22 HERMES TRISMEGISTUS. 



Mind is (a). ]N"or Spirit, but cause that Spirit is. 1 Nor 

 Light, but cause that Light is. Whence one must vene- 

 rate The God under these two appellations; these to Him 

 alone appertaining, and to no other for neither of others 

 called Gods, 2 nor of men, nor of demons, can any one, 

 even after a sort (5) be good, but The God alone ; and this 

 alone He is and nothing else. For all other things are 

 separable from the nature of the Good, for they are body 

 and soul, having no place able to receive the Good. 



15. For the magnitude of the Good is so great as is the 

 subsistence (c) of all the Entities, both bodies and without 

 bodies, and sensible and intelligible, (d) This is the Good, 

 this The God. 3 Thou shouldst not then call anything else 

 good since thou wouldest be impious, nor anything else 

 ever The God, since thou wouldest again be impious. 



16. In speech then indeed the Good is spoken of by all; 

 but whatever it is, is not understood (e) by all ; wherefore 

 neither is The God understood by all, but through igno- 

 rance they call the Gods and some of the men good, by no 

 means able either to be or to become such. For they are 

 very different (/) from The God ; for the Good is insepar- 

 able from The God, The God Himself being The Good. All 



(a) TOV i<ji vow. (b}x,ottf oTTQffovouv. (c) 



(d) vovfTuy. (&) voiiroii. (f) d 



1 This doctrine seems to be consonant to the Creed of the orthodox 

 Greek Church as to the Procession. See as to this post, Part III. 



/ Plato (" Timeeus," 28) had written : " Everything "beginning anew of 

 necessity is generated by some causer. For to everything it is im- 

 possible to have generation apart from causer. When, then, The 

 Creator ever looking to that being thuswise, using some such pattern, 

 had effected the idea and the power of it, of necessity it was that 

 everything should be completed beautiful (*aAov). For the produc- 

 tion of which, using a generated pattern, it would not be beautiful." 



2 " There is no God but One ; for though there be that are called 

 Gods, whether in heaven or in earth, as there be Gods many and 

 Lords many, yet to us there is One, God The Father, of Whom are 

 all things, and we unto Him " (1 Cor. viii. 4, 7). 



3 " There is none Good but One, that is The God." See the subse- 

 quent sections, 16 and 17. (Mark x. 18; Luke xviii. 19; and ch. 

 vi. post, and note). 



