110 HERMES TRISMEGISTUS. 



together with us in the abiding (a). For Time which hath 

 not stopped (&), having course, not even a point (c), how 

 is it said to be present, which is not able even to stop? 

 And again the past conjoining with the present and the 

 present with the future becomes one ; for they are not 

 apart from themselves in the identity and the unity (d) and 

 the continuity. Thus the Time being one and the same, 

 becomes both continuous and disjoined. 1 



(a) avp'votpiiva.t Iv ra pkviiv. (6) sc 



(c) poTTyy ov^e xsvrpov. (d) SVOTVJTI. 



1 Plato wrote thus (Timseus, 37) : " When the Father having gene- 

 rated it had made that moving and living, The created Glory of the 

 eternal Gods, He was delighted and determined to conform His work 

 to the pattern (irotpotbeiyftei) still more, and as this was eternal He 

 sought to complete the Universe eternal as far as might be. Now 

 the nature of the Intelligible Being is everlasting; but to attach 

 eternity altogether to the generate (ytvvYirw) was impossible ; where- 

 fore He resolved to have a certain moveable image of eternity, and 

 fitting it to heaven, eternity remaining in One, He makes along with 

 it an everlasting likeness proceeding according to number, whicli 

 being we have named it Time. For days and nights and months 

 and years not being before heaven was generated, then along with 

 that existing, He contrives the generation of these. These all are 

 parts of Time, and the ' was ' and ' shall be ' generated forms of 

 Time, referring which to the Eternal Essence, we are latently erro- 

 neous; for we say how it ' was,' ' is/ and ' shall be/ but to This that 



* It is' alone appertains, according to the true expression, but the 



* was/ and the ' shall be/ should properly be affirmed of the genera- 

 tion proceeding in Time ; for it is motion. But as to That always abid- 

 ing at the same immoveably, it belongs neither to become older nor 

 younger through time, nor ever to be generated, or now have been 

 generated; nor again shall be, nor is it at all connected with such 

 generation as is of things carried on in Sense. Moreover, when we 

 say that what has become has become, and what is becoming is be- 

 coming, and that what will become will become, and that what is not 

 is not, of none of these do we speak accurately." The reader will be 

 reminded of (Exod. iii. 14), " And God said unto Moses, I am that I 

 am" ('Ey<y >/ 'O av," Sept.). 



