The Key, to Tatius — On God, Father, and Good; the Soul's Transformations; Man as Earthly God

The tenth book of Ficino's Pimander is addressed to Tatius as a compendium and summary of everything Hermes has taught him before. It begins with the great identification: God and Father and Good have the same nature and the same act — the world and sun are fathers of things by participation, but not the cause of life, and God, by the very fact that he is all things, wills all things to be. The book describes the soul's journey through transformations — from reptiles to aquatic to terrestrial to aerial to human to daemons to the chorus of gods — and names ignorance as the root of evil and the force that plunges the soul back to its lowest state. At the center stands man, whose constitution is mind in reason, reason in soul, soul in spirit, spirit in body; whose salvation is the knowledge of God alone; and whose nature is so vast that without leaving the earth, he ascends to heaven and measures it. The book closes with a dare: man is an earthly god, mortal — and the god is a heavenly man, immortal.

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

Yesterday's discourse I wrote for you, Asclepius. It is therefore fitting to dedicate today's to Tatius — all the more worthwhile, since the present discussion will serve as a kind of compendium and summary of everything we have said to him before.

God and Father and Good, O Tatius, have the same nature and the same act.

That term of increase and decrease applies equally to mutable and immutable things — to human and divine alike. Each of them wills to be. And the act of divine and human things, which is necessary to understand in this: the act of this one is will; the knowledge of this one is the will that all things subsist.

What is God's Good? Nothing but being itself — the bond of all existing things; even their very existence while they exist. That is God, that is Father, that is Good — to whom nothing else from all things can be added.

The world and the sun are, through participation, father of all things that exist — but not the cause of living, of life, of goodness. For if this is so, he is moved by the will of the Good, without which he neither can be nor come into being. As father of children, both in begetting and in nourishing, he takes on all this through the sole desire for the Good — for the Good is active — and this can belong to no other than him. Since he receives nothing, he wills all things to be.

I do not say, O Tatius, that he makes all things. For one who makes is lacking over some length of time — and that is unworthy of him. To sometimes make and sometimes cease: deficient in quantity and quality, at times arranging qualities and quantities, at other times their contraries.

But God and Father and Good, by the very fact that he is all things — such things he can prescribe to himself. For this he wills to be, and is. And he is this most truly to himself, for all other things exist because of him.

For it is the property of the Good, O Tatius, to make itself known. That is what the Good is, O Tatius.

TATIUS: O father, you have made us participants in vision, beautiful and noble. From this my mind's eye has been purified, as it were, by this vision.

TRISMEGISTUS: Nor does the ray of the sun, by its excessive brightness, corrupt and dim the eyes — so the vision of the Good illuminates, and augments the light of the eyes all the more, the more one is able to receive the influx of intelligible splendor. Swift and sharp, divine light penetrates — innocent, immortal, filling each individual wholly. Those who can draw more abundantly from this brightness beyond the body often fall asleep from the body to behold the most beautiful sight — as Uranus and Saturn, our progenitors, ascended.

TATIUS: Would that we too, Father.

TRISMEGISTUS: Would that it were so, O son. But still we are too weak to achieve this. When we shall be able to raise the eyes of the mind and behold the incomprehensible beauty and goodness — having said absolutely nothing of it — its knowledge will be divine silence and the intense application of all. For one who understands it can think of nothing else. One who beholds it can behold nothing else beside it. One who hears it can hear nothing after it, nor even move the members of the body. Having been freed from all bodily senses and motions, he acts without fear. For that which illuminates the whole illuminates also the whole mind, abstracts the whole soul from the body, and transforms it wholly into the essence of God.

For it is impossible, O son, for a soul resting in the sediment of the body to assume the divine form. Nor is it permitted to behold the beauty of God unless one has first been transformed into God.

TATIUS: What is this distribution, Father?

TRISMEGISTUS: It is the distribution of souls, O son.

TATIUS: And how are the changes of souls distributed?

TRISMEGISTUS: Have you not heard in what we said in general: how from one soul of the whole world all souls flow through every world, distributed and circulating? Of these souls the changes are very many — some into better things, happily; some into their contrary.

Some reptilian souls transform into aquatic ones. Souls of aquatic creatures migrate to terrestrial ones. Terrestrial ones ascend into flying ones. Aerial ones are turned into men. From men, when immortal, souls pass into daemons. Then they happily revolve into the chorus of the gods. The chorus of the gods is twofold: the wandering and the non-wandering. This is the supreme glory of the soul.

But a soul that has descended into the human body — if it persists in evil — does not taste immortality, nor enjoy the Good. It returns on the road into reptiles: this is the judgment and punishment for the soul's wickedness, which is ignorance.

The soul ignorant of the nature of things, deprived of eyes, involves itself in the passions of the body. The soul of an evil daemon — of a bad demon — now corrupted, not knowing itself, disowned, seeks monstrous and deformed bodies. It carries its body as an infected garment: not presiding over the body but subservient to it through ignorance.

The virtue of the soul, on the contrary, is knowledge. For one who has truly learned is good, pious, and divine.

TATIUS: Who is this, Father?

TRISMEGISTUS: He who neither speaks nor hears many things — who, attending to two discourses, either to speak or to hear, fights in the darkness. For God and Father and Good is announced by no tongue, nor grasped by ears.

When this is so in all things that exist from him — which cannot be apart from him — understanding is not absent. But there is much difference between knowledge and understanding. Knowledge arises from the impulse of a superior motion; it is the limit of science. Science is the gift of God. For each of the sciences uses the mind as its instrument — but all science uses the body. Thus both intelligible and material things return in both kinds: for all things must be constituted of opposition and contrariety, and it is impossible for it to be otherwise.

TATIUS: Who then is the material god?

TRISMEGISTUS: The world — beautiful indeed, but not good. For it is composed from matter and subject to passions. It is first among those things that suffer; second among those that exist. Deficient by its own nature: made at a certain time, yet always existing in generation — produced along with all qualities and quantities. Moveable. But all material motion is called generation. And intelligible rest, in this manner, drives material motion: for the world is a sphere — that is, a head — and nothing above it is material.

Just as nothing intelligible lies below the feet, yet all material things are below. But Mind drives the head in a circle — that is, with the motion proper to a head. All things contiguous with that head's pellicle, which is the soul, are born immortal, as though the body were constituted in the soul, having the soul full in the body. But whatever is far from that pellicle, and participates more in the source and in the body — that is body. Yet the whole is one living creature.

And so the world is composed from a certain material and intelligible thing. The world is the first living creature; man is the second after the world — the first among the rest. Whatever function the world concedes to others, man also possesses; and not only the non-good, but also evil — being mortal. The world is not good because it is moveable; not evil, however, because it is immortal. Man is judged evil because he is both moveable and mortal.

The soul of man is borne in this manner: mind in reason, reason in soul, soul in spirit, spirit in body. Spirit passes through veins and arteries and blood, stirring the living creature on all sides, sustaining and carrying the body's mass. Hence some, deceived by the humour of blood, supposed the soul to be blood. This plainly escaped them: for first, spirit must flow all the way to the soul; then blood coagulates, extending the hollow veins and arteries; finally the living creature dissolves — and that dissolution is the death of the body.

All things depend on one principle; the principle from one alone. The principle moves, so that it may stand again as principle. It itself, the one, stands firm and does not depart from unity.

Therefore these three are: God, Father, Good; and the world; and man. God contains the world; the world contains man. The world is God's son; man the world's offspring. God does not ignore man, but has care of him, and wills to be known by him.

This alone is man's salvation: the knowledge of God. This is the ascent to Olympus. Through this alone the soul becomes good — not always good, but sometimes mixed, sometimes turning, alternating by necessity among others.

I assert, O Tatius: the soul of a child gazes upon itself, not yet departed from its nature on account of the body — the body not yet completely compacted — and beholds itself wholly beautiful. For it has not yet been corrupted by the body's passions; it still depends upon the soul of the whole world. But when the body is compacted, it disperses and draws the soul into its own mass; then the soul is subjected to forgetfulness, and deprived of the vision of the beautiful and the good. Forgetfulness itself is wickedness.

And this likewise befalls those who exit the body. When the soul withdraws into itself: spirit contracts into blood, soul into spirit. Then the mind, freed from its wrappings and divine by its own nature, having obtained a fiery body, travels through every place, having committed the soul to just and deserved judgment.

TATIUS: In what way is this, Father?

TRISMEGISTUS: Mind is separated from soul, soul from spirit. The clothing of mind is soul; the clothing of soul is spirit. It is necessary to understand, O son, that listener and speaker must speak together, breathe together — and the listener must have an ear keener than the speaker's voice. Of these vestments, O son, the wrapping occurs in the earthly body: for it is impossible to station a naked mind in an earthly mass. For neither can earthly flesh receive a mind so divine; nor can so great a number of powers sustain a body made passible. Thus mind took soul as its cloak; and soul, which is divine, uses spirit as its vehicle. Spirit traverses the whole living creature.

Therefore when mind is first freed from the earthly body, it immediately takes on its own proper cloak — a fiery body — which, while it must travel in it, cannot swell into an earthly body. For earth does not endure fire at all; a single small spark would burn it entirely. That is why water has been poured around the earthly mass — as a kind of barrier against the burning of fire. But fire, being most acute and most swift in its conception of all divine things, comprehends the bodies of the individual elements: for it is itself the craftsman of the heavens, and uses fire above all in its own work. The Craftsman of the whole uses all things; but every earthly craftsman uses only those things that are around the earth. For the mind of man, stripped of fire and fit only for human arrangement, cannot construct divine things.

The human soul — not every soul, but the devout and blessed — when freed from the prison of the body through death, having submitted to all the mandates of virtue and piety, becomes either mind or god. But the contest of holy piety is this: to know God, and to harm no one.

The impious soul, however, remains in its own nature, afflicting itself excessively — it seeks an earthly and human body to enter. For no body other than human takes a human soul; nor is it fitting that a rational soul fall into a body lacking reason. Divine law forbids such abominable generation.

TATIUS: How then is the human soul tormented, Father? What punishment of it is most grievous?

TRISMEGISTUS: Impiety, O my son Tatius. What fire burns with a fiercer flame than impiety? What beast so bites and tears the body as impiety tears the soul? Do you not see how many evils the impious soul suffers?

The impious soul cries out thus, O son: I am burned; I am consumed; I do not know what to do. The evils devour the wretch, flowing together from all sides; I see nothing, alas miserable one; I hear nothing. Such are the voices of the tormented soul. Such is the punishment suited to its nature — not such as you perhaps, O son, and others think, those who believe our soul, after shedding the human form, degenerates into the bodies of brutes. This is a pious error. The mode of chastisement is otherwise.

Mind, which made the daemon, orders it to seize a fiery body; and transferred into the wicked soul, it flogs it with the lashes of sins. Thus the unjust soul, beaten, turns to murders, insults, abuses, and various robberies — to all those things through which men sin, it slides wholly downward. But when the mind flows into the holy soul, it lifts it to the light of wisdom. Such a soul afterward never languishes in any stupor, but serves the human race equally in words and in deeds, and improves it in every way, always imitating its parent.

Therefore, O son, we must give thanks to God and implore him that we may become participants in the good mind. The soul migrates into better — never into worse.

There is also a certain communion of souls. The souls of the gods communicate with the souls of men. God exhibits himself common to all — for he is more excellent than all; all things are weaker than he. The world is beneath God, man beneath the world, the brute beneath man. God is above all and about all.

The rays of God are acts; the rays of the world are the forces of nature; the rays of man are arts and sciences. Acts are exercised through the world and descend through the world's natural rays into man; nature's through the elements, man's through arts and sciences. This administration of the whole world, depending on one nature, coursing rightly through one matter — than which nothing is more valid, nothing more divine, nothing more united. The communion of men to gods, of gods to men. This is the good daemon; the soul full of it is blessed; the empty soul is wretched.

TATIUS: How do you say this, Father?

TRISMEGISTUS: Know, O my son: every soul has the Good itself for its mind — I speak of the mind that presides over this, not the minister of it, of which we spoke above, sent down to the underworld by judgment.

The soul destitute of the mind's presence can neither act nor speak anything. Often the mind is outside the soul: at which time the soul neither hears nor sees, but is like an animal lacking reason. Such is the power of mind — that a soul thus deserted, implicated in the body and drawn by it downward, has no mind. Therefore it is not right to call this one a man.

For man is a divine animal — not to be compared with earthly brutes, but with the celestial gods above. Nay — if one must dare to speak the truth — the true man is either superior to the celestial dwellers, or at least shares equal fortune with them. For the celestials descend more slowly to earth, abandoning heaven's boundary; man ascends to heaven and measures it. Nothing escapes him that is lowest; nothing that is highest. He inquires diligently into all the rest. And what is greatest: not leaving the earth, he is raised to heaven. So vast is the power of human nature.

Therefore we must dare to say: man is an earthly god, mortal; but the god is a heavenly man, immortal. Thus by the virtue of two — of man and of the world — all singular things are governed; all things are ultimately subjected to one.

Ficino's closing scholion, appended to the text:

He asserts absolutely that God, Father, and Good are the same, and that each individual thing contracts by singular participation. He then discusses the rapture of the vision — that which is perceived by the eyes of the mind: neither is it right to reveal, nor is the judgment to reveal it granted. But what he subjoins concerning the transformation of souls is not to be taken literally, but as a kind of allegory — as the following discourse of Mercury itself declares, when it says: No body other than human takes a human soul; nor is it right that a rational soul be made to fall into a body lacking reason — for divine law forbids so abominable a generation. And a little after he adds: Such is the punishment suited to nature — not such as you perhaps, O son, and others believe, to whom it seems our soul, after shedding the human form, degenerates into the bodies of brutes. This is a pious error. Regarding the soul of the child gazing upon itself: this they will have seen who defend the understanding of mind as hidden. These and similar things. The Key.

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 X of Ficino's Pimander — the text Ficino designates Mercurii Trismegisti Clauis ad Tatium, corresponding to Corpus Hermeticum X in modern scholarship. The modern critical Greek edition (Nock and Festugière 1945) was not consulted; translation is derived independently from Ficino's Latin. G. R. S. Mead's 1905 English was not consulted.

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

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Source Text: Mercurii Trismegisti Clauis ad Tatium — Liber X

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. Roman numeral corruptions normalized.

Paternum o Esculapi sermonem ascripsi tibi. Vnde aequum est hodiernum Tatio dedicare; eoque magis id opereprecius, quod disputatio praesens omnium ad illum a nobis antedictorum compedaria quaedam summa futura est. Deus et pater et bonum o Tati naturam eandem atque eundem actum habent. Illa siquidem augmenti, diminutionisque appellatio aeque circa mutabilia et immutabilia, id est humana et divina versatur. Quorum unumquodque id vult esse; alibi vero actum (quemadmodum in aliis, demonstravimus) divinorum atque humanorum, quae quidem in hoc intelligere necesse est: huius actus voluntas est; huius scientia velle cuncta subsistere. Quid est deus bonum? Nisi ipsum esse horum omnium nodum existentium; quin etiam existentia ipsa horum dum sunt: id deus, id pater, id bonum; cui nihil aliud ex omnibus applicatur. Mundus enim et sol eorum quae sunt (secundum participationem) pater; non tamen vivendi, vitae, bonitatis, causa. Quia si hoc ita se habet, comprehensus agitur a voluntate boni, sine qua nec esse unquam, nec fieri potest. Cum filiorum pater, tum procreationis, tum etiam alimenti, per solum appetitum boni suscipit (quia bonum activum est) id alteri convenire quam illi nequit. Quod cum accipiat nihil, universa vult esse. Non dico o Tati, universa facit. Faciens enim, longo quodam tempore deficiens; at indignum est. Siquidem interdum facit, interdum cessat: egenum quidem et quantitatis, pariter et qualitatis, nonnunquam qualia et quanta disponens; alias horum contraria. Deus autem et pater et bonum; eo ipso quod omnia est. Tale igitur ei quidem ista praecipere potest. Etenim hoc vult esse et est. Et ipsum maxime vero ipsi: nam cetera omnia propter ipsum. Proprium quippe boni, o Tati; seic notum praebere. Id bonum est, o Tati.

TAT. Visionis pater, bone et pulchre nos participes reddidisti. Vnde me mentis oculus visione quasi iam expiatus est. TRISME. Neque vero quemadmodum solis radius, fulgore nimio corrumpit oculos caligantesque reddit; sic ipsius boni conspectio: illustrat enim atque oculi lucem eo magis exauget, quo quis capere magis potest intelligibilis splendoris influxum. Velociter est et acutior divina lux ad penetrandum; innocua et immortalitate singula complens. Qui nitore hunc a corpore uberius haurire possunt, obdormiunt saepe numero a corpore ad aspectum pulcherrimum: quemadmodum Coelus et Saturnus nostri genitores assurunt. TAT. Vtina et nos pater. TRISME. Vtina o fili. Adhuc tamen imbeciliores sumus ad conspiciendum. Tunc autem poterimus mentis oculos elevare, bonumque decoremque incomprehensibilem prospicere: cum nihil de illo prorsus dixerimus, eius cognitio divinum silentium est, et intenta omnium applicatio. Qui id intelligit, nil potest aliud cogitare. Qui id intuetur, nil praeter ipsum aliud intueri. Qui id audit, nil audire post ipsum; neque corporis etiam sui membra movere. Universis profecto corporis sensibus motibusque solutus, intrepidus agit: nam qui totum circumlustrat, undique mentem totam quoque irradiat, animam abstrahit totam a corpore, totam in essentiam dei denique transfigurat. Impossibile enim o fili animam nolis in corporis faece iacentem: divinam assumere formam. Neque licet etiam dei pulchritudinem contueri: nisi quis ante in deum fuerit reformatus.

TAT. Quonam pacto id ais o pater? TRISME. Omnis animae distributio fili. TAT. Mutationes autem quonam modo inter se distribuens? TRISME. Num in his quae generatim diximus audisti: quemadmodum ab una mundi totius anima universae profluunt animae per omnem mundum tanquam distributae circumcurrentes. Harum utique animarum mutationes permultae, partim sane in melius feliciusque, partim autem in contrarium. Nam reptilium quaedam in aquatilia transmutantur; aquatilium animae in terrestria migrant; terrestrium in volatilia scandunt; aereorum vertuntur in homines. Hominum deinde immortales animae in daemones transeunt; demum in deorum chorum feliciter revolant. Chori deorum gemini: vagantium unus, non vagantium alter; atque haec cum suprema animae gloria. Anima vero in corpus humanum delapsa; si quidem mala perseveraverit, non gustat immortalitatis quicquam, neque bono etiam fruitur. Revoluto autem itinere in reptilia relabitur; haec utique adiudicatio poenaeque est animae pravitas animae, ignorantia. Anima naturae rerum boni inscitia, orbata oculis, in corporis passionibus se implicat. Anima cacodaemonis, mali daemonis, iam corrupta, dei ipsa ignorans, abiectis corporibus, monstruosis deformibusque convenit. Corpus suum velut onus infestum circumfert; non praesidens corpori, sed ob ignorantiam subiugata. Contra vero virtus animae cognitio est: ediditus enim re vera, bonus, pius, divinus.

TAT. Quis hic est o pater? TRISME. Qui nec loquitur nec audit multa; qui duobus sermonibus, seu dicendis seu audiendis, intendit et pugnat in tenebris. Nam deus et pater et bonum nec lingua nunciatur, neque auribus concipitur. Cum haec igitur ita se habeant in omnibus quae sunt ex eo, quae seorsa ab illo esse nequeunt, sensus inest. Inter cognitionem autem ac sensum multum interest. Sensus enim superantis motus exsistit cognitio: scientiae terminus. Scientia dei donum. Quippe unaquaeque scientia incorporea mente vtitur ut organo; omnis autem corpore. Quaecumque ergo utraque in corpora; tum intelligibilia, tum etiam materialia recurrunt. Ex oppositione enim et contrarietate constare omnia necesse est; nec aliter se habere possibile est.

TAT. Quis igitur materialis ille deus? TRISME. Mundus: pulcher quidem, non tamen bonus; et enim ex materia conflatus, passionibusque subiectus. Primus est eorum quae patiuntur. Secundus autem eorum quae sunt. Indigens praeterea suapte natura: factus aliquando, semper existens in generatione atque genitus, qualitatum omnium quantitatumque geniturae. Mobilis enim. Omnis autem materialis motio generatio dici debet. Intelligibilis quoque status, hoc pacto motum materialem agitat: Quoniam mundus sphaera est, id est caput; nec supra materiale quicquam. Quemadmodum neque aliud sub pedibus intelligibile: at materialia cuncta. Mens vero caput in circulum agitatum, id est secundum naturam capitis motum. Quotcumque igitur contigua sunt capitis illius pelliculae quae sane anima est, immortalia nata sunt; quasi corpus sit in anima constitutum, animamque habentia plena sunt corpore. Verum quicquid a pellicula procul, in qua fonti quoque magis participant animae, corpus exsistit. Totum vero animal est. Itaque mundus ex materiali quoddam et intelligibili compositus est. Mundus animal primum: homo secundum post mundum animal, primum autem animalium reliquorum. Quodcumque vero animae munus concedit aliis, homo quoque possidet; neque solum non bonus, sed malus etiam, ut pote mortalis. Mundus enim non bonus, quia mobilis; non tamen malus, quia immortalis. Homo autem tum quia mobilis, tum quia mortalis, malus esse censetur. Anima hominis in hunc vehitur modum. Mens in ratione; ratio in anima; anima in spiritu; spiritus in corpore. Spiritus per venas arteriasque sanguineque dimissus, animal undique ciet, moleque corporis suspensa sustinet atque circumfert. Vnde decepti quidam humore sanguinis, animam existimarunt. Hos plane latuit: quia in primis oportet spiritum ad animam usque manare; deinde sanguinem coagulescere, venasque et arterias casas extendendo, demum resolvi animal; eamque mortem corporis esse. Ex uno autem principio cuncta dependent; principium ex uno atque solo. Et principium quidem movetur, ut rursus extet principium. Ipsum tamen unum perstat, nec ab unitate decedit. Tria igitur haec sunt: Deus pater bonus, et mundus, et homo. Mundum deus habet; mundum homo. Mundus dei filius; homo genitura mundi. Neque enim ignorat deus hominem; sed curam eius habet, ab eoque cognosci se vult.

Haec unica salus hominis, cognitio dei: haec ad Olympum ascensio; ex hoc uno duntaxat anima bona; neque interdum mala, interdum bona, at secundum necessitatem alterna in aliis.

Hoc inquam assero, animam pueri contemplari seipsam: iam non a natura sua propter corpus egessa, nondum enim corpus omnino compactum est, et seipsam undique pulchram conspicere. Nam haud corrupta est adhuc a corporis passionibus, mundi totius anima tunc dependens. Verum compactum est corpus, animamque in sui molem dispergit ac distrahit; tunc illa oblivioni subijcitur, pulchri ac boni visione privatur. Oblivio autem ipsa improbitas est. Ideoque accidit iis qui egrediuntur ex corpore. Recurrente enim anima in seipsam, spiritus in sanguinem, anima in spiritum contrahit. Mens a velaminibus libera et divina exsistens, suapte natura igneum fortita corpus, per loca omnia circumvagatur, animamque iudicio iusto ac merito supplicans.

TAT. Quo pacto id ais o pater? TRISME. Mens quidem ab anima, anima vero a spiritu separatur. Indumentum mentis anima. Indumentum animae spiritus. Contueri oportet o fili cum dicente auditorem, atque conspirare; auditumque acutiorem voce dicentis habere. Harum o fili vestium convolutio in corpore terreno conficitur. Siquidem nudam secundum se mentem in terrea sistere mole penitus impossibile; neque enim potis est terrea sexa, mentem adeo divinam suscipere; neque tantum numen patibili confirmatum corpore sustinere. Adsumpsit ergo mens animam velut amictum. Quinetiam anima divina exsistens, vehiculo spiritus utitur. Spiritus animal totum percurrit. Itaque cum primum mens a terreno corpore solvitur, proprium mox subit amictum, igneum videlicet corpus; quo sane quamdiu circumvectanda est, in terreum corpus turgescere nequit. Terra namque ignem minime sustinet: tota siquidem ab exigua scintilla cremaretur. Qua de causa terrenae moli circumfusus est humor; quasi quoddam ad combustionem ignis obstaculum; qui cum acutissimus ac velocissimus sit omnium divinorum conceptum, singulorum comprehendit elementorum corpora: etenim ipse coelorum artifex, igne potissimum ad sua fabrica utitur. Opifex quidem totius utitur omnibus; omnis autem faber, iis quae sunt circa terram. Orbata namque igni mens hominis, ad humanamque dispositionem duntaxat idonea, divina construere nequit. Humana certe anima, non omnis quidem, sed pia beataque, postquam vero huiuscemodi anima per mortem a carcere corporis est exempta, cum omni subierit virtutis pietatis mandata, certe aut mens, aut deus efficitur. Certamen autem religiosae pietatis hoc est: recognoscere deum; iniuriam inferre nemini. Anima tamen impia in natura propria remanet, seipsam nimium cruciat, corpus quaerit quod ingrediatur terrenum et humanum. Aliud quippe corpus quam humanum, animam non capit humanam; neque fas est in corpus animae ratione carentis, animam rationalem corruere. Lex enim divina generatione tam nefariam prohibet.

TAT. Quo igitur modo cruciatur o pater hominis anima? Quod uero supplicium huius animae gravius? TRISME. Impietas o fili mi Tati; cuiusnam ignis ardentior flamma, quam ipietatis est? Quaenam fera mordax ita corpus lacerat, ut impietas laniat animam? None vides quot malis animus premitur impius. Hinc sic fili vociferatur impius animus: Vror, absumo; quid agam nescio; devorant me miserum mala undique confluentia; non video quicquam; heu miser, non audio. Tales afflicti sunt animi voces. Talis naturae congrua mulcta; non qualem tu forte fili et alii quidam arbitrantur, quibus videtur anima nostra postquam est humanam exuta figuram, in corpora degenerare brutorum. Hic enim pius error; id verucae nigationis eius, modus alter. Mens utique eu daemonem efficit, id ad obliquium dei iubet igneum capessere corpus; inde in animam transfusa nefariam, eam flagellis verberat peccatorum. His animus verberatus iniquus, ad neces, conuitia, obiurgia, rapinasque varias sese vertit; ad ea denique per quae delinquunt homines, universa delabitur. At cum in sanctam mens influit animam, extollit illam ad sapientiae lumen. Haec anima postmodum nunquam omni torpore languescit; sed et verbis pariter et operibus humano fert opem generi, inuatque modis omnibus, suum semper aemulata parentem. Quamobrem oportet o fili nos agentes deo gratias obsecrare, ut bonae mentis participes efficiamur; in melius quidem anima migrat, in deterius nunquam.

Est etiam animarum communio quaedam: deorum animae communicant hominum animis. Deus se communem singulis exhibet, praestantior enim cunctis ille; cuncta autem illo sunt imbeciliora. Mundus deo, homo mundo, homini brutum subijciatur. Deus super omnia est et circa omnia. Dei radii actus exsistunt; mundi radij sunt naturae; radij vero hominis artes atque scientiae. Per mundum exercetur actus; iique in hominem per mundi radios naturales descendunt; naturae per elementa, hominis per artes atque scientias. Haec utique mundi totius administratio, ex unius natura dependens, per unam materiem recte discurrens; qua nihil validius, nihil divinius, nihil denique magis unitum. Hominum ad deos, ad homines deorum communio. Iste bonus est daemon; anima quae hoc plena est, beata est; misera vero, vacua.

TAT. Quanam ratione id ais o pater? TRISME. Scito mi fili, quia anima omnis habet ipsum bonum pro mente; de hac enim praesens nobis est sermo, non de ministro huius, quem supra diximus, ex iudicio demissum ad inferos. Anima mentis praesentia destituta, nec agere quicquam, nec dicere potis est. Saepe vero mens extra animam: quo quidem in tempore, nec audit, nec videt anima; sed animali similis est ratione carenti. Tanta est potentia mentis, quae animam huiusmodi desertam implicita corpori et ab eo tracta ad inferna. Talis anima fili mi mentem nullam habet, ideoque nec hominem hunc appellare fas est. Homo siquidem animal est divinum; nec est cum terrenis brutis, sed cum diis coelestibus comparandus. Quinimo si audendum est verum fateri, homo verus vel coelicolisest praestantior, vel saltem pari forte potitur. Etenim quietiores coelitum descendit ad terram, coeli limitem deserit. Homo autem ascendit in coelum, illudque metitur; nec eum fugit quae ima sunt, quaeque sublima; ac reliqua omnia diligenter inquirit, quodque maius est, terra quidem haud dimittes, in coelum attollitur. Tam ampla est humanae naturae potestas. Quamobrem audendum est dicere: hominem quasi terrenum deum esse mortalem; deum vero coelesstem, immortalem hominem. Itaque horum virtute duorum, hominis scilicet ac mundi, gubernantur singula; uni demum cuncta subijciuntur.

Scholion: Eamus devotia absolute esse collater alferit, iquesingula singulari participatione contrahunt. Attamen deum patrem esse et bonum eo ipso quod ipsa omnia est. Mox de alterno raptu discutit, ubi quae mentis oculis cernatur: neque revelare fas, neque revelandi concessum est arbitrium. Quod autem de animarum transformatione subiungit, non verbo, fictione, sed fictionis allegoria sequenda esse eiusdem Mercurii sequens sermo declarat, cum inquit: Aliud enim corpus quam humanum, animam non capit humanam. Nec fas in corpus animae ratione carentis, animam rationalem corruere. Lex enim divina generationem tam nefariam prohibet. Et paulo post subiungit: Talis naturae congrua mulcta; non qualem tu forte fili et alii quidam arbitrantur, quibus videtur anima nostra postquam est humanam exuta figuram, in corpora degenerare brutorum. Hic enim pius error. Quod de anima pueri contempante seipsam: hoc viderint qui mentem intelligentiam abditam defendunt. Haec et similia. Clauis.

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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