132 HERMES TRISMEGISTUS. 



does not touch this man, 1 but having taken for aid (a) the 

 first from the First God, it passes beyond thoughtful 

 Reason (&) and the entire Reason which Nature hath 

 ordained for those generate. With these Soul having had 

 communion has communion with the Fates of these, being 

 not partaker of the nature of the fated. 



XXI. 



[IT is questionable whether the following Excerpt, or 

 any and what part of it, has Hermes for its author. The 

 larger portion of it is not in Patricius nor in the earlier 

 editions of Stobasus. There is no allusion to the " Decans" 

 ox "Tanae" in his other works, and it has the air of a 

 supplement composed by some subsequent writer, possibly 

 an Alexandrian Jew. Although the words of Hermes are 

 cited, and some passages of Poemandres referred to, yet 

 the style is different, and there are therein many w r ords 

 not found in his genuine writings, as well as variant dicta, 

 such as that the Stars generate demons to be their servants. 

 The astronomical portion is very curious, and is not in- 

 consistent with the theory propounded by Hermes. The 

 account of the celestial Demons or Angels seems to be a 

 compound of Jewish traditions combined with classical 

 notions on the subject. The last part of the dialogue is 

 more like the theology of Hermes, except that the author 

 speaks of the potency of the Name of God, whereas he had 

 frequently maintained that God had no name]. 



(a) 7Tix.pei.6t1a a. (6) ^{ctvor,rix.ov \6yov Trpoiyat. 



1 See Lactantius (Divin. Instit., lib. ii. ch. 16, post\ where this 

 passage is quoted. 



Plato in Menon (99) : " Opinions, although true, last but a short 

 time, and are worth little ; but when one finds them through reason- 

 ing to be causes, they become sciences and are permanent." In 

 Politicus (309) : " The true opinion about things beautiful and just 

 and good and the contrary to these, with firmness, when it is gene- 

 rated in Souls, is the generating Divine Nature in a Godlike (o 

 race." 



