God is never idle; behold the cosmos, ageless, and the seven ordered worlds
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Nous — τί δὲ αὐτὸς ἄλλο ποιήσειεν; οὐ γὰρ ἀργὸς ὁ θεός, ἐπεὶ πάντα ἂν ἦν ἀργά· ἅπαντα γὰρ πλήρη τοῦ Θεοῦ· ἀλλ᾽ οὐδὲ ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ ἐστὶν ἀργία οὐδαμοῦ οὐδὲ ἔν τινι ἄλλῳ. ἀργία γὰρ ὄνομα κενόν ἐστι καὶ τοῦ ποιοῦντος καὶ τοῦ γινομένου. πάντα δὲ δεῖ γίνεσθαι καὶ ἀεὶ καὶ καθ᾿ ἑκάστου τόπου ῥοπήν. ὁ γὰρ ποιῶν ἐν πᾶσιν ἐστιν, οὐκ ἔν τινι ἱδρυμένος, οὐδὲ ἕν τι ποιῶν, ἀλλὰ πάντα. δύναμις γὰρ ὢν ἐνεργὴς οὐκ αὐτάρκης ἐστὶ τοῖς γινομένοις, ἀλλὰ τὰ γινόμενα ὑπ' αὐτῷ. θέασαι δὲ δι᾿ ἐμοῦ τὸν κόσμον ὑποκείμενον τῇ σῇ ὄψει, τό τε κάλλος αὐτοῦ ἀκριβῶς κατανόησον, σῶμα μὲν ἀκήρατον, καὶ οὗ παλαιότερον οὐδέν, διὰ παντὸς δὲ ἀκμαῖον καὶ νέον καὶ μᾶλλον ἀκμαιότερον. ἰδὲ καὶ τοὺς ὑποκειμένους ἑπτὰ κόσμους κεκοσμημένους τάξει αἰωνίῳ καὶ δρόμῳ διαφόρῳ τὸν αἰῶνα.
And what else would he himself make? For God is not idle, since all things would be idle; for all things are full of God; but not even in the cosmos is there idleness anywhere, nor in any other thing. For 'idleness' is an empty name, both of the maker and of the thing made. And all things must come to be, both always and by each place's tendency. For the one who makes is in all things, not seated in any one, nor making one single thing, but all. For being an active power, he is not self-sufficient apart from the things that come to be, but the things coming to be are under him. Behold, through me, the cosmos laid before your sight, and consider carefully its beauty: an undefiled body, than which nothing is older, yet through and through vigorous and young and ever more at its prime. Behold also the underlying seven worlds, ordered in an eternal order and with a varying course, filling out the Aeon.
Nous: what else would God make? For God is not idle, else all things would be idle; all things are full of God, and nowhere in the cosmos, nor in anything else, is there idleness. 'Idleness' is an empty name, of both maker and thing made. All things must come to be, always, and according to each place's tendency. For the one who makes is in all things, not seated in any one, nor making one single thing, but all; being an active power, he is not self-sufficient apart from the things that come to be, but they are under him. Behold, through me, the cosmos laid before your sight, and consider carefully its beauty: an undefiled body, than which nothing is older, yet through and through vigorous and young and ever more at its prime. Behold too the seven underlying worlds, ordered in an eternal order and with a varying course, filling out the Aeon.
The section defends God's ceaseless activity against any picture of a distant, resting deity. 'God is not idle (οὐκ ἀργὸς ὁ θεός), else all things would be idle' — divinity is act, and a slack God would leave a slack world. The proof is the plenitude the corpus loves: 'all things are full of God (πλήρη τοῦ Θεοῦ),' and so 'idleness is an empty name (ἀργία… ὄνομα κενόν)' — inactivity does not name anything real, neither in the maker nor in the made. Everything must always be coming to be, 'according to each place's tendency (κατὰ… τόπου ῥοπήν),' the natural inclination that keeps every region of the world in motion.
The maker's relation to his work is then stated with a boldness worth pausing on. He 'is in all things, not seated in any one (οὐκ ἔν τινι ἱδρυμένος), nor making one single thing, but all' — omnipresent and total, never localized. And then: 'being an active power, he is not self-sufficient apart from the things that come to be (οὐκ αὐτάρκης… τοῖς γινομένοις), but the things coming to be are under him.' αὐτάρκεια, self-sufficiency, was the philosophers' highest predicate of the divine; the Hermetist qualifies it — not because God lacks, but because a power that is essentially active is unthinkable without its activity's objects. Maker and made are correlative; a creator with nothing to create would not be this God.
Then the discourse turns from argument to vision, and Nous becomes a guide: 'Behold, through me (θέασαι… δι' ἐμοῦ), the cosmos laid before your sight.' The mode shifts to contemplation — Mind shows Hermes the world as a work of art to be gazed at. Its beauty is a paradox of age: 'an undefiled body (σῶμα ἀκήρατον), than which nothing is older, yet ever vigorous and young and more and more at its prime (ἀκμαῖον καὶ νέον καὶ μᾶλλον ἀκμαιότερον).' The oldest thing is the freshest; the world does not decay toward death but ripens endlessly. And within it the 'seven worlds' — the planetary spheres — 'ordered in an eternal order (τάξει αἰωνίῳ)' and each with its own differing course, together 'filling out the Aeon.' The vision of the cosmos becomes the way to glimpse the Aeon that orders it.
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