PREFACE. xiii 



these facts. On the other hand, as has been already seen, 

 they teach emphatically the Unity of the Godhead, the 

 dogma of the Holy Trinity God the Father, the Word, 

 the Son begotten of Him before the worlds, of the Holy 

 Spirit proceeding from the Father through the Son, in- 

 strumental in creation, and the Sanctifier; and there are 

 clear allusions to the effusion of this Holy Spirit on the 

 World, with its Seven Gifts in the shape of Fire. 

 Thus Hermes was not a mere Platonist propounding ] 

 the means of attaining moral and intellectual perfection 

 without reference to the facts and doctrines of Holy ; 

 Scripture, but, in theory at least, in great part a 

 Christian. 



The "Hermaica" have been unaccountably neglected in 

 England. That these works were not unknown here in the 

 time of Milton is proved by his words from "II Penseroso," 

 "With thrice-great Hermes:" but they received little further 

 attention in this country. On the Continent, however, as 

 soon as the originals of his principal treatises was dis- 

 covered, the value of them was perceived, and immediately 

 after the invention of printing they were committed to the 

 press. 



The " Poemandres," the principal work, was translated 

 into Latin and published by Marsilius Ficinus at Treviso 

 in 1471, divided into fourteen chapters, which were after- 

 wards increased to twenty by Patricius. This edition of 

 Ficinus was several times republished; at Ferrara and 

 Venice in 1472 ; at Mayence in 1503 ; and especially at 

 Cracow, but in a Latin translation only, by the Carmelite 

 Eosselli, in six volumes folio, in 1584, with a commentary 

 so voluminous, discursive, and argumentative that it is 

 nearly useless. Nevertheless, this was reprinted, with 

 what professed to be the original Greek, at Cologne, in 

 1638, in one volume folio. The original Greek of the ; 

 " Poemandres," and of the " Definitions of Asclepius to 

 Ammon the King" (which, we shall see presently, is not 

 a work of our author, but subsequent to his epoch), were 

 first printed and published by Adr. Turnebus, edited, with 



