POEMANDRES. IV. 



31 





visible, nor measurable, nor separable (a), nor like to any 

 other body. For He is neither fire, nor water, nor air, nor 

 Spirit ; but all are from Him ; for being good He willed to 

 dedicate this to Himself alone, and to adorn the earth. 1 



2. But as ornament of Divine body, He sent down The 

 Man, immortal animal, mortal animal. And the Man 

 indeed excelled the animals and the world because of the 

 Speech (&) and of the Mind. For the Man became spec- 

 tator of the works of The God, and wondered, and acknow- 



the Maker. 



3. The Speech, then, O Tat ! He hath imparted among 

 all the men but by no means the Mind ; not envying (c) 

 any; for envy cometh not thence, but is conceived (cQ 

 below in the souls of those men who have not the Mind. 



Tat. Wherefore, then, Father ! has not The God im- 

 parted The Mind to all men ? 



Hermes. He willed, Child ! this to be stationed (e) in 

 the midst, as it were a prize for the Souls. 



4. Tat. And where hath He stationed it ? 



Hermes. Having filled a great Cup (/), of this He sent 

 down giving a herald (#), and commanded him to proclaim 

 to the hearts of men these things ; Baptize thyself who is 

 able into this the Cup, who is believing that thou shall 

 return to Him who hath sent down the Cup, who is recog- 

 nizing for what thou wast generated (h). As many, then, 





(c) 

 (/) 



(a) B/fltoretTov. (6) rov Aoyo"- (c) tyQovuv, grudging. 



(fZ) avviarotroii. (e) ftpvt 



(g) loiig zypvxot. (1l) 



1 See Plato in Stob. Physica (64 Meineke, i. 16) : " The One, the 

 only natured (^oi/6<pvl?), the singular (^oyaS/xo'v), the really Being, 

 the Good. But all these of such sort of names attach to The Mind. 

 Mind, then, is The God, a separate form (gfdo?). But let the separate 

 be heard of as the unmixed with all matter, and implicated with 

 none of things corporeal, nor sympathetic with the passionate in 

 nature. But of this Father and Maker, the other divine pro- 

 ductions are indeed intelligible, and the World called intelligible, 

 and are exemplars of the visible world ; in addition to these certain 

 ethereal powers (but they are irrational and corporeal) and aerial 

 and of water, but the sensible productions (gxyoi/) of the First God, 

 Sun, Moon, Stars, Earth, and the World comprehending all things." 



