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INTRODUCTION.
HE Greeks applied the name and term of Hermes
Mercurius Trismegistus, so significant and suggestive, certainly to the Egyptian Thoth, as early as the fourth century, b.c. He was believed to be the origin of every- thing formed or produced by the human mind. He was, therefore, esteemed as the inventor of all the arts and sciences. He was the contriver of the hieroglyphics. Of these there were various kinds. There was a profound system of hieroglyphical rendering, adopted among the Egyptians, the true meaning of which was only known to the higher ranks of the priests. There were other sys- tems of representation by marks or figures which were less reserved, and some of these mysterious signs were fitted, or adapted, for the comprehension of the multitude. Hermes was the prolific and versatile interpreter between nature and man ; the repository from which issued all the application of the methods of explaining the phenomena of nature and their uses, perceived by the human mind. In his hands, and through his means, lay the demonstration of the conclusions of reason.
The epithet, Trismegistus (urpt^jufyiaroe, or “ superlatively ” greatest), as applied to Hermes, is of comparatively late origin, and cannot be traced to any author earlier than the second Christian century. Most probably, it arose out of the earlier forms derived by the Greeks from pristine Egyptian sources. But various other explanations of the appellation have been offered, such as that of the author of the
Chronicon Alexa7idrinum" (47 a.d.), who maiiitain.s that it was because Hermes, while maintaining the unity of God, had also asserted the existence of three supreme or greatest powers, that he was called by the Egyptians Trismegistus. This view, which is also adopted by Suidas, seemis prefer- able at least to that met with in Nicolai’s History of Greek Literahiref according to which an apocryphal author named Hermes was called rptaixtyiarwe, simply in order to indicate that he had succeeded and outdone a certain Megistias of Smyrna in astrological, physiognomiical, and alchemistic theories. The name of Hermes seems during the third and following centuries to have been regarded as a convenient pseudonym to place at the head of the numerous syncretistic writings in which it was sought to combine Neo-Platonic philosophy, Philonic Judaism, and cabalistic theosophy, and so provide the world with some acceptable substitute for the Christianity which had even at that time begun to give indications of the ascendancy it was destined afterwards to attain. Of these pseudepigraphic Hermetic writings, some have come down to us in the original Greek. Others survive in Latin or Arabic translations. But the majority appear to have perished.
That portion of the writings ascribed to Hermes Tris- megistus which is best known, and which is most beyond dispute, forms, in its translation, the greater part of the present edition.* It bears its own expressions of excellence and authority, in that it is not only vividly written, but that it was the work of the most learnedly accomplished man of his age — Dr. Everard. A rich addition to the present publication, in regard to which work the great pains taken with it are evident, is the important illustration, “ The Twenty-First Key of the Correct Tarot.” Along with the above enumerated works of Hermes Trisme-
* And also of his “ Virgin of the World,” now being translated, and shortly to be issued as the companion volume to, and uniform in size with the present work. — R. II. F.
( in. )
gistus are usually printed the certainly Jater epoi, or Definitions of Asclepius, which have sometimes but erro- neously been attributed to Apuleius. Other Hermetic writings, which have been preserved, and which have been for the most part collected by Patricius in the “ Nova de Uiiiversis Philosophia” (1593) are (in Latin) Aphorisnii sive Centiloqiimni Cyranides ” / (in Arabic, but doubtless from a Greek original), an address to the human soul, which has been translated by Heischer, '' An die menschliche SeeleP 1870.
The connection of the name of Hermes with alchemy will explain what is meant by “ hermetic sealing,” and will account for the use of the phrase, “ hermetic medicine ” by Paracelsus, as also for the so-called “hermetic freemasonry” of the Middle Ages.
Hermes was called by the Egyptians Tat, Taut, Thoth. It is concluded that, because of his learning and address, and in wonder at his profound skill in the arts and sciences, that the people gave him the name of Trismegis- Tus, or the Thrice Great.” Thoth — or the being named with these varieties of appellation. Tat, Tot, Taut, Thoth — was the counsellor and friend of Osiris. This much has been declared of him by Diodorus Siculus. He was left by Osiris to assist Isis with his counsels in the government of the country, when Osiris embarked in the design of regene- rating the earth, and visiting and civilizing the several nations. The historian adds that Hermes improved lan- guage, invented letters, instituted religious rites, taught mankind a consistent and philosophical knowledge of Pro- vidence, instructed in astronomy, music, and other arts. Many are of opinion that this Thoth, or Hermes, lived long before the time of Moses. Some have been so fanciful as to make him one with Adam, while nearly all historiogra- phers, in surrounding his character and doings with mys-
tery, ascribe to him the power of magic, if not the very invention of magic itself. There have not been wanting those who have looked upon him as the same person as Enoch or Canaan, or as the patriarch Joseph. Perhaps — in spite of all the foregoing exaggerations, which are always the. lot of very great and highly distinguished men, who became deified in after-times — the most probable judg- ment to be formed concerning him is, that he was some person of superior genius, who, before the time of Moses, had invented useful arts, and taught the first rudiments of science ; and who caused his instructions to be engraved in emblematical figures (hieroglyphics), upon tables or columns of stone (obelisks), which -he dispersed over the country, for the purpose of enlightening the people, and of fixing the worship of the gods. And it is reasonable to conclude that the same symbolical inscriptions were made use of in calling up and inspiring the awe inseparable from the contemplation of spiritual beings — the guardians of the lives of men, and the disposers of their fates. Maxims of political and moral wisdom went hand in hand with these religious teachings.
Another Thoth, or Hermes, is said to have lived at a later period. He was equally celebrated with the former, and to him is particularly appropriated, by some, the name of Trismegistus. According to Manetho, he translated from engraved tables of stone, which had been buried in the earth, the sacred characters of the first Hermes, and wrote the explanation of them in books, which were deposited in the Egyptian temples. The same author calls him the son of Agathodaemon ; and adds, that to him are ascribed the restoration of the wisdom taught by the first Elermes, and the revival of geometry, arithmetic, and the arts, among the Egyptians, after they had been long lost or neglected. By the interpretation which he gave of the symbols inscribed upon the ancient tables or columns, he obtained the sane-
tion of antiquity to his own institutions. To perpetuate their intiuence upon the minds of the people, he committed the columns, with his own interpretation, to the care of the priesthood. Hence, he obtained a high degree of respect among the people, and was long revered as the restorer of learning and the arts. He is said to have written a very- large number of books, as commentaries upon the tables ol the first Hermes, which treated of universal principles, of the nature of the universe, and of the soul of man ; of the governing of the world by the movements of the stars (otherwise in astrology); of the Divine light, and of its shadow, or of its other side (presented away), in the Mortae Life, or of the articulate breath or inspiration, or meatis of being in this ivorld — which, in contradistinction to the life of the unbodied light, is the Darkness. All these ultra-profound ideas were treated of in the theosophical teaching (strictly Platonic, as it aftervcards became) of Hermes, the “Thrice Great.” He discourses of the nature and orders of the celestial beings ; the populace of the elements ; and herein he enunciates all the cabalistic notions of the Rosicrucians. He reduces astrology to a system ; he produces treatises on miedicine ; and enlarges, in a brilliant and inspired manner, on all the positive and recognisable side of anatomy, and also upon the mysticism connected with the origin and v/orking of the world, and of the nature of the life of Man. Clemens of Alexandria gives an account of his having written thirty-two books upon theology and philosophy, and six upon medicine, and mentions the particular subjects of some of them ; but they are no longer in existence. The two dialogues which have been attributed to him, one of v/hich is in the present repro- duction, and the other (Asclepius, also numbered in the present work) — “ Pymander ” and “ Asclepius ” — so known from the names of the principal speakers in them, are most
striking and eloquent. They give eloquent proof of the greatness of the author, real or supposed. But we are inclined to the opinion that he was a real being, supernatu- rally gifted ; and thus offering to the world two characters — the one human, the other spiritual and divine.
The titles appropriated to Hermes Mercurius Trisme- GISTUS were, in part, the titles of the Deity. Theuth, Thoth, Taut, Taantes, are the same title diversified, and they belong to the chief god of Egypt. Eusebius speaks of him as the same as Hermes. Erom Theuth the Greeks formed oeos, or Theos, which with that nation was the most general name of the Deity. Plato, in his treatise named “ Philebus,” mentions him by the name of eiv9, or Theuth. He was looked upon as a great benefactor, and the first cultivator of the vine. He was also supposed to have found out letters, which invention is likewise attributed to Hermes. Suidas calls him Theus, and says that he was the same as Arez, and so worshipped at Petra. Instead of a statue there was, “ Lithos melas, tetragonos, atupotos,” a black square pillar of stone, without any figure or represen- tation. It was the same deity which the Germans and Geltae worshipped under the name of Theut-Ait or Theut- ates ; whose sacrifices were very cruel, as we learn from Lucan : —
“ Et quibus immitis placatur sanguine diro Theutates.”
Lucan /., v. 444.
The Hermetic or Hermetical art is a name given to che- mistry, on the supposition that Hermes Trlsmegistus was the inventor of chemistry, or that he excelled in it. Very little is known, indeed, of this Hermes, and still less of how much or how little he had to do with the invention of the art of chemistry. He is reputed to be an ancient king of Egypt by some who have endeavoured to trace his history.
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I'he era of yEsculapius is ancient enough, but these ex'itlorers will insist that the age of Hermes Trismecustus far preceded it. These assign his time to a thousand years before the period of yEsculapius. They carry Hermes Trismegistus into perfect mystery. Zozimus Panopolity mentions him as having wrote of natural things, and there are many pieces existent under his name which are cer- tainly— to speak the least of them — under some doubt.
The numerous books upon theology, astronomy, and medicine are ascribed by Marsham (in Chron. s.l.) to the second Mercury, the Son of Vulcan, who, according to Eusebius (in Chron.) lived a little after Moses ; that is, about fifty years after the exodus of the Israelites. This learned author, relying upon the authority of Manetho, cited by Cincellus, reckons that this second Mercury is he who was surnamied “ Trlsmegistus,” or “Thrice Great.” Ac- cording to Manetho, this second Hermes or Mercury trans- lated from engraved tables of stone, that had been hidden in the earth, the sacred characters written by the first Hermes or Mercury, called Thaut or Thoth, and wrote the explanation in books, which were deposited in the Egyptian temples. He thus established a Divine authority, obtained a high degree of respect among the people, and was long revered as the restorer of learning. From the tables of the first Hermes he is said to have written, as commentaries and explanations, an incredible number of books. These books, according to Clemens Alexandrinus (Strom, i. 6) amounted in number to forty-two. It was impossible for the Egyptians to carry their veneration for them higher than they did. They were borne in their processions with great ceremony and respect. Pdrst of all appeared the “ Chanter,” who had two of them in his hands, one con- taining the hymns in honour of the gods, and the other rules according to which the kings were to govern. Next
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came the “ Horoscopus,” or that minister, as Clemens informs us. who carried the four books of astronomy : one treating of the fixed stars, another of the eclipses of the sun and moon, and the two last of the rising of these two luminaries. Then appeared the sacred “Scribe,” with ten books that treated of cosmography, geography, the descrip- tion of the Nile, etc. Then followed the “ Stolist,” with other ten books, on the subject of religion, namely, sacri- fices, prayers, festival days, etc. The “Prophet” came next, with ten books, which were named sacerdotal, and treated of the laws of the gods, and of ecclesiastical disci- pline. “Thus,” says the author now cited, “there were forty-two books in all, of which thirty-six comprehended ail that belonged to the Egyptian philosophy. The other six books regarded medicine, and treated of anatomy, medica- ments, diseases of the eyes, of women, and of regulations to be practised in domestic association. These books — at all events, in any number — long ago lost, if any answering the above descriptions ever existed, at least in the manner stated of them, furnished Sanchoniathon with the materials for his theogony. Many subjects on which these writings are said to have treated are generally supposed to have been unknown in the early period of the Egyptian philo- sophy.
If we consult alchemical manuscripts, no matter the date or author or language, we find constant mention of Hermes Trlsmegistus, who was indeed considered, and sometimes designated, the father of alchemy. In a treatise attributed to Albertus Magnus, we are told that the tomb of Hermes was discovered by Alexander the Great in a cave near Hebron. In this was found a slab of emerald, which had been taken, from the hands of the dead Hermes, by “ Sarah, the wife of Abraham,” and which had inscribed upon it, in Phoenician characters, the precepts of the great master con-
cerning the art of making gold. The inscription consisted of thirteen sentences, and is to be found in numerous alche- micpJ works. It is for the most part very difficult to be understood, and in this respect closely resembles most of the great mass of the Middle- Age alchemical literature.
[ he following is cited as the inscription of the “ Sma- ragdine Table,” and is to be found in very early MSS. in various languages : —
Firstly. — I speak not fictitious things, but that which is certain and most true.
Secondly. — -What is below, is like that which is above; and what is above, is like that which is below : to accom- plish the miracle of one thing.
'rhirdly. — -And as all things were produced by the one word of one Being, so all things were produced from this one thing by adaptation.
Fourthly. — Its father is the sun, its mother the moon, the wind carries it in its beliv, its nurse is the earth.
F ifthly. — It is the father of all perfection throughout the world.
Sixthly. — The power is vigorous if it be changed into earth.
Seventhly. — Separate the earth from the fire, the subtle from the gross, acting prudently and with judgment.
Flighthly. — Ascend with the greatest sagacity from the earth to heaven, and then again descend to the earth, and 'imite too ether the powers of things superior and things hife- rior. Thus, you will obtain the glory of the xvhole world, and obscurity will fly away from you.
■Ninthly. — This has more fortitude than fortitude itself, because it conquers every subtle thing, and can penetrate every solid.
Tenthly. — Thus was the world formed.
Eleventhly. — Hence proceed wonders which are here established.
(x.)
Twelfthly, — Therefore I am called Hermes Trisme- GiSTUS, having three parts of the philosophy of the whole world.
Thirteenthly. — That which I had to say concerning the operation of the sun is completed.”
The story and the inscription, together with all books attributed to Hermes (who is asserted to have lived about 2,000 B.c.) are still matter of dispute (occasionally vehe- ment) among the learned. In spite of the obvious difficulty of interpretation of the inscription of the “ emerald table,” men (and men of extraordinary capacity) have not been wanting who have laboured long and lovingly to prove its authenticity, to interpret it, and to show that it is, in good sooth, a marvellous revelation, full of sublime secrets of considerable import to mankind.
Hermes Trismegistus is generally asserted by the alchemists to have been a priest, who lived a little after the time of Moses. According to Clemens Alexandrinus, he M^as the author of forty-two books, containing all the learning of the Egyptians. Others tell us that he was the author of several thousand volumes. Plato speaks of him in the Phtedrus as the inventor of numbers and letters. He was, in fact, the Egyptian god of letters, and as such, of course, could be described as the author of multitudinous works. He was the deified intellect, and hence has often been confounded with Thoth, the “intellect.” Sir Gardner Wilkinson speaks of Hermes as an emanation of Thoth, and as representing the “ abstract quality ” of the under- standing. It may be well to note the extent of the symbolism associated with the sculptured representations, and with the hieroglyphics associated with the name of Hermes Trismegistus. In one hand Hermes holds the crux ansata, the symbol of life — a master symbol which is the most persistent and determined in its appearance (and
(xi. )
in its re-appearance) in all the sculptures of Egypt ; — in the other hand the figure grasps a staff, associated with which are a serpent, a scorpion, a hawk’s head, and above all a circle surrounded by an asp, each with its special symbolical significance. On the Rosetta stone Hermes is called the “ great and great,” or “ twice ” great. He was called Trismegistus, or “ thrice great,” according to the twelfth aphorism of the Emerald Table, because he possessed three j)arts of the wisdom of the whole world.
Perhaps no author is more often quoted by the alchemists than Hermes, the supposed father of their art. They called themselves Hermetic philosophers. Alchemy is often called the “ Hermetic Art,” or simply “ Hermetics.” To enclose a substance very securely, as by placing it in a glass tube and fusing or sealing the mouth of the tube, was called securing with “ Hermes, his seal,” and the echo of the idea lives amongst us yet, for, in our most modern treatises, the expression to “ seal hermetically ” may be found.
Colonel Eranklin (p. 5.) says : —
“ The learned Maurice entertains no doubt that the elder Boodh of India is no other than the elder Hermes I Trismegistus of Egypt, and that that original character is of antidiluvian race. Here then is an analogy amounting almost to positive and irrefragable conviction ; for Boodh I and Jeyne are known throughout Hindustan, with very I little exception, to be one and the same personage.” In I p. 41, Colonel P'ranklin remarks that Bacchus agrees in his attributes with the Indian Boodh. And Mr. Faber observes “ that Thor is represented as the first-born of the Supreme God, and is styled in the Edda ‘ the eldest of Sons.’” (Faber, Horae Mosaicae, Vol. I.) “ He was esteemed in
Scandinavia as a middle divinity, a mediator between God and man.” — (Franklin’s Res., p. 49.) “ Brahma is generally in the neuter gender; but as Vishnu or Naragen he is
( xii. )
masculine, as he is also when he is considered as the Creator.” (Asiat. Res., Vol. I., pp. 242, 243 ; Collier, Sect. IV.)
Buddha in Egypt was called Hermes Trismegistus. Lycophron calls him Tricephalus ; this speaks for itself, as we are aware that Buddha is identified with Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva.
The T, Tau, was the instrument of death, but it was also what Ezekiel ordered the people in Jerusalem to be marked with, who were to be saved from the destroyer. It was also the emblem of the Taranis or the Thoth, or Teutates, or Tat, or Hermes, or Buddha among the Druids. It was called the Crux Her mis. The old Hebrew, the Bastulan, and the Pelasgian, have' the letter Tau thus, — X ; the Etruscan, + x ; the Coptic, + ; the Punic, dc dc.
The opposition which the possibility of the powers of nature, acting in the conversion of the baser metals into gold, evokes from the supposed learned modern people — with whom we confess we are at utter issue — is remarkable, and indeed inexcusable, when the wonders (once thought unbelievable), which are almost daily witnessed, recur to the remembrance. Perhaps no age ivas so incredulously fixed in its oivn prepossessions as the present. We will conclude our essay on the character and claims of the person known to the world as Hermes Mercurius Trismegistus, with an account by a modern scientific man, which seems almost spiteful in its ignorant attack upon a philosopher of the most undoubted original genius, whose book, in Italian, ” De Cabinetto ” (or “ Gabinetto ”), is considered by all competent people who have examined the deepest into these very mysterious subjects — in companionship w'ith the true edition of the allegory entitled the “Comte de Gabalis”* of the Abb4 de Villars, as supplying an outline, veiled in the proper mysterious terms, of the profound system of the true Rosicrucians. The reader may note (with displeasure)
* An early fac-sLinile reprint of which is preparing,— -R. EL F.
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the perverse ingenuity with which this author endeavours to invest with ridicule that which he may be safely accepted as incompetent to understand.
“ Petrus Hauboldus, of Copenhagen, was surely one of the most enterprising publishers of his day, for he had the temerity to publish a book entitled ‘ Hermetes JEgyptiorum et Chemichorum Sapiential A book square as to its dimensions, small as to its type, drier than dust as to its contents, of four hundred odd pages, of two centuries of age, writ in Latin, Vt^ith a sprinkling of contracted Greek, and floridly dedicated to Jean Baptiste Colbert. A book wherein the author endeavours to prove that alchemy was known before the flood, that Hermes Trismegistus was a real personage, the inventor of all arts, the father of alchemy, and much else besides. We may well imagine that the author of such a treatise was no ordinary man, and our conjecture proves a tolerably correct one. Olaf Borch, whose Latinised name became the more resounding Olaus Borrichnts, was apparently the great mainstay of the University of Copenhagen ; at all events, he was simul- taneously Professor of Philology, Poetry, Chemistry, and Botany ; and we must either imagine that, in 1660, professors were difficult to procure in the Kingdom of Denmark, or else that Olaus Borrichius was such an astounding genius that he could readily undertake the duties of four diverse professorships at the same time. We can scarcely imagine three greater antitheses than the philological faculty, the poetical faculty, and the chemical faculty ; but here we find them united, or assumed to be united, in one man. Yet more, Borrichius was appointed Court Physician, and Assessor of the Supreme Court of Law. He was the very personification of all learning, if we may judge by the treatment he received from his country- men. In addition to the work mentioned above, he wrote
various treatises on philology, on the quantity of syllables, on the Greek and Latin poets, on medicine, chemistry, and botany. It is strange that a man who, presumably in his capacity of judge, was in the habit of ‘sifting evidence, and of avoiding hasty generalisation, should have en- deavoured with much elaborate argument to prove that Hermes Trismegistus was a real personage ; that his Smaragdine Table was really found by the wife of Abraham, and that it contained matter of the highest import to mankind. We must imagine that in this matter Borrichius allowed the imaginative faculty due to his poetical tempera- ment to exert an undue influence over his more sober judgment. He is equally at pains to assert the authenticity and antiquity of the various Greek MSS. on alchemy in the libraries of Europe. He specially mentions a MS. by Zozimus of PanapoHs, on the art of making gold, in the King’s Library in Paris ; and Scaliger tells us that this same MS. was written in the fifth century. M. Ferdinand Hoefer is apparently penetrated by the Borrichian spirit of faith and imagination, and he unhesitatingly accepts the early date attributed to the Paris MS.”
EDITOR' S NOTE. — It is to be remarked that the Preface and Preliminary Essay by the distinguished author of the “ Rosicrucians,” “ Phallicism,” etc., “Hargrave Jennings,” first intimated as distinct, are presented combined in his exhaustive, scholarly resume as the most suitable form of Introduction to this double entente Work, which is also said still to exist symbolically in that most extraordinary Ancient combi- nation of Hieroglyphics, Metaphysics, and Mathematics that ever occu- pied the attention of the human mind, indicated by “ Guillaume Postel ” in his “ Key of Things Concealed since the Commencement of the World,” and known only to Initiates.
The Titles of eveiy Book
of
Hermes Trismegistus.
Book. Folio.