POEMANDRES. XII. 77 



CHAPTEE XII. 



Respecting Common Mind. 

 To Tat. 1 



1. Hermes. The Mind, O Tat ! is of the very essence 

 of The God; if indeed there is any essence of God, and of 

 what quality this may be He alone hath accurately known. 

 The Mind then is not cut off from the Essentiality of The 

 Godhead (a) but united, just as the light of the Sun. But 

 this the Mind in men indeed is God. Wherefore also 

 some of men are Gods, 2 and their humanity is nigh to the 

 Deity. For also the Good Demon hath called the Gods 

 immortal men, but the men mortal Gods. But in irrational 

 animals the Mind is the nature. 



2. For where Soul, there also is Mind, as where life 

 there also is Soul. But in the irrational animals the soul 

 is life, void of the Mind; for the Mind is benefactor of the 

 souls of men, for it works on them (b) to their proper good; 

 and in the irrational indeed it co-operates with the nature 

 of each, but it practises against (c) those of the men. For 

 every Soul generate in body is forthwith depraved, both by 



(a) ovviorqros 6fvr-ffrog. (6) epyoi^Ton eivroc;. (c) 



1 According to Menard (Pref., p. 73), the author of this chapter is 

 some obscure disciple of Plotinus ; and the Good Demon mentioned 

 therein, Ammonius Saccas, the reputed founder of the Neo-platonists 

 in the beginning of the 3d century ; but the translator does not 

 accept this view. The whole chapter is a metaphysical amplification 

 of the Divine truth so energetically set forth (amongst others) by 

 Malebranche in his Reclwrche, de la VeritS, and Traite de la Morale. 

 " For in Him we live, and move, and have our being " (Acts xvii. 28). 

 "And in Him all things consist" (Col. L 17). " Upholding all things 

 by the Word of His power" (Heb. i. 3). See ante, ch. x. 4, note 1 ; , 

 and hereafter sec. 14, for what is meant by the Good Demon. 



2 " I have said ye are Gods " (Ps. Ixxxii. 6). " Partakers of the 

 Divine nature " (2 Peter i. 4). " Is it not written in your law, I said, 

 Ye are Gods? If He called them Gods unto whom the word of God 

 came, and the Scripture cannot be broken ; say ye of Him," &c. 

 (John x. 34). 



