POEMANDRES. IV. 33 



Tat. I, too, wish to be baptized, J?ather! 



Hermes. Unless, first, jthou shalt iatej tlie body, 1 O 

 Child! thou canst not love thyself; but having loved 

 thyself thou shalt have Mind, and having the Mind thou 

 shalt obtain also (a) the science. 



Tat. How sayest thou these things, Father? 



Hermes. For it is impossible, Child ! to be about ' 

 both about things mortal, namely, and things divine.-! 

 For of Entities there being two, body and bodiless, in) 

 which the mortal and the Divine are understood (&), the 

 choice of one or the other is left to him who wisheth to 

 choose. 2 For it is not possible that both concur; but 

 with whomsoever the selection (c) is left, the one being 

 diminished hath manifested the energy of the other. 



7. The choice, then, of the more excellent not only 

 happens most fair to the chooser to deify (d) the Man, but 

 also shows forth the piety towards God ; but that of the 

 inferior hath indeed destroyed the man, but he hath trans- 

 gressed (e) nothing towards God but this only, that like 

 as pageantries (/) pass on in the midst, not able them- 

 selves to energize anything, but are hindering them, in 

 the same way so these make a pageant (g) only in the 

 world, being led away by the bodily pleasures. 



8. These things being thus, Tat ! those which are from 

 The God both have belonged to us, and will belong (A); let 

 those from us follow and not lag behind ; for The God is 

 not the cause, but we are the cause of evil things, prefer- 

 ring these to the good. 3 Thou seest, Child ! how many 



(a) [ttTothij-fyy. (6) vouroii. (c) 



(d) d.Ko6tuaa,i. (e) \ i 7ch-n[x.(it~h-wtv. (/) 



(g) KoftTctvovai. (h) v-Trqp^e xott V7ra,p%fi. 



1 " This is life eternal, that they should know Thee the only true 

 God "( John xvii. 3). 



" I buffet my body, and bring it into bondage" (1 Cor. ix. 27). 



"Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. 

 If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him " 

 (1 John ii. 15). 



2 See the Excerpt from Stobseus, Ethica ii. 358, post, Part II. xviii. , 



3 " Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for 



C 



