88 HERMES TRISMEGISTUS. 



^ Hermes. This kind, Son! is not taught; but when He 

 may wish is brought to remembrance by The God. 



3. Tat. Thou tellest me things impossible, Father ! and 

 forced. Whence I wish to reply to them correctly. Have 

 I been produced (a) stranger Son of the paternal race ? 

 Grudge me not, Father! I am a genuine (&) Son; relate 

 to me the mode of the Regeneration. 



Hermes. What can I say, O Child ! I have not what 

 to speak except this. I perceive a certain unfeigned (c) 

 spectacle generated in me ; from the mercy of God I have 

 also gone forth from myself into an immortal body, and I 

 am now not what formerly, but have become generated (d) 

 in Mind. This fact is not taught neither by that fictile (c) 

 element by which it is possible to see, and because of 

 this the first composed form is neglected by me ; nor that 

 I am coloured and have touch and measure; I am alien 

 now from these things. Thou lookest at me verily, O 

 Child ! with eyes, when with fixed attention thou con- 

 siderest with body and sight; I am not beholden (/) with 

 those eyes now, Child ! l 



4. Tat. Thou has cast me into no small madness and 

 irritation of mind, Father! For now I do not see my- 

 self. 2 



Hermes. Would, Child ! that thou also wouldest 

 come out of thyself, as those who in sleep perceive 

 dreams apart from sleep. 



Tat. Tell me this too. Who is the generator (g) of the 

 Regeneration? 



Hermes. The Son of The God One Man by the Will of 

 God. 3 



(a) iritpvxa. (b) yvqetas. (c) oi'x'hu.aTW. (d) 



(e) ^rAocoT^i. (jf) QtapovftKi. (</) ytvsaiovpyos. 



1 The parallel between this passage and 1 Cor. ii. 14 is remarkable, 

 " Now the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; 

 for they are foolishness unto him : and he cannot know them, because 

 they are spiritually judged" (" discerned," Authorised Version). 



2 This in the dialogues of Plato is a reply of his auditors to some 

 of the paradoxes propounded by him. 



3 See ante, ch. i. 12, note, where the quotation of that passage and 



