{"collection":"Gnosticism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/gno/th2/th237.htm","path":"gno/th2/th237.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/gno/th2/th237.htm","text":"Thrice-Greatest Hermes, Vol. 2, by G.R.S. Mead, [1906]\n(Text: The Greek original is lost, and only a Latin version remains to us. I use the text of Hildebrand (G. F.), L. Apuleii Opera Omnia ex Fide Optimorum Codicum (Leipzig, 1842), Pars II., pp. 279-334; but have very occasionally preferred the text in Patrizzi\u2019s Nova de Universis Philosophia (Venice, 1593), or of the Bipontine edition of Appuleius, Lucii Apuleji Madaurensis Platonici Philosophi Opera (Biponti, 1788), pp. 285-325.)\n1. 1 [I. M. 2] [Trismegistus.] God, O Asclepius, hath brought thee unto us that thou mayest hear a Godly sermon, 3 a sermon such as well may seem of all the previous ones we\u2019ve [either] uttered, or with which we\u2019ve been inspired by the Divine, more Godly than the piety of [ordinary] faith.\nIf thou with eye of intellect 1 shalt see this Word 2 thou shalt in thy whole mind be filled quite full of all things good.\nIf that, indeed, the \u201cmany\u201d be the \u201cgood,\u201d and not the \u201cone,\u201d in which are \u201call.\u201d Indeed the difference between the two is found in their agreement,\u2014\u201cAll\u201d is of \u201cOne\u201d 3 or \u201cOne\u201d is \u201cAll.\u201d So closely bound is each to other, that neither can be parted from its mate.\nBut this with diligent attention shalt thou learn from out the sermon that shall follow [this].\nBut do thou, O Asclepius, go forth a moment and call in the one who is to hear. 4\n(And when he had come in, Asclepius proposed that Ammon too should be allowed to come. Thereon Thrice-greatest said:)\n[Tris.] There is no cause why Ammon should be kept away from us. For we remember how we have ourselves set down in writing many things to his address, 5 as though unto a son most dear and most beloved, of physics many things, of ethics [too] as many as could be.\nIt is, however, with thy name I will inscribe this treatise.\nBut call, I prithee, no one else but Ammon, lest a most pious sermon on a so great theme be spoilt by the admission of the multitude.\nFor \u2019tis the mark of an unpious mind to publish to the knowledge of the crowd a tractate brimming o\u2019er with the full Greatness of Divinity.\n(When Ammon too had come within the holy place, and when the sacred group of four was now complete with piety and with God\u2019s goodly presence\u2014to them, sunk in fit silence reverently, their souls and minds pendent on Hermes\u2019 lips, thus Love 1 Divine began to speak.)\n1. [Tris.] The soul of every man, O [my] Asclepius, is deathless; yet not all in like fashion, but some in one way or [one] time, some in another.\nAsc. Is not, then, O Thrice-greatest one, each soul of one [and the same] quality?\nTris. How quickly hast thou fallen, O Asclepius, from reason\u2019s true sobriety!\nDid not I say that \u201cAll\u201d is \u201cOne,\u201d and \u201cOne\u201d is \u201cAll,\u201d 2 in as much as all things have\nbeen in the Creator before they were created. Nor is He called unfitly \u201cAll,\u201d in that His members are the \u201cAll.\u201d\nTherefore, in all this argument, see that thou keep in mind Him who is \u201cOne\u201d-\u201cAll,\u201d or who Himself is maker of the \u201cAll.\u201d\n2. All things descend from Heaven to Earth, to Water and to Air.\n\u2019Tis Fire alone, in that it is borne upwards, giveth life; that which [is carried] downwards [is] subservient to Fire.\nFurther, whatever doth descend from the above, begetteth; what floweth upwards, nourisheth.\n\u2019Tis Earth alone, in that it resteth on itself, that is Receiver of all things, and [also] the Restorer of all genera that it receives.\nThis Whole, 1 therefore, as thou rememberest, 2 in that it is of all,\u2014in other words, all things, embraced by nature under \u201cSoul\u201d and \u201cWorld,\u201d 3 are in [perpetual] flux, so varied by the multiform equality of all their forms, that countless kinds of well-distinguished qualities may be discerned, yet with this bond of union, that all should seem as One, and from \u201cOne\u201d \u201cAll.\u201d 4\n1. That, then, from which the whole Cosmos is formed, consisteth of Four Elements\u2014Fire, Water, Earth, and Air; Cosmos [itself is] one, [its] Soul [is] one, and God is one.\nNow lend to me the whole of thee, 1\u2014all that thou can\u2019st in mind, all that thou skill\u2019st in penetration.\nFor that the Reason 2 of Divinity may not be known except by an intention of the senses like to it. 3\n\u2019Tis 4 likest to the torrent\u2019s flood, down-dashing headlong from above with all-devouring tide; so that it comes about, that by the swiftness of its speed it is too quick for our attention, not only for the hearers, but also for the very teachers. 5\n307:1 I have added numbers to the paragraphs for greater convenience of reference.\n307:2 M\u00e9nard has divided the treatise into fifteen parts, which I have thus distinguished; the numbering of the chapters are those usually found.\n307:3 Or, a sermon about the Gods.\n308:1 Intelligens.\n308:2 Reason or sermon or logos; cf. iii. and below: \u201cFor that the Reason,\u201d etc.\n308:3 But ii. 1, referring again to this idea, has the reading: \u201c\u2018All\u2019 is \u2018One.\u2019\u201d Cf. C. H., xvi. 3; and also xx. 2 below.\n308:4 This, as we shall see later on, is Tat. See xxxii. below.\n308:5 Lit. to his name.\n309:1 Cupido; without doubt Er\u014ds in the lost original; cf. xxi. 1 below; and Frag. xviii.\n309:2 This, as we have already noted, is a variant of the reading in i., where we find \u201comnia unius esse\u201d (\u201call\u201d is of \u201cone\u201d) and not \u201comnia unum esse\u201d (\u201call\u201d is \u201cone\u201d).\n310:1 Sc. the Cosmos.\n310:2 Presumably from some previous sermon.\n310:3 That is, Cosmos.\n310:4 The Latin of this paragraph is very obscure.\n311:1 Cf. C. H., xi. (xii.) 15: \u201cGive thou thyself to Me, My Hermes, for a little while.\u201d\n311:2 Ratio\u2014that is, Logos.\n311:3 Lit. divine\u2014that is, by a concentration like to the singleness of the Godhead.\n311:4 That is, \u201cThis Reason is.\u201d\n311:5 \u201cQuo efficitur ut intentionem nostram . . . celeri velocitate praetereat.\u201d Compare with this the description of the instruction of the Therapeuts in Philo\u2019s famous tractate, De Vita Contemplativa, 901 P., 483 M.\u2014Conybeare\u2019s text, p. 117 (Oxford; 1895): \u201cFor when in giving an interpretation, one continues to speak rapidly without pausing for breath, the mind of the hearers is left behind, unable to keep up the pace\u201d\u2014\u1f41 \u03c4\u1ff6\u03bd \u1f00\u03ba\u03c1\u03bf\u03c9\u03bc\u03ad\u03bd\u03c9\u03bd \u03bd\u03bf\u1fe6\u03c2 \u03c3\u03c5\u03bd\u03bf\u03bc\u03b1\u03c1\u03c4\u03b5\u1fd6\u03bd \u1f00\u03b4\u03c5\u03bd\u03c4\u1ff6\u03bd \u1f51\u03c3\u03c4\u03b5\u03c1\u03af\u03b6\u03b5\u03b9.","title":"Thrice-Greatest Hermes, Vol. 2: II. The Perfect Sermon; o...","type":"page"}