Where passion is, nowhere the Good — as day and night exclude each other
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Hermes — τούτων δὲ μὴ ὄντος τῇ οὐσίᾳ μηδενός, τί ὑπολείπεται ἢ μόνον τὸ ἀγαθόν; ὥσπερ γὰρ οὐδὲν τῶν ἄλλων ἐν τῇ τοιαύτῃ οὐσίᾳ, οὕτως ἐν οὐδενὶ τῶν ἄλλων τὸ ἀγαθὸν εὑρεθήσεται· ἐν πᾶσι γὰρ τὰ ἄλλα πάντα ἐστί, καὶ ἐν τοῖς μικροῖς καὶ ἐν τοῖς μεγάλοις καὶ ἐν τοῖς καθ' ἓν καὶ ἐν αὐτῷ τῷ ζῴῳ τῷ πάντων μείζονι καὶ δυνατωτάτῳ· παθῶν γὰρ πλήρη τὰ γεννητά, αὐτῆς τῆς γενέσεως παθητῆς οὔσης· ὅπου δὲ πάθος, οὐδαμοῦ τὸ ἀγαθόν· ὅπου δὲ τὸ ἀγαθόν, οὐδαμοῦ οὐδὲ ἓν πάθος, ὅπου γὰρ ἡμέρα, οὐδαμοῦ νύξ, ὅπου δὲ νύξ, οὐδαμοῦ ἡμέρα· ὅθεν ἀδύνατον ἐν γενέσει εἶναι τὸ ἀγαθόν, ἐν μόνῳ δὲ τῷ ἀγεννήτῳ. ὥσπερ δὲ μετουσία πάντων ἐστὶν ἐν τῇ ὕλῃ δεδομένη, οὕτω καὶ τοῦ ἀγαθοῦ. τοῦτον τὸν τρόπον ἀγαθὸς ὁ κόσμος, καθὰ καὶ αὐτὸς πάντα ποιεῖ, ὡς ἐν τῷ μέρει τοῦ ποιεῖν ἀγαθὸς εἶναι. ἐν δὲ τοῖς ἄλλοις πᾶσιν οὐκ ἀγαθός· καὶ γὰρ παθητός ἐστι, καὶ κινητός, καὶ παθητῶν ποιητής.
None of these being in that essence, what remains but the Good alone? For just as none of the other things is in such an essence, so in none of the other things will the Good be found; for in all things all the others are — in the small and the great, in individuals, and in the very living thing greater and most powerful than all. For generated things are full of passions, generation itself being passible. Where there is passion, nowhere the Good; where the Good, not even one passion — for where there is day, nowhere night; where night, nowhere day. Whence it is impossible for the Good to be in generation, but only in the ungenerated. And as a participation of all is given in matter, so also of the Good. In this manner the cosmos is good, insofar as it too makes all — good in the part of making; but in all else it is not good, for it is passible and movable, and a maker of passible things.
None of these (the passions) being in that essence, what remains but the Good alone? For as none of the other things is in such an essence, so in none of the other things will the Good be found; for in all things all the others are — in the small and the great, in individuals, and in the very living thing greater and most powerful than all (the cosmos). For generated things are full of passions, generation itself being passible. And where there is passion, nowhere the Good; where the Good, not even one passion — for where there is day, nowhere night; where night, nowhere day. Whence it is impossible for the Good to be in generation, but only in the ungenerated. And as a participation of all is given in matter, so also of the Good. In this manner the cosmos is good, insofar as it too makes all — good in the part of making; but in all else it is not good, for it is passible and movable, and a maker of passible things.
The argument of VI.1 is now given its metaphysical ground: the Good cannot dwell in anything generated, because to be generated is to be passible. The interlinear keeps the πάθος/παθητός family in view because the whole proof turns on the double sense of 'passion' — not merely emotion but passivity, being-acted-upon. 'Generated things are full of passions (παθῶν… πλήρη τὰ γεννητά), generation itself being passible (παθητῆς οὔσης)': to come to be at all is to undergo, to change, to lack — and the Good is none of these.
Hermes states the exclusion as a law with a luminous simile: 'where there is passion, nowhere the Good; where the Good, not even one passion — for where there is day, nowhere night; where night, nowhere day (ὅπου ἡμέρα, οὐδαμοῦ νύξ).' Good and passion are as mutually exclusive as light and dark: not enemies contending in the same place but conditions that cannot share a place at all. Hence the Good is impossible 'in generation (ἐν γενέσει)' and belongs 'only in the ungenerated (ἐν μόνῳ τῷ ἀγεννήτῳ).' The section then makes one careful concession, sharpening rather than softening the thesis: the cosmos can be called 'good' — but only 'in the part of making (ἐν τῷ μέρει τοῦ ποιεῖν),' insofar as it images the Maker by making. In its own nature it is 'passible and movable, and a maker of passible things (παθητός… καὶ κινητός, καὶ παθητῶν ποιητής),' and so not good. It is the Platonic hierarchy stated without flinching: the world is good by participation and imitation, never in itself; the Good itself stays where alone it can, in the changeless God.
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