This is the Good Daemon — blessed the soul fullest of it, wretched the emptiest
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Hermes — καὶ αὕτη ἡ τοῦ παντὸς διοίκησις, ἠρτημένη ἐκ τῆς τοῦ ἑνὸς φύσεως καὶ διήκουσα δι' ἑνὸς τοῦ νοῦ· οὗ οὐδέν ἐστι θειότερον καὶ ἐνεργέστερον καὶ ἑνωτικώτερον ἀνθρώπων μὲν πρὸς τοὺς θεούς, θεῶν δὲ πρὸς τοὺς ἀνθρώπους· οὗτός ἐστιν ὁ ἀγαθὸς δαίμων. μακαρία ψυχή, ἡ τούτου πληρεστάτη, κακοδαίμων δὲ ψυχὴ ἡ τούτου κενωτάτη.
Tat — Πῶς τοῦτο πάλιν λέγεις, ὦ πάτερ;
Hermes — Οἴει οὖν, ὦ τέκνον, ὅτι πᾶσα ψυχὴ νοῦν ἔχει τὸν ἀγαθόν; περὶ γὰρ τούτου ὁ νῦν λόγος, οὐ περὶ τοῦ ὑπηρετικοῦ, οὗ ἔμπροσθεν εἰρήκαμεν, τοῦ καταπεμπομένου ὑπὸ τῆς Δίκης.
And this is the administration of the All, hanging from the nature of the One and pervading through one, the Mind — than which nothing is more divine, more active, or more unifying, of men toward the gods and of gods toward men: this is the Good Daemon. Blessed the soul fullest of this, and wretched the soul emptiest of this. — How do you mean this again, O father? — Do you think then, O child, that every soul has the good mind? For the present discourse is about this one, not about the ministering one of which we have spoken before, the one sent down by Justice.
And this is the administration of the All, hanging from the nature of the One and pervading through the one Mind — than which nothing is more divine, more active, or more unifying, of men toward the gods and of gods toward men: this is the Good Daemon. Blessed the soul that is fullest of it, wretched the soul that is emptiest. Tat: how do you mean this again, father? Hermes: do you think, child, that every soul has the good mind? For the present discourse is about this one, not about the ministering mind we spoke of before — the one sent down by Justice.
The diagram is now named and its keystone identified. 'This is the administration of the All (ἡ τοῦ παντὸς διοίκησις), hanging from the nature of the One and pervading through one, the Mind (διήκουσα δι' ἑνὸς τοῦ νοῦ).' Everything hangs (ἠρτημένη — the chain again) from the One, but the medium through which the One's governance runs is the single Mind. And of that Mind the treatise makes its highest claim: 'nothing is more divine, more active, or more unifying (θειότερον καὶ ἐνεργέστερον καὶ ἑνωτικώτερον)' — three comparatives that rank Mind above all, precisely as the bond that joins 'men toward the gods and gods toward men.' Then the name: 'this is the Good Daemon (ὁ ἀγαθὸς δαίμων).' The Agathodaimon — a figure of Egyptian and Greek cult, elsewhere in the Hermetica a teacher of Hermes himself — is here identified with the unifying Mind, the divine-human hinge. And a beatitude follows, in the treatise's tenderest register: 'blessed the soul fullest of this (μακαρία ψυχή, ἡ τούτου πληρεστάτη), wretched the soul emptiest.' Blessedness is simply how much Mind a soul holds.
Tat's puzzled 'how do you mean this again?' draws out a crucial clarification, and it resolves an ambiguity that has shadowed the whole treatise. There are two minds. The discourse here is about 'the good mind (τὸν ἀγαθόν)' — the Agathodaimon, given as blessing — 'not about the ministering one (τοῦ ὑπηρετικοῦ),' the punishing mind of §21 'sent down by Justice (ὑπὸ τῆς Δίκης).' The same word νοῦς has named both the scourge and the guide; now Hermes separates them explicitly. And with the separation comes the hard question the next section answers: does every soul even have the good mind? The beatitude has a shadow — not all are full of the Daemon, and some are all but empty.
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