Knowledge, the beginning we can grasp — and why the Good stays unseen
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Hermes — οὐκ αὐτοῦ οὖν ἀρχὴ γίνεται ἡ γνῶσις, ἀλλ' ἡμῖν τὴν ἀρχὴν παρέχεται τοῦ γνωσθησομένου. λαβώμεθα οὖν τῆς ἀρχῆς, καὶ ὁδεύσωμεν τάχει ἅπαντα· πάνυ γάρ ἐστι σκολιόν, τὸ τὰ συνήθη καὶ παρόντα καταλιπόντα ἐπὶ τὰ παλαιὰ καὶ ἀρχαῖα ἀνακάμπτειν. τὰ μὲν γὰρ φαινόμενα τέρπει, τὰ δὲ ἀφανῆ δυσπιστεῖν ποιεῖ. φανερώτερα δέ ἐστι τὰ κακά, τὸ δὲ ἀγαθὸν ἀφανὲς τοῖς φανεροῖς. οὐ γὰρ μορφὴ οὔτε τύπος ἐστὶν αὐτοῦ. διὰ τοῦτο αὐτῷ μέν ἐστιν ὅμοιον, τοῖς δὲ ἄλλοις πᾶσιν ἀνόμοιον· ἀδύνατον γὰρ ἀσώματον σώματι φανῆναι·
Knowledge does not become the beginning of the Good itself, but it provides us the beginning of what is to be known. Let us grasp the beginning, then, and journey with speed all the way; for it is very crooked work to leave the familiar and present things and turn back to the old and ancient. The things that appear delight us; the unseen make us distrust. Evils are the more manifest, but the Good is unseen to the manifest — for it has neither shape nor form. Because of this, it is like itself, but unlike all other things; for it is impossible for the incorporeal to appear to a body.
Knowledge does not become the beginning of the Good itself, but it provides us the beginning of what is to be known. Let us grasp the beginning, then, and journey with speed through all; for it is very crooked work to leave the familiar and present things and turn back to the old and ancient. The things that appear delight us; the unseen make us distrust. Evils are the more manifest, but the Good is unseen to the manifest — for it has neither shape nor form. Because of this, it is like itself, but unlike all other things; for it is impossible for the incorporeal to appear to a body.
Hermes corrects a possible misunderstanding from IV.8: knowledge is not the Good's own beginning — the Good is beginningless — but 'it provides us the beginning of what is to be known (ἡμῖν τὴν ἀρχὴν παρέχεται τοῦ γνωσθησομένου).' Gnosis is our on-ramp, not the Good's origin. So: 'let us grasp the beginning and journey with speed (λαβώμεθα… τῆς ἀρχῆς καὶ ὁδεύσωμεν τάχει).' The urgency is deliberate, because the return is hard: 'very crooked (πάνυ… σκολιόν)' work 'to leave the familiar and present things (τὰ συνήθη καὶ παρόντα καταλιπόντα)' and turn back to 'the old and ancient' — the soul's true origin. Habit and the visible pull the other way.
And here the treatise states the epistemology that CH V will build a whole discourse on: 'the things that appear delight (τὰ φαινόμενα τέρπει), but the unseen make us distrust.' We trust what we see and doubt what we cannot — and 'evils are the more manifest (φανερώτερα… τὰ κακά), but the Good is unseen to the manifest (ἀφανὲς τοῖς φανεροῖς).' The interlinear keeps the φανερός/ἀφανής pair sharp because the paradox is the point: the highest reality is the least visible, since 'it has neither shape nor form (οὐ… μορφὴ οὔτε τύπος).' The Good is 'like itself but unlike all other things' — incomparable — and the reason is the axiom running through the whole Corpus: 'it is impossible for the incorporeal to appear to a body (ἀδύνατον… ἀσώματον σώματι φανῆναι).' The eye of flesh cannot see the Good; only the eye of Mind can. This is exactly the darkness CH V will turn inside out, arguing that the invisible God is in fact the most manifest of all.
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