POEMANDRES. X. 59 



one indeed of those erring, 1 the other of those unerring, 

 and this is the most perfect glory of the SouL 



8. For Soul entering into the body of a man if it remain 

 Evil, neither tastes immortality nor partakes of the Good, but 

 retrograde turns its way back to that of the reptiles. And 

 this is the condemnation of an evil soul ; ignorance is the 

 vice of soul. For a soul nothing acquainted with the Entities > 

 nor the nature of them, nor with The Good, being blind, is 

 entangled with the bodily passions ; and the unfortunate, 

 not having known itself, serves bodies alien and de- 

 praved (a), carrying the body as if a burthen, 2 and not 

 ruling but ruled over. This is Vice of Soul. 



9. Contrariwise, Virtue of Soul is Knowledge. For he 

 knowing is both good and pious and already Divine. 



Tat But who is this, Father ? 



Hermes. He neither speaking many things, nor hearing 

 many things ; for he listening (b) to two discourses and 

 hearings, fights with a shadow. For The God and Father 

 and the Good is neither spoken nor heard. But this having 

 itself thus, in all the Entities are the Senses ; because of 

 its not being possible to be, apart from them. Knowledge 

 differs much from Sense. For Sense is generate from that 

 overpowering (c), but Knowledge is the end of Science (d), 

 but Science gift of The God. For all Science is incorporeal, 

 using for an organ the Mind itself, but the Mind using 

 the body. 



10. Both then enter (e) into bodies, things mental and 

 material; for from antithesis and contrariety must all 

 things consist (/), and it is impossible that this should be 

 otherwise. 



Tat. Who then is this material God ? 



Hermes. The beautiful World, but it is not good. For 

 it is material and easily passible, and it is indeed the first 

 of the passibles, but second of the Entities and wanting (g) 



(a) p,ox0qpot$. (6) a^oXa^y. (c) yivercti rov I 



/rf) f^-KTTtjftris. (e) xupsi ti$. (/) ^si rotvoivrct ovvtaroivoii, 



1 "The Angels which kept not their first Estate" (Jude 6). 



2 " The body of this death " (Rom. vii. 24). 



