20 HERMES TRISMEGISTUS. 



Hermes. By no means, Asclepius ! for that within the 

 body, that moving the soulless, is it not that body moving 

 both, that of the carrying (a) and that of the carried ? 

 A Wherefore soulless will not move soulless (&), but that 

 moving has soul, becaus^ it does move. Thou seest 

 therefore the soul weighed down when alone it carrieth 

 two bodies ; and that, indeed, things moved are moved in 

 somewhat, and by somewhat is plain. 



10. Asclepius. Then the things moved must be moved 

 in a void, O Trismegistus ! 



Hermes. May'st thou say well, Asclepius ! but none 

 of the Entities is void, for alone nonentity is void, and 

 alien from the existence (c) ; but that being, cannot be 

 being, unless it were full of the existence ; for that exist- 

 ing never can become void. 



Asclepius. But are there not some things void, Tris- 

 megistus ! as an void measure, or a void cask, and a void 

 well and wine press, and the other suchlike things ? 



Hermes. Alas ! for this great error, Asclepius ! Those 

 fullest and most replete, dost thou consider to be void ? 



11. Asclepius. How sayest thou, Trismegistus ? 

 Hermes. Is not the air a body ? 



Asclepius. A body it is. 



Hermes. And does not this body permeate through all 



beings, and permeating fill all things ? And body does it 



^- not consist mingled of the four ? l Full then are all things 



which thou sayest are void, of the air and if of the air then 



of the four bodies. And it happens that the converse 



(a) /3et0Tofoz/TO?. (6) aifyv%M. (c) r 



1 Fire, Water, Air, and Earth, according to the Pythagoreans and 

 Plato. Plato himself, in the " Timseus," says : " But as to that nature 

 which was before the generation of heaven, of Fire, Water, Air, and 

 Earth, we must consider that, and what occurred (ra. ^a.&-/\) before this ; 

 for no one hath ever indicated their origin (ysi/sffiv). We call them 

 beginnings or principles (up%as)> placing them as elements of the 

 Universe." Also, " of these four the existence of the World took 

 each one whole. For He having established it, established it out of 

 all fire, and water, and air, and earth, having left no part of any, nor 

 power without." 



