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."Thus God spake, quoth Hermes, and all obeyed His decree."Look upon the earth," He said to them, "and upon allthings beneath,"Straightway they looked, and understood the will of the Lord.And when He spoke to them of the creation of Man,asking of each what he could bestow upon the race about to be born, the Sun first replied:--"I will illuminemankind." Then the Moon promised enlightenment in her turn, adding that already she had created Fear, Silence,Sleep, and Memory.Kronos announced that he had begotten Justice and Necessity.Zeus said, "In order to spare thefuture race perpetual wars, I have generated Fortune, Hope, and Peace." Ares declared himself already father ofConflict, impetuous Zeal, and Emulation, Aphrodite did not wait to be called upon: "As for me, O Master," she said,"I will bestow upon mankind Desire, with voluptuous Joy and Laughter, that the penalty, to which our sister Soulsare destined may not weigh on them too hardly." These words of Aphrodite, O my Son, were welcomed gladly."And I," said Hermes, "will endow human nature with Wisdom, Temperance, Persuasion, and Truth; nor will I ceaseto ally myself with Invention.I will ever protect the mortal life of such men as are born under my signs, seeing thatto me the Creator and Father has attributed in the Zodiac, signs of Knowledge and Intelligence; above all, when themovement[mentp.10which draws thereto the stars is in harmony with the physical forces of each." 1He Who is Master of the world rejoiced at hearing these things, and decreed the production of the human race.Asfor me--said Hermes--I sought what material ought to be employed in the work, and invoked the Lord.Hecommanded the Souls to give up the residue of the protoplastic substance, which having taken, I found it entirelydried up.Therefore, I used a great excess of water wherewith to renew the combination of the substance, in suchwise that the product might be resolvable, yielding, and feeble, and that Force should not be added therein toIntelligence.When I had achieved my work it was beautiful, and I rejoiced in seeing it.And from below I calledupon the Lord to behold what I had done.He saw it, and approved.Straightway He ordained that the Souls shouldbe incorporated; and they were seized with horror on learning what should be their condemnation.These words, said Isis, struck me.Hearken, my son Horos, for I teach thee a mystery.Our ancestor Kamephes had italso from Hermes, who inscribes the recital of all things; I, in turn, received it from the ancient Kamephes when headmitted me to the initiation of the black veil; 2 and thou, likewise, O marvellous and illustrious child, receive itfrom me.[Thep.11The Souls were about to be imprisoned in bodies, whereat some sighed and lamented, as when some wild and freeanimal suddenly enchained, in the first moment of subjection to hard servitude and of severance from the belovedhabits of the wilderness, struggles and revolts, refusing to follow its conqueror, and if occasion presents itself,slaying him.Others, again, hissed like serpents, or gave vent to piercing cries and sorrowful words, glancingaimlessly from height to depth."Great Heaven," said one, "principle of our birth, ether, pure airs, hands, and sacred breath of the sovereign God,and you, shining Stars, eyes of the Gods, unwearying light of Sun and Moon, our early brethren, what grief, whatrending is this! Must we quit these vast, effulgent spaces, this sacred sphere, all these splendors of the empyrean andof the happy republic of the Gods, to be precipitated into these vile and miserable abodes? What crime, O wretchedones, have we committed? How can we have merited, poor sinners that we are, the penalties which await us? Beholdthe sad future in store for us--to minister to the wants of a fluctuating and dissoluble body! No more may our eyesdistinguish the souls divine! Hardly through these watery spheres shall we perceive, with sighs, our ancestralheaven; at intervals even we shall cease altogether to behold it.By this disastrous sentence direct vision is denied tous; we can see only by the aid of the outer light; these are but windows that we possess--not eyes.Nor will our painbe less when we hear in the air the fraternal breathing of the winds with which no longer can we mingle our own,since that will have for its dwelling, instead of the sublime and open world, the narrow prison of the breast! ButThou, Who drivest us forth, and causest us from so[highp.12high a seat to descend so low, assign a limit to our sufferings! O Master and Father, so quickly become indifferent toThy handiwork, appoint a term to our penance, deign to bestow on us some last words, while yet we are able tobehold the expanse of the luminous spheres!"This prayer of the Souls was granted, my son Horos, for the Lord was present; and sitting upon the throne of Truth,thus He addressed them:--"O Souls; you shall be governed by Desire and Necessity; after me, these shall be your masters and your guides.Souls, subjected to my sceptre which never fails, know that inasmuch as you remain stainless you shall inhabit theregions of the skies.If among you any be found to merit reproach, they shall inhabit abodes destined to them inmortal organisms.If your faults be light, you shall, delivered from the bond of the flesh, return to heaven.But if youbecome guilty of graver crime, if you turn away from the end for which you have been formed, then indeed youshall dwell neither in heaven nor in human bodies, but thenceforth you shall pass into those of animals withoutreason." 1p.11Having thus spoken, O my son Horos, He breathed upon them and said, "It is not according to chance that I haveordained your destiny; if you act ill, it will be worse; it will be better if your actions are worthy of your birth.It ismyself and not another who will be your witness and your judge.Understand that it is because of your past errorsthat you are to be punished and shut up in fleshly bodies.In different bodies, as I have already told you, your re-births will be different.Dissolution shall be a benefit, restoring your former happy condition.But if your conduct beunworthy of me, your prudence, becoming blinded and guiding you backwards, will cause you to take for goodfortune that which is really a chastisement, and to dread a happier lot as though it were a cruel injury.The most justamong you shall, in their future transformations, approximate to the[divinep.14divine, becoming among men, upright kings, true philosophers, leaders and legislators, true seers, collectors ofsalutary plants, cunning musicians, intelligent astronomers, wise augurs, instructed ministrants: all beautiful andgood offices; as among birds are the eagles which pursue not nor devour those of their own kind, and do not permitweaker ones to be attacked in their presence, because justice is in the nature of the eagle; among quadrupeds, thelion, for he is a strong animal, untamed by slumber, in a mortal body performing immortal toils, and by nothing tirednor beguiled; among reptiles, the dragon, because he is powerful, living long, innocent, and a friend of men,allowing himself to be tamed, having no venom, and, leaving old age, approximating to the nature of the Gods;among fishes, the dolphin, for this creature, taking pity on those who fall into the sea, will carry them to land if theystill live, and will abstain from devouring them if dead, although it is the most voracious of all aquatic animals."Having spoken these words, God became an Incorruptible Intelligence (i.e., resumed the unmanifest) [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]