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60 MERC. TRISMEGISTI huic ut bona cōtingunt, cōfultantip ruden= ter, & ad fientiam fingula referēti: quodq mirādum eft, mala femper in bona penitus conuertenti. Sed iam ad fermonem de fen= fu iterū redeamus. Humanum eft fenfum cumintellectione cōiungere.Nam omnes, ut fuprá retuli, homines intellectiōe ferun= tur. Cæterum fecūdum materiam unus, al= ter fecundum effentiam. Qui enim prauita tis feruus eft, fecūdū materiam eft, á dæmo nibusq, ut diximus, intelligentiȩ femen ac= cepit: At qui bonitatis amici funt, horūna= turam deus ipfe tuetur. Deus enim omniū autor, efficiens autem omnia fibijpficonfi= milia reddit. Hæc tamēgenita bona, in ope= rationis ufu fterilia. Mundi nanque reuolu= tio generationes exagitans, qualitates efficit quafdā inficiens, maloq foedans, quafdam defecans, bonoq purgans. Mūdus ō Aefcu lapi fenfum motumq poffidet, non huma= no fenfui motuiq cōfimilem, fed potentio= rem fane atq admodū fimpliciorem. Nam fenfus & intelligentia mundi id unum eft, cuncta fcilicet facere, ac facta refoluere. Di= uinæ uoluntatis organum hac potiffimū ra tione conftructū, ut á deo femina fufcipiens uniuerfa
PYM ANDER. uniuerfa, eaq tuto finu recondens, omnia quidem cōponendo producat, omnia rur= fus auferat diuidendo:Atq inftar agriculto ris periti, quodcunq nimis adultum eft am= putat, ut ftatutis temporum interuallis iterū reuirefcat. Nec eft quicquā, cui uitam mun dus ipfe non præfter: fimulq uitæ locus eft, atq etiaminftitutor. Corpora uero ex mate ria in differentia conftant:horum quædāex terra, quædam ex aqua, ex aēre alia, ex igne quoq permulta. Vniuerfa certe cōpofita, quædam tamen congefta magis, nonnulla uero fimpliciora, illa grauia, hæc leuia. Velo citas autem agitationis illius uarietate gene rationum qualitates inducit. Spiratio enim crebra exiftens, corporibus qualitatem uná cum fuperabūdantia uitæ fuppeditat.Deus igitur cofmi, id eft mundipater: Cofmus au tem eorū quæ in cofmo: & cofmus quidem dei filius. Quæ uero in cofmo, fub cofmidiz tione cōfiftunt. Ac iure cofmus appellatus eft, omnia fiquidem uarietate generationis $\boldsymbol{\pi} \boldsymbol{\sigma} \boldsymbol{\alpha} \boldsymbol{\alpha}$, id eft exornat. Necnon in definentia uite, operatione perpetua, neceffitatis celeri tate, elementorum cōmixtione, ordine ge= nitorum. Ipfe quoq cofmus, id eft ornatus
Translation
60 MERCURY TRISMEGISTUS to him, as good things happen, consulting ignorantly, and referring each thing to knowledge: and what is to be wondered at, evil always thoroughly turning into good. But now to the discourse concerning sense let us return again. It is human to unite sense with intellection. For all, as I related above, men are led by intellection. But one according to matter, the other according to essence. For he who is a slave of depravity, is according to matter, and received the seed of intelligence from demons, as we said: But those who are friends of goodness, their nature God himself protects. For God is the author of all, yet making all things similar to Himself. These good things, however, which are born, are sterile in the use of operation. For the revolution of the world, agitating generations, produces certain qualities, infecting and defiling with evil, some purifying and cleansing with good. O Aesculapius, the world possesses sense and motion, not similar to human sense and motion, but certainly more powerful and very much simpler. For the sense and intelligence of the world is this one thing, namely to do all things, and to resolve what has been done. The organ of divine will is constructed mainly by this reason, so that, receiving seeds from God,
PYMANDER.
all things, and safely storing them in its bosom,
indeed produces all things by composing them,
and again takes away all things by dividing them:
And like a skilled farmer, whatever is too grown,
he prunes, so that at set intervals of time it may grow
green again. Nor is there anything to which the world
itself does not grant life: at the same time it is the place
of life, and also its instructor. Bodies indeed consist of
matter in differentiation: of these, some from earth,
some from water, others from air, and very many from fire
also. All things certainly composite, yet some more
aggregated, but some simpler, those heavy, these light.
Moreover, the swiftness of that agitation induces
qualities by the variety of generations. For frequent
breathing, existing, supplies bodies with quality
together with an superabundance of life. God therefore
is the father of the cosmos, that is, of the world: But
the cosmos is the father of those things which are in the cosmos:
and the cosmos indeed is the son of God. But those things
which are in the cosmos, exist under the dominion
of the cosmos. And rightly is it called cosmos,
for indeed by the variety of generation πασα,
that is, it adorns. Moreover, in the endlessness
of life, by perpetual operation, by the swiftness of necessity,
by the commixture of elements, by the order of
generated things. The cosmos itself also, that is, the ornament