POEMANDRES. X. 57 



4. Thus verily are these things to him who is able to- 

 perceive. For indeed this (a) wills to Be, and is also Itself, 

 especially for Itself. For verily all other things are be- 

 cause of This. For it is proper to the Good to become 

 known. This is The Good, O Tat! 



Tat. Thou hast filled us, Father! with the good and 

 most beautiful spectacle, and the eye of my mind hath 

 been little short of sanctified by such kind of spectacle. 

 For not as if a ray of the Sun, being fiery, does it dazzle 

 and make the eyes close, is thus the spectacle of The Good. 

 On the contrary, it shines forth and augments the light of 

 the eyes to so much as he who is able can receive the 

 influx of the intellectual (6) splendour. 1 For it is rather 

 sharp in penetrating (c), but not injurious and replete with 

 all immortality. 



5. They who are able to drink in somewhat more of 

 this spectacle oftentimes fall asleep from the body into 

 this most beauteous vision. As Uranus and Kronos ourj 

 forefathers experienced. 2 Would that we also, O Father ! 



Hermes. Would it may be so, Child ! But now as yet 

 we are not intent upon the vision, and we are not yet strong 

 enough to open the eyes of our mind, and to contemplate 

 the beauty of that The Good, 3 the incorruptible, the in- 

 comprehensible. For then thou will perceive it when 

 thou mayest have nothing to say about it. For the know- 



(a) i.e., d'/oc.&ou. (b) vowijs hctfATrribovog. (c) sis TO x.otfax,i>H(r0a(~ 



God, that we can discover nothing but in His Light, and that we 

 shall be unintelligible to ourselves until we see in God. Still He 

 presents to ourselves the Idea perfectly intelligible which He has of 

 our being comprehended in His Own " (Malebranche, RechercJie de la 

 Verite, lib. 3, part 2, ch. i.). 



1 " In thy light shall we see Light" (Ps. xxxvi. 9). "The Lord 

 shall be unto thee an everlasting light " (Is. Ix. 19). " To give th 

 light of the knowledge of the glory of God" (2 Cor. iv. 6). " God is 

 Light, and in Him is no darkness at all " (I John i. 5 ; and see John 

 viii. 12, 9, 5). " Who only hath immortality dwelling in light un- 

 approachable " (1 Tim. vi. 16), &c., &c. 



2 Lactantius (Div. Instit., i. 11) alludes to this passage as a proof/ 

 that both were men, and never really Divinities. 



3 " Now we see in a mirror darkly " (1 Cor. xiii. 12). 



