4 HEEMES TRISMEGISTUS. 



This Poemandres to me. " These then," I say, " Elements 

 of the Nature, whence constituted (a) are they ? " Again 

 He to me, "From the will of God, which, taking the 1 

 Word (6), and beholding the beautiful World (c), formed 

 an imitation (d), making the World by means of the ele- 

 ments (e) of Itself 2 and progenies of souls." (/) 

 / 9. But the Mind, The God, being masculine-feminine, 

 ) originating (g) Life and Light, 3 begat (K) by Word another 

 / Mind Creator (i), Who being God of the Fire and Spirit, 4 



(a) vTTfarri. (6) Aot/Bot/o-ec. rov Ao'yo". (c) 



(d) ftfft,qffXTO. (e) ffroiiceiav. (/) 



(cj} VTreipxav. (Ji) dTSKiiwe. (i) vcvv 



the world is the noblest of creatures, and God is the best of causes ; 



and the World, being thus created according to the eternal pattern, 

 i is the copy of something." 



1 In this treatise Xo'yo? is used with three significations "Reason, 

 Speech, and Word; but with the definite article "The Word" is 

 intended. 



2 Stobseus, in his " Physica " (309, Meineke, i. 82), remarks ^that 

 Plato held that there were three great beginnings or principles 

 (jB^*/) The God, The Matter, The Idea by whom, out of which, 

 to which. The God is Mind (of the World) : Matter, that subject to 

 generation and destruction; but Idea, incorporeal Essence in the 

 intelligence and phantasies of The God. 



\]/ In " Timeeus" (31, 32) Plato says : " Of the Four the constitution 

 (vvvTourfs) of the World took each one Whole. For the constitutor 

 constituted it of the Whole of Fire and Water, and Air and Earth, 

 leaving no part nor power of any without; first and especially, 

 because the perfect living creature should be of perfect parts, and 

 .also that out of the remnants no other such thing should become." 

 He argues thence that there can be but one xoV^o?, and from the 

 whole concludes, moreover, that the visible world is formed after 

 the pattern of the intelligible or invisible (see ibid. 31). Compare 

 Rom. i. 20 : " For the invisible things of Him, since the creation of 

 the world, are clearly seen, being perceived through the things that 

 are made, His everlasting Power and Divinity;" and Heb. ix. 23, 

 " It was necessary that the copies of things in the Heavens should 

 be purified with these " (scil. by sacrifices). 



3 Compare John i. 4, " In Him was Life, and the Life was the 

 Light of the Men." 



4 This paragraph seems to relate that the God of Fire and Spirit pro 

 ceeds, according to the creed of the orthodox Greek Church, from the 

 Father through the Son. See post, ch. iii. 2 ; ch. xiiL 21, and note. 



