POElfANDRES. I. 



Mystery concealed up to this day. For the Nature mingled 

 with the Man produced a certain most admirable wonder ; 

 for he having the nature of the harmony of the seven, of 

 which I spoke to you, 1 of fire and spirit, the Nature did 

 not wait, but immediately brought forth the seven men 2 

 after the natures of the Seven Administrators, masculine- 

 feminine, and sublime " (a). 



And after these things, "OPoemandres! I have come now to- 

 a great desire, and am longing to hear ; do not diverge." And 

 Poemandres said, " But be silent, for I have not yet completed 

 to thee the first discourse." " Behold, I am silent," I said* 



17. " There happened then, as I said, the generation of 

 these seven in such mode. For the air was feminine, the 

 water, cupiscent (6). It received maturity from fire ; from ! 

 ether the spirit ; and Nature brought forth the bodies after 

 the likeness of the Man. But the Man became (c) from 

 life and light unto soul (d) and mind ; from life as to soul, 

 but from light asHo mind; 3 and thus remained all the 



(a) ftsretpaiovs. (6) o^svrtx^i/. (c) syevero. (d) 



1 See ante, 9, note 4. Also Deuteronomy xxxii. 8, Sept. 



2 For whom these Seven Men are intended is questionable ; but the 

 difficulty may perhaps be solved thus: The original pattern Man 

 being masculine-feminine, represents Adam with Eve who was 

 taken out of Adam; and the Seven whom Nature procreated 

 may signify, in like manner, the succeeding Patriarchs named in 

 Genesis, ch. iv. and v., wherein, after detailing the posterity of Cain, 

 it proceeds : " This is the book of the generation of Adam, in the 

 day in which The God made the Adam, after the likeness of God He 

 made him, male and female He made them, and blessed them, and 

 called his name Adam in the day that he made them " (from the Sep- 

 tuagint, edit. J. Field, Cantab. 1565). Then follows that Adam begat 

 sons and daughters after his likeness and his image, &c., and the 

 names of the Patriarchs, beginning with Seth, up to and including 

 Lamech the seventh, the father of Noah. Or the number Seven 

 here mentioned may conventionally signify Cain and his posterity. 



3 " And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground (' dust 

 of the ground,' Heb.), and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, 

 and man became a living soul a (Gen. ii. 7, English Version). " 



0oV TGV MuffpUTTOy %OVV 069TO 1% yjjj. Xl t 



aj/rov TJ/OJJJ; %, xj sytusro 6 dlvfyuKOs si; 

 (Sept. ibid.}. 



