PREFACE. xix 



occupied with the praise of King Ammon and other kings. 

 The whole is alien from the spirit and diction of Hermes 

 himself, and must have been composed many years sub- 

 sequently to the " Poemandres." 



The theological and philosophical teaching of our 

 Hermes for he was both a theologian and philosopher, 

 may be thus summed up : 



First and foremost he insists upon the being of The God; 

 an Unconditioned, self-existent Essence, Founder (xrfoag), 

 Maker (vrotqrrii), Creator (dq/uiovpybs), upholder and governor 

 of the Universe at His own mere Will, the One, the Only, 

 the Supreme very Life and Light Itself. He is Almighty 

 (Mevriis), never inert, but ever acting in every part of His 

 creation, pervading and energizing all things by His 

 particular Providence, to which Fate and Necessity are 

 wholly subject. Nothing can subsist or move apart from 

 Him, Who has in Himself all things that have been, are. 

 or shall be. 



He is the perfection and the sum of The Good, the 

 Beautiful, the Holy, and the True; immaterial, infinite, 

 incorporeal, invisible, the object of none of the senses; 

 ineffable, incomprehensible, inimitable, invariable; without 

 form or figure, colourless; Intelligence and Wisdom itself; 

 everlasting, independent of time, the Eternal from eternity; 

 the Light and Life of mankind; Holiness and Goodness 

 itself, and in no sense the author of anything evil or base. 

 If any evil exist in creation, it is as it were by way of 

 rust or excrescence only, and cannot be attributed to the 

 Deity. 



This Being, above all, in all, and about all, is Unity. 

 The universal Harmony of the KoV/Aos, which is eloquently 

 set forth, demonstrates that He can be but One. Motion 

 exists throughout all the order of the worlds, and is the 

 condition and quality of the Eternal; but this Motion 

 must be generated and continually energized by some 

 Being superior to and stronger than that which is 

 moved, and than the medium in which the motion takes 

 place. If He ever ceased to energize, He would be no 



