148 HERMES TRISMEGISTUS. 



Lactantius, Epitome of Divin. Instit., ch. iv. 

 (In Latin). 



" Hermes, who on account of his virtue, and his know- 

 ledge of many arts, deserved the name of Trismegistus, 

 who preceded the philosophers in the antiquity of his 

 doctrine, and who is reverenced by the Egyptians as a 

 God, in asserting the majesty of The One God with infinite 

 praises, calls Him Lord and Father, and says that He is 

 without a name, because He does not stand in need of a 

 proper name, inasmuch as He is alone, and that He has no 

 parents, since He exists of Himself and by Himself. In 

 writing to His Son He thus begins : ' To understand God 

 is difficult, to describe Him in speech is impossible even 

 for one to whom it is possible to understand Him ; for the 

 perfect cannot be comprehended by the imperfect, nor the 

 visible by the invisible.' " l 



VII. 



AENOBIUS (circa 305, about the abdication of Diocletian) 

 writes thus (Adversus Gentes, Lib. ii. 13). 



"You, you I address who zealously follow Mercury, 

 Plato, and Pythagoras, and the rest of you who are of one 

 mind and walk in union in the same paths of doctrine." 



not written by Hermes but by this Asclepius ; for the same chapter 

 contains also a defence of Image worship, and a recognition of Jupiter 

 as Supreme God, which is wholly inconsistent with what Hermes has 

 previously inculcated. 



1 See the references, ante, p. 6. Also the Excerpts from Justin 

 Martyr, ante, 1. 



