Collectanea Hermetica (Volumes 1-10). William Wynn Westcott
the Mind for their Governor, do suffer the same thing that the Soul of unreasonable living things.
19. For the Soul being a Co-operator with them, permits or leaves them to their concupiscences, whereunto they are carried by the torrent of their Appetite, and so tend to brutishness.
20. And as brute Beasts, they are angry without reason, and they desire without reason, and never cease, nor are satisfied with evil.
21. For unreasonable Angers and Desires, are the most exceeding Evils.
22. And therefore hath God set the Mind over these, as a Revenger and Reprover of them.
23. Tat. Here, O Father, that discourse of Fate or Destiny which thou madest to me, is in danger to be overthrown; For if it be fatal for any man to commit Adultery or Sacrilege or do any evil, he is punished also, though he of necessity do the work of Fate or Destiny.
24. Hermes. All things, O Son, are the work of Fate, and without it, can no bodily thing, either Good or Evil, be done.
25. For it is decreed by Fate, that he that doth any evil, should also suffer for it.
26. And therefore he doth it, that he may suffer that which he suffereth, because he did it.
27. But for the present let alone that speech, concerning Evil and Fate, for at other times we have spoken of it.
28. Now our discourse is about the Mind, and what it can do, and how it differs, and is in men such a one, but in brute Beasts changed.
29. And again, in brute Beasts it is not beneficial, but in men by quenching both their Anger and Concupiscences.
30. And of men thou must understand some to be rational or governed by reason, and some irrational.
31. But all men are subject to Fate, and to Generation, and Change, for these are the beginning and end of Fate or Destiny.
32. And all men suffer those things that are decreed by Fate.
33. But rational men, over whom as we said, the Mind bears rule, do not suffer like unto other men, but being free from viciousness, and being not evil, they do suffer evil.
34. Tat. How sayest thou this again, Father? An Adulterer, is he not evil? a Murderer, is he not evil? and so all others.
35. Hermes. But the rational man, O Son, will not suffer for Adultery, but as the Adulterer, nor for Murder, but as the Murderer.
36. And it is impossible to escape the Quality of Change, as of Generation, but the Viciousness, he that hath the Mind, may escape.
37. And therefore, O Son, I have always heard the good Demon say, and if he had delivered it in writing, he had much profited all mankind: For he alone, O Son, as the first born, God, seeing all things, truly spake Divine words. I have heard him say sometimes, That all Things are one thing, Especially Intelligible Bodies, or that all Especially Intelligible Bodies are one.
38. We live in Power, in Act and in Eternity.
39. Therefore a good Mind, is that which the Soul of him is.
40. And if this be so, then no intelligible thing differs from intelligible things.
41. As therefore it is possible, that the Mind, the Prince of all things; so likewise, that the Soul that is of God, can do whatsoever it will.
42. But understand thou well, for this Discourse I have made to the question which thou askest of me before, I mean concerning Fate and the Mind.
43. First, if, O Son, thou shalt diligently withdraw thy self from all Contentious speeches, thou shalt find that in Truth, the Mind, the Soul of God bears rule over all things, both over Fate and Law and all other things.
44. And nothing is impossible to him, no not of the things that are of Fate.
45. Therefore, though the Soul of man be above it, let it not neglect the things that happen to be under Fate.
46. And these thus far, were the excellent sayings of the good Demon.
47. Tat. Most divinely spoken, O Father, and truly and profitably, yet clear this one thing unto me
48. Thou sayest, that in brute Beasts the Mind worketh or acteth after the manner of Nature, co-operating also with their (impetus) inclinations.
49. Now the impetuous inclinations of brute Beasts, as I conceive, are Passions. If therefore the Mind do co-operate with these impetuous Inclinations, and that they are the Passions in brute Beasts, certainly the Mind is also a Passion, conforming itself to Passions.
50. Hermes. Well done, Son, thou askest nobly, and yet it is just that I should answer thee.
51. All incorporeal things, O Son, that are in the Body, are possible, nay, they are properly Passions.
52. Everything that moveth is incorporeal; everything that is moved is a Body, and it is moved into the Bodies by the Mind. Now motion is Passion, and there they both suffer; as well that which moveth, as that which is moved, as well that which ruleth, as that which is ruled.
53. But being freed from the Body, it is freed likewise from Passion.
54. But especially, O Son, there is nothing impassible, but all things are passible.
55. But Passion differs from that which is passible, for that (Passion) acteth but this suffers.
56. Bodies also of themselves do act, for either they are unmovable, or else are moved, and which soever it be, it is a Passion.
57. But incorporeal things do always act, or work, and therefore they are passible.
58. Let not therefore the appellations or names trouble thee, for Action and Passion are the same thing, but that it is not grievous to use the more honourable name.
59. Tat. O Father. thou has delivered this Discourse most plainly.
60. Hermes. Consider this also, O Son, That God hath freely bestowed upon man, above all other living things, these two, to wit, Mind and Speech, or Reason, equal to immortality.
61. These if any man use, or employ upon what he ought, he shall differ nothing from the Immortals.
62. Yea, rather going out of the Body, he shall be guided and led by them, both into the Choir and Society of the Gods, and blessed Ones.
63. Tat. Do not other living Creatures use Speech, O Father?
64. Hermes. No, Son, but only Voice; now Speech and Voice do differ exceeding much; for Speech is common to all men, but Voice is proper unto every kind of living thing.
65. Tat. Yea, but the Speech of men is different. O Father, every man according to his Nation.
66. Hermes. It is true, O Son, they do differ: Yet as man is one, so is Speech one also; and it is interpreted and found the same, both in Egypt, Persia, and Greece.
67. But thou seemest unto me, Son, to be ignorant of the Virtue, or Power, and Greatness of Speech.
68. For the blessed God, the good Demon said or commanded the Soul to be in the Body, the Mind, in the Soul, the Word, or Speech, or Reason in the Mind, and the Mind in God, and that God is the Father of them all.
69. Therefore the Word is the Image of the Mind, and the Mind of God, and the Body of the Idea, and the Idea of the Soul.
70. Therefore of the Matter, the subtlest or smallest part is Air, of the Air the Soul, of the Soul the Mind, of the Mind God.
71. And God is about all things, and through all things, but the Mind about the Soul, the Soul about the Air, and the Air about the Matter.
72. But Necessity, and Providence, and Nature, are the Organs or Instruments of the World, and of the Order of Matter.
73. For of those things that are intelligible, every one is; but the Essence of them is Identity.
74. But of the Bodies of the whole, or universe, every one is many things.
75: For the Bodies that are put together,