54 HERMES TRISMEGISTUS. 



son of The God ; but things in the World are from the 

 World, and properly was it called " World " (%6<rpo$), for it 

 adorneth all things by the variety of the generation (a) and 

 by the indefectibility (6) of the life, and the imweariedness 

 of the energy, and the quickness of the necessity, and the 

 combination (e) of the elements, and the order of the things 

 generated. The same then should be called "World" 

 both necessarily and fittingly. Of all animals there- 

 fore both the Sense and the Understanding comes in 

 upon them from without, inspired (d) by that circum- 

 ambient ; but the World having once received this along 

 with the being generated, has it, having received it from 

 The God. 



9. But The God is not, as it seems to some, insensible 

 and mindless. For through superstition (e) they blaspheme. 

 For all things as many as are, Asclepius ! these are in 

 The God, and generated by The God, and thence depen- 

 dent (/) ; some indeed energizing through the bodies, and 

 others moving through animated Essence (g), others making 

 life through spirit, and others undertaking those defunct ; 

 and that suitably. But I rather say, not that He has 

 these things, but I show forth the Truth, He is all things, 

 not receiving them from without but giving them forth 

 .outwards (h). And this is the Sense and the Understand- 

 ing of The God, the moving all things always, and there 

 shall be never a time^when any of the Entities shall be 

 deficient (i) ; but when I say the Entities, I speak of The 

 God. For the Entities The God has, and neither is any- 

 thing without (&) Him, nor is He without anything. 1 



10. These things to thee, O Asclepius! being intel- 



(a) y*vffM$, or production. (6) otd;A<W<y. (c) avardiaei. 



(d) tiaKvtovaot. (e) !)iaia,ipr)vioe,g. (/) sxeiOsv ypTvipivei. 



(g) 3/a ovaiag i]/vxtxqs- (h) t%u. (i) otwo'hetQtiJiffereu. (&) Uro$. 



1 The foregoing passages may be possibly taken in a Pantheistic 

 sense ; but they surely may be better understood of the particular 

 superintending Providence of a Deity which pervades and guides all 

 things, and on which all things are dependent. They are almost the 

 exact words of Malebranche in his Recherche de la VfritZ (lib. iii. ch. 

 vi., part 2). 



