82 HERMES TRISMEGISTUS. 



be guided by both unto the choir of the Gods and 

 blessed. 



13. Tat. Do not however the other ^animals use lan- 

 guage (a), O Father ! 



Hermes. No ! Child, but voice ; for language differs 

 altogether much from voice. For language indeed is com- 

 mon to all men, but voice is peculiar to each kind of 

 animal. 



Tat. But also of the Men, Father ! according to each 

 nation the language is different. 



Hermes. Different indeed, O Child ! but one the Man, 

 and so the language is one, and is mutually interpreted, 

 &nd the same is found both in Egypt and Persia and Greece. 

 But thou seemest to me, O Child ! to be ignorant of the 

 virtue and magnitude of Language. For the blessed God, 

 Good Demon, 1 declared Soul to be in Body, but Mind in 

 Soul, Eeason (&) in the Mind, The Mind in The God, but 

 The God Father of these. 



14. The Keason then is the image of the Mind, and Mind 

 of The God, and the Body indeed of the Idea (c) and the 

 Idea of the Soul. 2 Of Matter now the most subtle (d) is Air, 

 of Air the Soul, of Soul Mind, and of Mind God. And The 

 God indeed is around all things and through all things. 3 

 But the Mind around the Soul, and the Soul around the 

 Air, and the Air around the Matter. Of necessity both 

 the Providence and the Nature are instruments (e) of the 

 World, and of the order of the Matter ; and of things intel- 

 ligible each indeed is essence, but essence of them is the 

 identity (/). Of the bodies of the Universe each is many. 

 For the composite bodies having the identity, and making 



(a) Ao'yov. (&) Ao'yo^j *.&, Trpofpopixov. (c) TVS /cteaj-. 



(d) hrTrrettsptffTctToy. (e) opyctvdt. (/) rotvror^rx. 



1 Who is meant by the Good Demon is here plainly stated. 



2 What is here meant by " Idea " is difficult to determine. Whether 

 the " Idea" of Plato, or the form of the manner and mode of exist- 

 ence and species. 



* " Of Him, and through Him, and to Him, are all things " (Rom. 

 xi. 36). 



