POEMANDRES. XL 69 



Eternity is incorruptible, nor doe_s any of things in the World 

 perish, the World being encompassed by the Eternity. 



Hermes. But the Wisdom of The God, what is it? 



Mwul. The Good and the Beautiful and the Happiness 

 and the whole of Virtue and The Eternity. The Eternity 

 then provides (a) the Immortality, imparting also per- 

 manence to the Matter. 



4. For the generation of that is dependent from the 

 Eternity, as also the Eternity from The God. For the 

 Generation and the Time in Heaven and in Earth are 

 beings double in nature : in Heaven indeed unchangeable 

 and incorruptible, but in earth changeable and corruptible. 

 And of the Eternity indeed the Soul is The God, but of 

 the World the Soul is the Eternity, but of the Earth the 

 Heaven. And The God indeed is in the Mind but the 

 Mind in the Soul, but the Soul in the Matter, but all 

 these through the Eternity. But this the Universal Body, 

 in which are all the bodies, is full of Soul, but the Soul 

 full of the Mind and of The God ; within it fills but without 

 encircles it, vivifying the Universe. Without indeed this 

 the great and perfect Animal the World (&) 1 , but within, 

 all the animals ; and above indeed in the Heaven abiding 

 in the identity, but below upon the earth changing the 

 generation. 



5. But the Eternity keeps together (c) this, whether 

 through necessity, or through providence, or through 

 nature, and if anything else any one thinks or shall think. 

 This Universe The God is energizing; but the Energy of I 

 God being a power insuperable, with which one could com- 

 pare neither things human nor things divine. Wherefore, -j 

 O Hermes ! by no means of things below nor of things 

 above shouldst thou think any like to The God, since thou 



(a) x.o<Tft(. (6) a>oi> rov xoaftov. (c) 



1 Plato (Timseus, 92): " This the World having thus received ani- 

 mals, mortal and immortal, and having been fulfilled, became a 

 visible animal, containing the visible, sensible God, Image of The ! 

 Intelligible, the greatest the best, the most beautiful and most per- 

 fect, one Heaven ; This being only begotten." 



