LXX. giTes " The place where the Qod of Israel stood."

> Which here, as also above, Philo would equate with the ^' Place of God."
« Ih Cmifui, Ling^ § 90 ; Bl. i. 419, P. 333, 334 (Ri. u. 268, 869).
234 THRICE-GREATEST HERMES
" But they who have attained unto wisdom, are, as tbej should be, called Sons of the One God, as Moees admits when he says : ' Te are the Sons of the Lord God,' ^ and father?'* . . .
" And if a man should not as yet have the good for- tune to be worthy to be called a Son of God, let him strive manfully to set himself in order according to His First-bom Beason {Logos), the Oldest Angel, who is as though it were the Angel-chief, of many names ; for he is called Dominion,^ and Name of God, and Reason, and the Man-after-the-likeness, and Seeing IsraeL
" And for this reason I was induced a little before to praise the principles of them who say : ' We are all Sons of One Man.' ^ For even if we have not yet become fit to be judged Sons of God, we may at anyrate be Sons of His Eternal Likeness, His Most Holy Beason; for Beason, the Eldest [of all Angels], is God's Likeness [iht Image]." •
And so also we read elsewhere :
" But the Beason {Logos) is God's Likeness, by whom [sc Beason] the whole Cosmos was fashioned." ^
This Divine Beason of things, then, was the means by which the Cosmos came into existence. And so we find Philo writing :
"But if anyone should wish to make use of naked
^ Deut. xiv. 1. AV. : *' Ye are the children of the Loid your God." LXX. : " Ye are the sons of the Lord your God."
« Deut. xxxii. 18. A.V. : « God that formed thee." T.TT bas the same reading as Philo.
* Deut. xxxiL 6.
^ if x4* or Source, Beginning, as in the Proem to the Fourth Gospel. » Gen. xlii 11.
• De Confm. Ling., § 28 ; M. i. 426, 427, P. 341 (RL iL 279). ^ De Monarchy ii. § 5 ; M. ii. 226, P. 823 (Ri iv. 302).
PHILO OF ALEXANDRIA 235
terms, he might say that the intelligible order of things ^ is nothing else than the Beason {Logos) of Grod per- petually creating the [sensible] world-order.
Thk Cnr of God
"For the Intelli^ble City is nothing else but the reasoning of the Architect determining in His Mind to found a city perceivable by the senses after [the model of] the City which the mind alone can perceive.
" This is the doctrine of Moses and not [only] mine. At anyrate in describing the genesis of man he ex- pressly agrees that he [man] was fashioned in the image of God. And if this is the case with the part — the image of the Image — ^it is plainly also the case with the whole Form, that is the whole of this sensible cosmos, which is a [far] greater imitation of the Divine Image than the human image is.
"It is plain, moreover, that the Archetypal Seal, which we call Cosmos which is perceptible only to the intellect, must itself be the Archetypal Pattern,^ the Idea of ideas, the Season {Logos) of God."^
And elsewhere also he writes :
"Passing, then, from details, behold the grandest House or City, namely, this cosmos. Thou shalt find that the cause of it is God, by whom it came into exist- ence. The matter of it is the four elements, out of which it has been composed. The instrument by means of which it has been built, is the Reason {Logos) of God. And the object of its building is the Goodness of the Creator."*
And again :
* Or the cosmos, which is comprehensible by the intellect alone.
* Or Paradigm.
5 De Mund. Op., § 6 ; M. i. 6, P. 5 (RL i. 9).
« De Cherub., § 35 ; M. i. 162, P. 129 (RL i. 228).
236 THBICE-GRSATEST HERMES
God's Shadow
'' Now the Reason (Loffos) is the likeneae of God, hj which the whole cosmos was made." ^
And still more clearly :
" But God's Shadow is His Beason {Logos), whidi using, as it were an instrument, He made the cosmoi. And this Shadow is as it were the Archetypal Model of all else. For that as God is the Original of His Image, which he [* Moses '] now calls [His] Shadow, so, [in its turn] that Image is the model of all else, as he [' Moees'] showed when, at the beginning of the law-giving, he said : ' And God made man according to the Image of God/ ^ — this Likeness being imaged according to God, and man being imaged according to this likttseas, which received the power of its Original" *
Moreover, the Divine Beason, as an instrument, is regarded as the means of separation and division:
" So God, having sharpened His Beason {Loffos\ the Divider of all things, cut off both the formless and undifferentiated essence of all things, and the four elements of cosmos which had been separated out of it,^ and the animals and plants which had been com- pacted by means of these." ^
With this we may compare the following passage from ITie Acts of John, where we read of the Logos :
" But what it is in truth, as conceived of in itself, and as spoken of to thee,^~it is the marking-off [or delimitation] of all things, the firm necessity of those
» De Monarch., ii. § 5 ; M. ii. 225, P. 823 (Ri. iv. 302).
« Gen. i. 26.
» Leg. AUeg., iii. § 31 ; M. L 106, 107, P. 79 (RL i. 152, 153).
* Se. the essence.
^ Sc elements. Quit Ber. Div. Her., § 27 ; M. i. 492, P. 500 (RL iii. 32).
* John, to whom the Idaster is speaking.
PHILO OP ALEXANDRIA 237
tilings that are fixed and were unsettled, the Harmony of Wisdom." *
But to return to the concept of the Logos as symbolised by the idea of a City ; speaking of the six '' cities of refuge/' Philo allegorises them as follows :
" Is not, then, the most ancient and most secure and best Mother-city, and not merely City, the Divine Beason (Logos), to which it is of the greatest service to flee first ?
" The other five, as though they were colonies [from itj are the Powers of the Speaker [of this Word (Logos) ], of which the chief is the Creative [Potency], according to which He who creates by Season [or Word], fashioned the cosmos. The second is the Sovereign [Potency], according to which He who created, ruleth that which is brought into existence. The third is the Merciful [Potency], by means of which the Artist hath compassion and hath mercy on His own work. The fourth is the Legislative Providence, by means of which He doth forbid the things that may not be. . . ."^
Philo then regards these ** cities " as symbolising the refuges to which the various kinds of erring souls should flee to find comfort. If the Divine Season, and the Creative and Sovereign (Kingly) Powers are too far off for the comprehension of the sinner's ignorance, then he should flee to other goals at a shorter distance, the "cities" of the Necessary Powers, namely, the Powers of Mercy and of the Law, which latter are twofold, Enjoining and Forbidding, the latter again of which is referred to vaguely, at the end of the chapter, as the '' averting of evils " without further definition.
1 F. F. F., 436.
« De Prof., § 18 ; M. i. 560, P. 464 (Ri. iii. 130). There is un- fortunately a lacwna in the text, so that we do not learn the char- acteristics of the fifth potency ; but this is explained elsewhere, — the Legislative Providence being a twofold potency, namely, the Enjoining and the Forbidding.
288 THRICE-OREATEST HERMES
Moreover, Philo continues, there are STmbols of tbe» five Potencies mentioned in the Scriptures :
*' [The symbols] of Command and Prohibition are the [two tables of the] laws in the ark ; of the Merdfnl Potency, the top of the ark, which he ['Moses*] calls the Mercy - seat ; of the Creative and Sovereign [Potencies], the winged Cherubim, who are set over it
" But the Divine Reason {Logos) above them did not take any visible shape, inasmuch as no sensible object answers to it, for it is the very Likeness of God, the Eldest of all beings, one and all, which are cognisable by mind alone, the nearest to the [One and] Only One- that-is, without a space of any kind between, copied inerrantly.
" For it is said : ' I will speak to thee from above the Mercy-seat, from between the two Cherubim.'^
" So that he who drives the Chariot * of the Powers is the Word {Logos), and He who is borne in the Chariot is He who speaks [the Word], giving commandment to the Driver for the right driving of the universe."*
The True Shepherd
Again, speaking of Grod as the True Shepherd of the universe and all things therein, the elements and all therein, the sun, moon, and planets, the stars and heavens, Philo writes :
''[He placed] at the head His own True Reason (Logos), His First-bom Son, who shall succeed unto the care of this sacred flock, as though he were the lieutenant of the Great King." *
» Ex. XXV. 22.
' This plainly refers to the Mercabah or Chariot of the Vuioii of Ezechiel. » D€ Prof,, § 19 ; M. i. 561, P. 465 (Ri. iiL 131X « De Agric^ § 12 ; M. L 308, P. 195 (RL ii 116).
PHILO OF ALEXANDRIA 239
The Divine Beason of things, moreover, is regarded as the Plerdma or FuUnesa of all powers, — ideal space, and ideal time, if such terms can be permitted The Logos is the ^Son or Eternity proper. And so Philo speaks of :
"The Divine Reason {Logos) whom Ood Himself hath full-filled entirely and throughout with incorporeal powers." ^
The Apostles of God
This Supreme Logos, then, is filled full of powers— words, logoi, in their turn, energies of Ood. As Philo writes:
'' For God not disdaining to descend into the sensible world, sends forth as His apostles His own 'words' (logoi) to give succour to those who love virtue ; and they act as physicians and expel the diseases of the soul"'
These " words " or " reasons " are men's angels ; they are the "light-sparks" or "rays" in the heart — of which we hear so much in " Gnostic " and allied litera- ture— all from the Father-Sun, the light of God, or Logos proper, which Philo caUs " the Light of the invisible and supremest Deity that rays and shines transcendently on every side."
The Ladder of the "Words"
"When this Light shineth into the mind, the secondary beams of the ' words ' (logoi) set [or are hidden]."'
In treating of the allegorical Ladder set up from eartii to heaven, Philo first gives what he considers to
» De Stwi., i. § 11 ; M. i 630, P. 674 (Ri. iii 227). « Ihid., § 12 ; M. i. 631, P. 676 (Ri. iii. 229). HJM^ § 13.
240 THRICE-OREATEST HERMIS
be its cosmic correspondencee and then applies the figure to the little world of man :
" The ladder (cXi>a^X ^^* symboUcallj spoken of, is in the cosmos somewhat of the nature I ha^ suggested. But if we turn our attention to it in man, we shall find it is the soul ; the loot of which is as it were its earthly part — namely, sensation, while its bead is as it were its heavenly part — the purest mind.
"Up and down through all of it the 'words' (Icgoi) go incessantly ; whenever they ascend, drawing it up together with them, divorcing it from its mortal nators^ and revealing the sight of those things which alone are worth the seeing; — not that when they descend thsj cast it down, for neither God nor yet Grod's Word (Logos) is cause of any loss.
"But they accompany them^ [in their descent] for love of man and pity of our race, to succour, and give help, that they, by breathing into them their saving breaths, may bring the soul to life, tossed as it is upon the body ['s waves] as on a river fs bosom].
" It is the God and Governor of the universe alone who doth, transcending sound and sight, walk 'mid the minds of them who have been throughly purified. For them there is an oracle, which the sage prophesied, in which is said : ' I will walk amid you ; and I will be your God/ *
"But in the minds of them who are still being washed, and have not yet had throughly cleansed the life that is befouled and stained with bodies' grossness, it is the angels, the ' words ' (logoi) divine, making them bright for Virtue's eyes." '
Tlus Light of God is, as has repeatedly been said before, the Divine Season of thinga
1 Sc. the Boula. * Lev. xxvi. 12.
» De Som^ § 23 ; M. i. 642, 643, P. 587 (Ri. iu. 245, 246X
PHILO OF ALEXANDRIA 241
" * For the Lord is my light and my Saviour/^ as is sung in the Hymns;— [He is] not only light, but the Archetype of every other light ; nay rather more ancient and sublime than the Archetypal Model [of all things], in that this [latter] is His Word (Logos). For the [Universal] Model is His all-full » Word, the light, while He Himself is like to naught of things created."'
Ths Looos TH8 Spi&rruAL Sun
This Word, or Logos, is further symbolised among phenomena as the sun. The Spiritual Sun is the Divine Eeason — ^"'the intelligible Model of the [sun] that moves in heaven."
" For the Word (Logos) of Gkxi, when it enters into our earthly constitution, succours and aids those who are Virtue's kinsmen, and those that are favourably disposed to her, affording them a perfect place of refuge and salvation, and shedding on their foes^ destruction and ruin past repair." ^
The Logos is thus naturally the panacea of all ill&
"For the Word (Logos) is, as it were, the saving medicine for all the wounds and passions of the soul, which [Word], the lawgiver declares, we should restore 'before the sun's going down'* — that is, before the
^ P&. xxvii. 1. A.y. ''salvation.'' LXX. reads ^mnviUs, *' illumination'' — a technical term among the mystics of Early Christendom for baptism — instead of the ^s of Philo.
' That is, the Logos as PleronuL
s D€ Sam., § 13. « Sc. the vices of the soul
» Jhid., § 15 ; M. I 363, P. 578 (Ri. iii 232).
* This seems to be somewhat reminiscent of the custom of evening prayer in the Therapeut and other similar communities, when, at the time of the setting of the sun, it was enjoined that ^ rational " praises should be restored or given back to Qod, for benefits received.
Fhilo, however, is here somewhat laboriously commenting, in
VOL. I. 16
242 THRICE-ORKATBST HBRMSS
most brilliant rays of God, supremest and moBt mani- fest, go down [or set] — [rays] which through His pity for our race He has sent forth from [His high] Heavai into the mind of man.
"* For whilst that light most Godlike abideth in the soul, we shall restore the ' word ' {logos) that hath been given to us in pledge, as though it were a garment, that it may be to him who doth receive it, the spedal property of man — [a garment] both to cover up the shame ^ of life, and to enjoy the gift of God and have respite in quietude, by reason of the present help of such a counsellor, and of a shielder such as will never leave the rank in which he hath been stationed."
From all of which it seems that Philo is drawing a distinction between the Pure Light of the Logos and the reflection of that light in the reason of man, for he goes on to say :
" Indeed we have prolonged this long excursus for no other reason than to explain that the trained mind, moved by irregular motions to productiveness and its contrary, and, as it were, continually ascending and descending [the ladder] — when it is productive and raised into the height, then is it bathed in radiance of the archetypal immaterial rays of the Logic' Source of God who bringeth all unto perfection ; and when it doth descend and is barren, it is illumined by their
allegorical fashion, on the pawnbroking bye-law in Ex. xziL 96^ 27 : " But if thou takest in pledge thy neighbour's garment^ thou shalt give it him back before the going down of the son. For this is his covering ; this is the only garment of his indecency. In what [else] shall he sleep ? If, then, he shall cry unto me^ I will give ear to him ; for I am pitiful." (See § 16.) Hie A.Y. translates otherwise.
1 Cf. the well-known logoi from the Gctpd aecoriing to A§ EgyptiarUy " Unless ye tread on the garment of shame."
« De Som., § 18 ; M. i. 637, P. 682 (Ri. iiL 238>
3 Or Rational.
PHILO OF ALEXANDRIA 243
images, the * words ' (logoi) immortal, whom it is custom to call angels." ^
The Disciples of the Loqos
And a little later on Philo proceeds to speak of those who are disciples or pupils of the Holy Word or Divine Reason.
"These are they who are truly men, lovers of temperance, and orderliness, and modesty," — whose life he proceeds further to describe in similar terms to those he uses of the Therapeuts.
Such a life, he concludes, "is adapted not for those who a/re called men, but for those who are truly so."«
For those, then, who consciously set their feet upon the ladder of true manhood, there is a Way up even to Deity Itself, for Philo writes :
** Stability, and sure foundation, and eternally abid- ing in the same, changeless and immovable, is, in the first place, a characteristic of That-which-is ; and, in the second, [a characteristic] of the Reason (Logos) of That-which-is — which Recison He hath called his Covenant ; in the third, of the wise man ; and in the fourth, of him who goeth forward [towards wisdom]." '
How, then, continues Philo, can the wicked mind think that it can stand alone — "when it is swept hither and thither by the eddies of passion, which carry the body forth to burial as a corpse? "
And a little later on he proceeds to tell us that Eden must be taken to stand for the Wisdom of God
1 Ibid,, § 19 ; M. i. 638, P. 582 (Ri. iii. 239). « Ibid., 20 ; M. L 639, P. 684 (Ri. iii. 241). Cf. G. H,, x. (xl) 24. s D* Som^ iL § 36 ; M. i 690, P. 1140 (RI iiL 312).
244 THRICE-OREATEST HEKMES
'' And the Divine Reason {Logos) floweth down like a river, from Wisdom, as from a source, that it may irrigate and water the heavenly shoots and plants iA Virtue-lovers, that grow upon the sacred Mountain of the Gods,^ as though it were a paradise.
Ths Riter of thi DrviNS Rkason
'' And this Holy Reason is divided into four sources — I mean it is separated into four virtues — each of which is a queen. For its being divided into sources* does not bear any resemblance to division of spaoe» but rather to a sovereignty,' in order that, having pointed to the virtues, as its boundaries, he ['Mosee'] may immediately display the wise man, who makes use of these virtues, as king, elected to kingship, not by the show of men's hands, but by choice of that Nature [namely, Virtue] which alone is truly free, and genuine, and above all bribes. . . .
"Accordingly, one of the companions of Moses, likening this Word (Logon) to a river, says in Uie Hynms : ' The river of Grod was filled with water.'*
'' Now it is absurd that any of the rivers flowing on earth should be so called ; but, as it seems, he [the psalmist] clearly signifies the Divine Reason (Logo$\ full of the flood of Wisdom, having no part of itself bereft or empty [thereof], but rather, as has been said, being entirely diffused throughout the universe, and [again] raised up to the height [thereof], by reason of
1 Lit, Olympian.
* ^x«^ mean Boorces, but alio principles and sovereigntiet. It is, however, impossible to keep the word-play in English.
3 Or kingdom, namely, ^ of the heavens," or mlership of tht celestial realms, or rather of one's sell
* Pfe. Ixv. 9. So also LXX. ; but A.V., " Thon greatly en. richest it with the river of Qod, which is full of water."
PHILO OF ALEXANDRIA 245
the perpetual and coDtinuous [circliDg] course of that eternally flowing fountain.
" There is also the following song-verse : ' The rapid flow of the river maketh glad the city of God.' ^
Jerusalem Above
" What kind of city ? For what is now the holy city,^ in which is the holy temple, was founded at a distance from sea and rivers ; so that it is clear that [the writer] intends to represent by means of an under- meaning something different from the surface-sense.
" For indeed the stream of the Divine Season (Logos) continually flowing on with rapidity and regularity, diffuses all things through all and maketh them glad.
** And in one sense he calls cosmos the City of God, inasmuch as, receiving the whole cup' of the Divine draught it . . .,^ and, being made joyous, it shouteth with a joy that can never be taken away or quenched for the eternity.
'* But in another sense [he uses it of] the soul of the wise man, in which God is said to walk as in a city, for * I will walk in you and I will be your God/ *
" And for the happy soul that stretches forth its own reasoning • as a most holy drinking vesseF — who is it that poureth forth the sacred measures of true joy, if not the cup-bearer of God, the [Divine] Reason (Logos), who in master of the feast ? — he who differs not from
> Ps. xlvi 4. LXX. has the plural, rivers or streams. A.V. translates : *' There is a river the streams whereof shall make glad the dty of God."
' The physical Jerusalem in Palestine.
' arpar^po — lit., crater or mixing-bowL
* A lacuna occurs here in the text.
^ A loose quotation of Lev. xxvi 12, as already dted above.
246 THRICE-OREATEST HERMBS
the draught, but is himself unmiiigled deli^t^ and sweetness, f orthpouring, good-cheer, the immortal philtre of all joy and of contentment, — if we maj use the wordf of poetry.
" But the City of God the Hebrews call Jerusalem, which by interpretation signifies the ' Sight of PeaoeL* Wherefore seek not the City of That-whicb-ia in regions of the earth — for 'tis not made of stocks and stones ; but [seek it] in the soul that doth not war, bat oifers unto them of the keen sight a life of contemplation and of peace." ^
This, then, is how Philo understands the New Jeru- salem (or Ogdoad), so familiar to us from the writingi of the " Gnostic " schools, beyond which was the Pleroma or Treasure of Light. For elsewhere he writes:
" He will offer a fair and fitting prayer, as Moeee did, that God may open for us His Treasure, yea [ffis] Season (Logos) sublime, and pregnant with lights divinei which he [' Moses'] has called Heaven."'
These "lights" are ''reasons" (logoi), for a littk further on he says :
"Thou seest that the soul is not nourished with things earthly and contemptible, but by the reasons God rains down from His sublime and pure nators, which he [' Moses '] calls Heaven." '
The Logos is as Manna and Coriandkr Sued
And a little further on, referring to the allegorical " manna," or heavenly food, " the bread which the Lord hath given you to eat " (Ex. xvi 13), he writes :
» De Sam., iL §§ 37-39 ; M. L 090-682, P. 1141, 1142 (Ri. iii 312-316). 3 Ibid., § 66 ; M. i. 119, P. 90 (Ri. i. 170).
PHILO OP ALEXANDRIA 247
" Dost thou not see the food of the soul, what it is ? It is the Continuing Reason (Logos) of Ood, like unto dew, encircling the whole of it [the soul] on all sides, and suffering no part of it to be without its share of it [the Logos],
''But this Reason is not apparent everjrwhere, but [only] in the man who is destitute of passions and vices ; yea, subtle is it for the mind to distinguish, or to be distinguished by the mind, exceedingly translucent and pure for sight to see.
" It is, moreover, as it were, a coriander seed.^ For agriculturalists declare that the seed of the coriander can be divided and dissected infinitely, and that every single part and section [thereof], when sown, comes up just as the whole seed. Such also is the Reason (Logos) of Grod, profitable in its entirety and in every part, however small it be." *
And he adds a little further on :
" This is the teaching of the hierophant and prophet, Moses, who will say : ' This is the bread, the food which God hath given to the soul,'' that He hath given [us] for meat and drink, His own Word,* His own Reason,^ for this [Reason] is the bread which He hath given us to eat ; this is the Word." •
The Logos is the Pupil of God's Ete
Philo also likens the Divine Reason to the pupU of the eye — a figure that will meet us later in considering the meaning of the Kopij Koa-^ov ("Virgin of the World ") treatise— for he writes :
^ The grain of muBtard seed of the Qoepels and of the " Qnostics.'' « Ibid., § 69 ; M. i. 121, 122, P. 92 (RL i. 172, 173). ' AgloBs on Ex. xiv. 16.
* Wm«- * \6yos.
• Leg. Alleg., iu., § 0 ; M. i. 121, P. 92 (Ri. I 173).
248 THRICE-GREATEST HERMES
" May not [this Reason] be also likened to the popQ of the eye? For just as the eye's pupil, though tbs smallest part [of it], does yet behold all of the lones of things existing — the boundless sea, and vastness of the air, and all of the whole heaven which the sun doth bound from east to west, — so is the sight of the Divine Reason the keenest sight of all, so that it can behold all things ; by which [men] shall behold things worthy to be seen beyond white [light] ^ itsell
'' For what could be more bright or more f ar-eeeiog than Season Divine, by shining in which the other [lights] drive out all mist and darkness, striving to blend themselves with the soul's light"'
""Man shall not Ltv'e bt Bread Alone"
And again, in a passage of intense interest we read :
"For He nourisheth us with His Season (Logos) — the most general [of all things]. . . . And the Season of God is above the whole cosmos; it is the most ancient and most general of all the things that are.
" This Season the ' fathers ' ' knew not, — ^not [our] true [eternal] fathers, but those hoary in time, who say: 'Let us take a leader, and let us return unto' — the passions of — * Egj'pt.' *
" Therefore let God announce His [good] tidings to the soul in an image: 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word ^ that proceedeth out of the mouth of God,'® — that is, he shall be nourished by the whole of Season (Logos) and by [every] part of it For 'mouth' is a symbol of the [whole] Logos, and ' word ' is its part" ^
^ The reading aeemi to be faulty. » Of. Deut. viii 13. * Num. xiv. 4.
6 AW^'. * Deut viii. 3.
7 Leg. AUeg., iii. § 61 ; M. i. 121, P. 93 (RL L 174).
PHILO OF ALEXANDRIA 249
These *" fathers," then, are those of the lower nature, and not our true spiritual parents ; it is these " fathers " that we are to abandon.
Compare with this Matt. z. 37: "He who loveth father and mother more than Me is not worthy of Me " ; and the far more striking form of the tradition in Luke xiv. 26 : "If any man cometh unto Me, and doth not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brethren and sisters, yea and his own soul also, he cannot be My disciple."
In the Gnostic gospel, known as the Fisiis Sophia (341), the mystic meaning of these parents is given at length, as signifying the rulers of the lower nature, and the Master is made to say : '' For this cause have I said unto you aforetime, ' He who shall not leave father and mother to follow after M^e is not worthy of Me.' What I said then was, ' Te shall leave your parents the rulers, that ye may be children of the First Ever- lasting Mystery/"
But the most arresting point is that Matt iv. 4, in the story of the Temptation, quotes precisely the same words of the LXX. text of Deut viiL 3 which Philo does, beginning where he does and finishing where he does, both omitting the final and tautological ''shall man live" — a very curious coincidence. Luke iv. 4 preserves only the first half of the sentence; but it evidently lay in exactly the same form in which Philo uses it before the first and third Evangelists in their second or " Logia " source. It was, then, presumably a frequently quoted text.
The Logos-Mediator
The Divine Eeasonis further figured as a true "Person," the Mediator between God and man. Thus Philo writes :
250 THRICE-GREATEST HERMES
'' And on His angel-ruling and moat ancient Beaaon {Logos), the Father who created all, hath bestowed a special gift — that standing between them as a Boundary,^ he may distinguish creature from Creator.
** He [the Season] ever is himself the suppliant unto the Incorruptible on mortal kind's behalf in its distreai, and is the Eling's ambassador to subject nature.
"And he ezulteth in his gift, and doth majostidj insist thereon, declaring: 'Tea, have I stood between the Lord and you/* — not increate as Gkxi, nor yet create as ye, but in the midst between the [two] extremes, hostage to both : to Him who hath created him, for pledge that the creature never will remove itadf entirely [from Him], nor make revolt, choosing disorder in order's place ; and to the thing created for good hope that God, the Merciful, will never disregard the work of His own hands. ' For I will herald forth the news of peace to the creation from Him who knows how to make wars to cease, from God the Everlasting Peace- keeper.'"»
In considering what is claimed to be the elaborate symbolism of the sacred vestments of the High Priest, and the nature of this symbolical ofiBce, Philo declares that the twelve stones upon the breast of the High Priest, in four rows of three each, are a symbol of tiie Divine Reason (Logos), which holds together and regu- lates the universe ; this breastplate, then, is the lagiim or sacred oracle of God.
" For it was necessary that he who was consecrated to the Father of the cosmos, should have [His] Son,
1 Cf, the ''Qnofltic" Horos (not the Egyptian HoniB) at referred to previously.
' Perhaps a reflection of Num. xvi. 48.
» Qttu Rer. Div, Her., § 42 ; M. L 501, 602, P. 604 (Ri. iii 45, 40).
PHILO OF ALEXANDRIA 251
the most perfect in virtue, as intercessor,^ both for the forgiveness^ of sins, and for the abundant supply of the most unstinted blessinga
'' It probably also imparts the preliminary teaching to the Servant of Gk)d,' that if he cannot be worthy of Him who made the cosmos, he should nevertheless without ceasing strive to be worthy of that cosmos; for when he has [once] been clothed with its likeness,^ he is bound forthwith, by carrying about the image of the model ^ in his head, of his own self to change him- self as though it were from man into the nature of the cosmos, and, if we ought to say so^ — nay, he who speaks on truth ought to speak truth ! — be [himself] a little cosmos." ^
The Yoga op Plotinus
With these most instructive indications we may compare the intensely interesting passage of Plotinus in his essay " On Intelligible Beauty," where he gives his yoga-system, so to speak. It is perhaps the most important passage that has come down to us from the coryphfieus of Later Platonism, giving, as it does, in every probability, the method of the school whereby ecstasis was attained.
1 vapojcx^y — as paraclete, or interceBsor, or defender (a term of the law courts), or comforter.
* iifitniiffrtlw — ^lit., amnesty, or forgetfulness of wrong. 3 rhp rov Btov ^tpairfvr^y — the Therapeut.
* The dress of the High Priest, then, symbolised the cosmos — the elements, etc May we deduce from this that in one of the Therapeut initiations the approved candidate was clothed in such a symbolic robe ?
^ 8c. the Logos as cosmos.
* Signifying a religious scruple as referring to a matter of initiation.
7 De Vii, Mos,, in. § 14 ; M. ii. 166, P. 673 (Ri. iv. 212, 213).
252 THRICE-GREATEST HERMES
** Let as, then, form a mental image of this cosmos with each of its parts remaining what it is, and yet interpenetrating one another, [imagining] them all together into one as much as we possibly can, — so that whatsoever one comes first into the mind as the 'one' (as for instance the outer sphere), there immediate^ follows also the sight of the semblance of the sun, and together with it that of the other stars,^ and the earth, and sea, and all things living, as though in [one] transparent sphere, — in fine, as though all things could be seen in it.
" Let there, then, be in the soul some semblance of a sphere of light [transparent], having all things in it, whether moving or still, or some of them moving and others stilL
" And, holding this [sphere] in the mind, conceive in thy self another [sphere], removing [from it all idea of] mass; take from it also [the idea of] space, and the phantom of matter in thy mind ; and do not try to image another sphere [merely] less in bulk than the former.
"Then invoking Grod who hath made [that true sphere] of which thou boldest the phantom [in thy mind], pray that He may come.
" And may He come with his own cosmos,- with all the Gods therein — He being one and all, and each one all, united into one, yet different in their powers, and yet, in that one [power] of multitude all one.
" Nay, rather the One Grod is all [the Grods] for that He falleth not short [of Himself] though all of them are [from Him] ; [and] they are all together, yet each again apart in [some kind of] an unextended state, possessing no form perceptible to sense.
1 Presumably the aeven ''planetary spheres" of "difference,* as set forth in Plato's Timeetu, > iSe. the intelligible or spiritual world-order.
PHILO OF ALEXANDRIA 253
" For, otherwise, one would be in one place, another in another, and [each] be ' each,' and not ' all ' in itself, without parts other from the others and [other] from itself.
''Nor is each wliole a power divided and proportioned according to a measurement of parts ; but this [whole] IB the all, all power, extending infinitely and infinitely powerful; — nay, so vast is that [divine world-order^], that even its ' parts ' are infinite." *
The Race of God
But to return to Philo. The rational soul or mind of man is potentially the Intelligible Cosmos or Logos ; thus he writes :
"The great Moses did not call the species of the rational soul by a name resembling any one of the things created, but he called it the image of the Divine and Invisible, deeming it a true [image] brought into being and impressed with the soul of God, of which the Signet is the Eternal Season {Logos)!* ^
All of which the ^ disciplined soul shall realise in himself. Of such a man Abraham is a type, for :
"Abandoning mortal things, he 'is added to the people of God,'> plucking the fruit of immortality, having become equal to the angels. For the angels are the host of God, incorporeal and happy souls."
^ Intelligible cosmos.
^Ennead^ V. viii. (cap. ix.), 560 a-d.; Plot, Op. Om., ed. F. Creuzer (Oxford, 1836), ii. 1016, 1017. M. N. BouiUet— in Lts EntUades de Plotin (Paris, 1861X iii. 122, 123— gives, as usual, an excellently clear rendering, but it is not easy to recognise some of his sentences in the text.
« De Plani. iSToe, § 6 ; M. i 332, P. 216, 217 (Ri. ii. 148).
* A gloss on den. xxv. 8 : " And was added (AY. gathered) to his people."
254 THRICE-OREATEST HERMES
The angels are the *' people " of Grod ; bat there is t still higher d^ree of union, whereby a man beeomei one of the intimate union of all them who are ** kin to ELim " ; thqr become ona For this Race " is one, the highest one, but ' people ' is the name of many."
^ As many, then, as have advanced in discipline and instruction, and been perfected [therein], have their lot among this ' many.'
"But they who have passed beyond these intro- ductory exercises, becoming natural Disciples of God, receiving wisdom free from all toil, migrate to this incorruptible and perfect Race, receiving a lot superior to their former lives in genesis." ^
And that the mind is immortal may be shown aUe- gorically from the death of Moses, who, says Philo, migrated " by means of the Word (Logos) of the Cause,' by whom the whole cosmos was created."
This is said "* in order that thou mayest learn that God regards the wise man as of equal honour with the cosmos ; for it is by means of the same Reason {Logo$) that He hath made the universe, and bringeth back the perfect man from earthly things unto Himself again."'
But enough of Philo for the moment. SufBcient has been given to let the reader hear the Alexandrian speak for himself on the central idea of his cosmos. Much else could be added — indeed, volumes could be written on the subject — for it gives us one of the most important backgrounds of Christian origins, and with- out a thorough knowledge of Hellenistic theology it is impossible in any way to get our values of many things correctly.
> De Saarif., § 2 ; M. i. 164, P. 131 (Ri. I 233).
* Dent xxxiv. 6. A.V. : " According to the word of the Lord."
» De Sacrif,, § 3 ; M. i. 165, P. 131 (Rl i. 233).
IX
PLUTARCH: CONCERNING THE MYSTERIES OF ISIS AND OSIRIS
FOREWOBD
In the chapter on Philo we attempted to set before the reader some outlines of the central doctrine of Hellen- istic theology — the sublime concept of the Logos — as envisaged by a learned Jew of the Diaspora, steeped in Hellenism, and living in the capital of Egypt and the centre of the intellectual life of Greater Greece.
In the present chapter we shall endeavour to give the reader a further insight into this master-idea from another standpoint, and shall reproduce the views of a learned Greek, who, while remaining on the ground of Hellenic traditions proper, turns his eyes to £^pt, and reads what part of its mysterious message he can decipher, in Greek modes of thought.
Plutarch, of Chseroneia in Boeotia, flourished in the second half of the first century A.D., and so follows immediately on Philo and on Paul ; like Philo, however, he knows nothing of the Christians, though like tl^ Alexandrian he treats of precisely those problems ai|d questions which were and are of pre-eminent interest for Christians.
Plutarch chooses as his theme the myth and mysteries of Osiris and Isis. He gives the myth in its main outlines, and introduces us into the general religious
255
256 THRICE-GREATEST HERMES
atmosphere of the Egyptian belief of what we maj, perhaps, be allowed to call " Demotic " times. But he does far more than this. Initiated himself into the Osiriaca, of which there was apparently a thiatM at Delphi, though on the one hand he poooooBOB mon knowledge of formal details than he feels Him^^lf po^ mitted to disclose, on the other hand he is aware thai the " true initiate of Isis " is one who goes fao* beyond any formal reception of the symbolic mysteriee; tibe true initiate must of lus own initiative for ever h&Bp searching and probing more deeply into the intimate reason of things, as adumbrated by the '* things said and done ** in the sacred rites (iiL 3).
For this task Plutarch is well equipped, not only fay his wide knowledge of the philosophy and theology and science of his day, but also by the fact that he faudld a high oflSce at Delphi in the service of Apollo and also in connection with the Dionysiac rites. He was almost certainly a hierophant, and no merely formal one at that.
Plutarch accordingly gives a most instructive ex- position, which should enable us, if only we are content to put ourselves in his place, and condescend to think in the terms of the thought of his day, to review the ancient struggle between physical reason and tonotl theology which was then in full conflict — a conflict that has been renewed on a vastly extended scale for the last few centuries, and which is still being fought to a finish or honourable truce in our own day.
Our initiated philosopher is on the side neither of atheism or pure physicism, nor on that of superstition, as he understood those terms in his day ; he takes a middle ground, and seeks final refuge in the^fair vision of the Logos; and that, too, in all humility, for he knows well that whatever he can say is at best but a
THE MYSTERIES OF ISIS AND OSIRIS 257
dim reflection of the glory of the Highest, as indeed he expressly tells us when writing:
"Nor can the souls of men here on the earth, swathed as they are in bodies and enwrapped in passions, commune with God, except so far as they can reach some dim sort of a dream of Him with the perception of a mind trained in philosophy " (Ixxiii. 2).
We accordingly find Plutarch discussing the various theories of his day which professed to explain the mythological and theological enigmas of the ancients, with special reference to the Osiris myth.
He discusses the theory of Evemerus, that the gods were nothing but ancient kings and worthies, and dismisses it as no really satisfactory explanation (xxiii.).
He then proceeds to consider the theory that these things refer to the doings of daimones, — which he thinks a decided improvement on that of Evemerus (zxv.).
Thence he passes to the theories of the Physicists or natural phenomenalists (xxxii), and of the Mathe- matici — that is to say, the Pythagorean speculations as to the celestial spheres, and their harmonies (xli).
In each of these three latter theories he thinks there is some truth; still each by itself is insufficient; they must be combined (xlv.), and even then it is not enough.
He next considers the question of first principles, and discusses the theories of the One, the Two, and the Many ; again finding something to be said for each view, and yet adopting none of them as all-sufficient
But of all attempted interpretations he finds the least satisfactory to be that of those who are content to limit the hermeneutics of the mystery-myths simply to the operations of ploughing and sowing. With this ''vegetation god" theory he has little patience, and stigmatises its professors as that ''dull crowd" (Ixv.).
VOL. I. 17
258 THRICE-OREATEST HERMES
And here, perhaps, some of ub may think that Plutarch is not out of date even in the twentieth centuiy of grace, and his arguments might be recommended to thfl consideration of those anthropologistB who are just now with such complacency running to death what Mr Andrew Lang humourously calls the *'Covent Garden " theory.
Further on, dealing as he does with the pnxzling question of Egyptian "animal worship," Plutarch ii brought face to face with many problems of ^ taboo" and '' totemism," and he is not without interest in what he says on these subjects (IxxiL f.), and in the theorieB of utilitarianism and symbolism which he adduces (Ixxiv.).
Finally, he gives us his view of the rationale of the custom of incense-burning (Ixxix.), which should be of some concern to many in present-day ChriatiaQ communities.
But the whole of this complex of custom and rites, puzzling and self-contradictory as they may appear, and the whole of the riddles and veiled enigmas of Egyptian priestly tradition, are, Plutarch believes, resolvable into transparent simplicity by a proper understanding of the true nature of man and of his relation to Divine Nature, that Wisdom who is the eternal and inseparable spouse of Divine Season, the Logos.
It would perhaps have been simpler for some of my readers — it certainly would have been shorter — had I condensed what Plutarch has to say ; but my desire is rather to let this student of the comparative theology of his day speak for himself, and not to give my own views; for I still believe, in spite of the superior formal education of the twentieth century, that we cannot normally know more about the ancient
THE MYSTERIES OF ISIS AND OSIRIS 259
mysteries and their inner purport than the best minds who were initiated into them while they still flourished.
For not only are we without the precise data which these ancients possessed, but also the phase of thought through which we have recently been passing, and in which we mostly still are, is not one which can sympathetically tolerate those very considerations which, in my opinion, provide the most fertile ground of explanation of the true inwardness of what was best in those mystery-traditions.
Moreover, I have thought it of service to give a full version of this treatise of Plutarch's from a decent critical text,^ for the only translation in English read by me is by no means a careful piece of work,^ and mani- festly rendered from a very imperfect text ; also, the language of Plutarch in some passages appears to me to be deserving of more careful handling than has as yet been accorded it, for a number of sentences seem to have been purposely phrased so as to be capable of conveying a double meaning.
Finally, with regard to his own interpretation, I would suggest that Plutarch, as was natural to a Greek, has more insisted on intellectual modes of thought than perhaps an i^ptian priest would have been inclined to do ; for it seems probable that to the Egyptian mind the chief interest would lie in the possibility of the realisation of immediate contact with the Mystery in all those modes which are not so much intellectual as
1 I use the texts of Parthey, Plutarch: Uher It%$ und Onrii (Berlin, 1850), and of Bemardakis, PliUarchi Cffuieronenm Moralia (**Bibliotheca Teubneriana"; Leipzig, 1889), \L 471 ff.
s See King (C. W,\ Plutarch's MoraU: Theoiophical Euay$ (London, 1889), pp. 1-71. a Squire's Plutarch*$ Treaiiu of Ii%$ and Onru (Cambridge, 1744) I have not read, and few can pio- cure a copy nowadays.
260 THRICE-GREATEST HERMES
sensible ; in other words, it would be by making himsett a vehicle of the Great Breath in his bodj rather thm a mirror of the Mystery in his mind, that the son of the Nile Land would seek for union.
It is, moreover, of interest to find that Plutaich addresses his treatise to a lady. For though we have extant several moral tractates addressed to wives- such as Porphyry's Letter to Marcella, and Plutarch's Consolation to his own wife, Timoxena — ^it is rare to find philosophical treatises addressed to women, and nowadays many women are once more intereated in such " philosophy."
Plutarch wrote his essay at Delphi (IxviiL 6X and addressed it to Klea, a lady who held a distinguished position among the Delphic priestesses, and who had herself been initiated into the Osiriac Mysteries — ^her very name Klea being, perhaps, her mystery-name (xxxv.). The treatise is, therefore, addressed to one who was prepared to read into it more than appears on the surface.
It should also be remembered that in all probafaili^ the main source of Plutarch's information was the now lost treatise of Manetho on the Egyptian Religion, and in this connection it is of interest to record Granger's opinion, who, in referring to Plutarch's De Iside d Osiride, says :
''First he deals with those opinions which identify the Egyptian gods with natural objects — Osiris with the Nile, Isis with the land, and so on. Then he con- siders the interpretations of those who identify the gods with the sun and moon, etc. (ch. Ixi.). These specula- tions summarise for us, at first or second hand, some ol the Hermetic books current in Plutarch's time." ^
1 Granger (F.X "The Poemander of Hermes Thgincgiita%* JouT. TheoL Stud., voL v. Na 19, p. 399.
THE MYSTERIES OF ISIS AND OSIRIS 261
CONCERNING ISIS AND OSIRIS
Addbsss to Klea goncernino Gnosis and thb Sbabch fob Tbuth^
L 1.^ While all who have mind, 0 Klea, should ask for all their blessings from the Gods — let us, by pur- suing after them, pray to obtain from them those [blessings] of gnosis' concerning them, as far as 'tis within the reach of men; in that there's nothing greater for a man to get, nor more majestic for a God to give, than Truth.
2. Of other things their God gives men what they require, whereas of mind and wisdom He gives a share ^ to them — since He [Himself] possesses these and uses [them}
For the Divine is neither blest through silver and through gold, nor strong through thunderings and lightnings, but [blest and strong] by gnosis and by wisdom.
3. And thus most finely of all things which he hath said about the Grods — sounding aloud :
Tea have they both a common source and one [fair] native
land; But 2iea8 came mto being first and he knew more —
hath Homer made pronouncement of the primacy of Zeus as more majestic, in that in gnosis and in wisdom it^ is older.
4. Nay, I believe that the good fortune of seonian life — the which the God hath gotten for his lot — ^is
^ I have added some sub-headmgs as an indication of contents. * I have numbered the paragraphs for greater convenience of Inference. ' #»ioT
A play on ntBmviM and /Mr«-8(a«^iy. * £Sc. the primacy.
262 THRICE-OREATEST HKRlflW
that by reason of His gnosis the things in should not entirely die; for when the knowing of existing things and being wise is taken from it, freedom from death is Time — not Life.
Thi Art of Knowing and of Divinihuio