems to be both All and One and Same from One,— he will be found to take 3 his epithet of " All " from [the idea of] multitude, and not from [that of) fullness * — which is impossible ; for if he part All from the One, he will destroy the All.5 For all things must be One — if they indeed are One. Yea, they are One; and they shall never cease being One — in order that the Fullness may not be destroyed.

4. See then in Earth a host of founts of Water and of Fire forth-spirting in its midmost parts ; in one and the same [space all] the three 1 Cf. R. 127, 3 ; and P. 8. A., i. 1. 2 Lit. mind. 3 The construction is very elliptical ; &8€(c£/iej'05 simply. 4 That is, completeness, perfection, — ir\-np&iJ.a.Tos. 5 Cf. Plato, Soph., 259 D, B. natures visible — of Fire, and Water, and of Earth, depending from one Root.1 Whence, too, it 2 is believed to be the Treasury 3 of every matter. It sendeth forth of its 4 abundance, and in the place [of what it sendeth forth] receiveth the subsistence from above.5 For thus the Demiurge6 — I mean the Sun — eternally doth order Heaven and Earth, pouring down Essence,7 and taking Matter up, drawing both round Himself and to Himself all things, and from Himself giving all things to all. For He it is whose goodly energies extend not only through the Heaven and the Air, but also onto Earth, right down unto the lowest Depth and the Abyss. 6. And if there be an Essence which the mind alone can grasp,8 this is his Substance,9 the reservoir10 of which would be His Light.