xii PREFACE. 



of Alexandria x and Suidas 2 remark, his enunciation of the 

 doctrine of the Incarnation of the Son of God for the re- 

 generation of man, 3 and of the Holy Trinity in Unity, 4 

 of the immortality of the soul of man, is plain; whilst his 

 undoubted adherence to much of the philosophy of Plato 

 (the Attic Moses), especially in the " Timseus," entitles 

 him to be considered the real founder of Neoplatonism in 

 the best and most Christian sense. 



The former editors of Hermes were of like opinion. 

 Thus Vergicius, in his preface to the edition of Turnebus 

 (Paris, 1554), " His teaching appears to be most excellent 

 and evangelical." " Behold in his theology how wonder- 

 fully and evangelically he hath plainly instructed us as to 

 the Most Holy Trinity." So also Flussas, with Scaliger 

 the younger (Bordeaux, 1574), "He deserves the name of 

 an evangelical philosopher, for he first expounded the chief 

 effects of divine grace upon man, and first declared how 

 his salvation depended upon the Son of God the one Man 

 given for the regeneration of mankind." So Patricius also, 

 in his "Nova de Universis Philosophia" (Ferrara, 1591; 

 Venice, 1593), which comprised the principal works of 

 Hermes, speaks thus, " In these books and fragments of 

 Hermes will appear a philosophy pious towards God and, 

 in most respects, consonant to the dogmas of faith. It 

 will appear also that all the Greek philosophies, Pytha- 

 gorean and Platonic in divine things and the dogmas of 

 morals, those of Aristotle and of the Stoics in physics and 

 medicine, were all taken from these his books and from 

 those which have perished." But although this may be so, 

 the reader must be forewarned that he will not find in these 

 writings a complete Christianity. There is no express 

 notice of the Nativity, of the Crucifixion, Eesurrection, or 

 Ascension, or coming of Christ to Judgment, to be found 

 therein, although there is also nothing inconsistent^ with 



1 " Contra. Jul.," 33c. 2 Lexicon, voce " Hermes." 



3 "Poemandres," ch. xiii. 4. 



4 Ibid., passim; and see Suidse Lexicon, voce " Hermes," for a 

 passage to this effect not now extant elsewhere. 



