POEMANDRES. XIII. 93 



15. Tat. I was wishing, O Father ! the praise through 

 the hymn, which thou saidst when I had become at the 

 Ogdoad (a) I should hear of the Powers. 1 



Hermes. According as the Poemandres prophesied of the 

 Ogdoad (Z>), thou hastest well, Child ! to loose the tabernacle; 

 for thou hast been purified. The Poemandres, the Mind 

 of the Supreme Power (c), hath not delivered to me more 

 than the things written, knowing that from myself I shall 

 be able to understand all things, and to hear those which 

 I wish, and to see all things; and he hath charged me to 

 do things beautiful. Wherefore also all the Powers that 

 are in me sing. 



16. Tat. I wish, Father, to hear and desire to understand 

 these things. 



Hermes. Be still, Child! and now hear the harmonized 

 praise, the hymn of the Eegeneration which I judged not 

 fit so easily to speak forth, unless to thee at the end of the 

 whole. Whence this is not taught but is hidden in silence. 

 Thus then, O Child ! standing in a place open to the 

 sky (d) looking toward the South wind about downgoing 

 of the setting sun bow the knee ; and likewise also at the 

 return towards the sunrise quarter. 2 Be at rest then, O 

 Child! 



Secret Hymnody. 



17. Let all Nature of World receive the hearing of this 

 hymn ! Be opened, O Earth ! Let every vehicle (e) of 

 rain be opened to me. The trees wave ye not ! I am 

 about to hymn The Lord of the creation, and the Universe 

 and The One. Open ye Heavens and Winds be still! 



(a) \7f\ rqv oy^oa^a,. (b) oy'boettioi. 



(c) Ty; otvQtvTias, see ch. i. 3, and note there. 



(d} tit vKettdpip. (e) ftox,*o$. 



these are Sons of God " (Rom. viii. 14). " Now are we children of 

 God" (1 Johniii. 1, 2). 



1 As to the Eighth or Ogdoad, see ch. i. 25, 26. 



2 From this and a former passage it has been conjectured that 

 Hermes might have been one of the Therapeutics, whose custom it 

 was to worship thus kneeling and at these periods of the day. 



