That the Greatest Evil for Men Is the Ignorance of God

Book VII of Ficino's Pimander is one of the most urgent passages in the Hermetic corpus — not a dialogue but a direct cry. Where all the other books reason and explain, this one shouts: wake up. The plague of ignorance has overturned the world. Drunkards, vomit it out. Find the light that has no darkness in it. Strip off the body as a garment — a living death, a revolving tomb, a thief in your own house. Only the mind can see the one who wills to be seen. Only the mind can declare him.

This translation renders Book VII from Ficino's Latin as preserved in the 1505 Lefèvre d'Étaples edition. The underlying text is designated Corpus Hermeticum VII in modern scholarship.

Where are you rushing, drunken mortals? You have drunk ignorance unmixed — you cannot bear it. Vomit it out. Sober yourselves: look with the eyes of the mind. If all of you cannot do this, let at least those who can do it. The plague of ignorance has overturned the whole earth. It corrupts the soul — clothed and bound in the body's chains — and will not let it find the road to salvation. Do not let yourselves be drowned in the pit of corruption and death. Breathe now, breathe — run back to the fountain of life, and seize the one who will lead you into the sanctuary of truth. There a blazing light shines unmixed with any darkness. There no one raves from drunkenness; all are sober, and with the watchful eyes of the mind they behold more sharply the one who wills to be seen. He is not received by ears, not seen by eyes, not brought forth in words: the mind alone beholds him, the mind alone declares him.

Above all, you must will this — to strip off what you carry everywhere: the garment of ignorance, the foundation of wickedness, the chain of corruption, the thick veil, the living death, the sentient corpse, the revolving tomb, the thief dwelling in your own house. This is the enemy shade that wraps you round: it flatters you while it hates you, it helps you while it hates. It drags you down into itself. And when it sets itself against you, the darkness of the night dulls the edge of your inner senses and blunts them. That heavy matter smothers you: with revolting and nauseating pleasure it makes you drunk, so that you will never hear, never accomplish, the things that are rightly to be heard and — above all — to be seen within.

Colophon

Translated from Ficino's Latin Pimander as preserved in the 1505 Lefèvre d'Étaples edition: Contenta in hoc volumine. Pimander. Mercurij Trismegisti liber De sapientia et potestate dei. Asclepius. Eiusdem Mercurij liber De voluntate divina. Item Crater Hermetis a Lazarelo Septempedano (Rome, 1505). Digital text from the Internet Archive, identifier bub_gb_SbGbIvDI0ekC, held by the National Central Library of Rome. Public Domain Mark 1.0.

This is Book VII of Ficino's Pimander — the text Ficino designates Quod summum malum est hominibus ignorare deum, corresponding to Corpus Hermeticum VII in modern scholarship. G. R. S. Mead's 1905 English was not consulted; translation is derived independently from Ficino's Latin. The underlying Greek Hermetica (Nock-Festugière critical edition) was not consulted.

Compiled and formatted for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026.

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Source Text: Quod Summum Malum Est Hominibus Ignorare Deum — Liber VII

Latin source text from Ficino's Pimander as preserved in the Lefèvre d'Étaples 1505 edition, accessed via the Internet Archive (identifier: bub_gb_SbGbIvDI0ekC). Transcribed from the OCR text with corrections for long-s rendering (ſ → s), hyphenated line-breaks rejoined, and obvious OCR splits resolved.

Quo ruitis mortales ebrii? Qui merum ignorantiae combibistis: cum id ferre nequeatis, evomite. Vivite sobrii; oculis mentis inspicite. Quod si minus potestis omnes, saltem qui possunt id agant. Ignorantiae pestis omnem terram subvertit: animam corrumpit, corporis vinclis indutam; neque sinit eam salutis iter adsciscere. Ne permittite vos in lacum corruptionis, mortiaque submergi. Respirate iam, respirate — ad fontem vitae recurrite: illumque, qui vos introducet in adytum veritatis, captescite. Ibi fulgidum lumen, nullis immixtum tenebris. Ibi nullus ebrietate delirat; sed omnes sobrii, vigilantiaque mentis oculis eum, qui videri vult, acutius intuentur. Is nec auribus percipitur, nec cernitur oculis, neque sermone profertur: sola mens eum prospicit, sola mens predicat.

In primis autem oportet velle — quam circumfers exuere — indumentum inscitiae: pravitatis fundamentum, corruptionis vinculum, velamen opacum, vivam mortem, sensitivum cadaver, sepulchrum circumvertile, domesticum denique furem. Qui dum blanditur odit, dum odit iuvat: huiusmodi est quod circumtegeris umbraculum inimicum. Ad seipsum te deorsum raptat. Ne forte conatus, aliquando praesentia nox, aciem interiorum sensuum hebetat et obtundit. Crassa illa materia suffocat: abhominabili fastiduiaque ebriat voluptate, ne audias unquam, neve perficias ea, quae iure et audienda sunt, et in primis inspicienda.

Source Colophon

Latin source text drawn from Contenta in hoc volumine. Pimander. Mercurij Trismegisti liber De sapientia et potestate dei (Rome: Lefèvre d'Étaples, 1505), digitized by the National Central Library of Rome and made freely available on the Internet Archive (identifier: bub_gb_SbGbIvDI0ekC). Public Domain Mark 1.0. OCR text corrected for long-s rendering (ſ → s) and standard Latin abbreviations expanded.

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