Whither are you carried, drunken men? — sober up and look with the eyes of the heart
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Hermes — Ποῖ φέρεσθε, ὦ ἄνθρωποι, μεθύοντες, τὸν τῆς ἀγνωσίας ἄκρατον λόγον ἐκπιόντες, ὃν οὐδὲ φέρειν δύνασθε, ἀλλ' ἤδη αὐτὸν καὶ ἐμεῖτε; στῆτε νήψαντες· ἀναβλέψατε τοῖς ὀφθαλμοῖς τῆς καρδίας· καὶ εἰ μὴ πάντες δύνασθε, οἵ γε καὶ δυνάμενοι· ἡ γὰρ τῆς ἀγνωσίας κακία ἐπικλύζει πᾶσαν τὴν γῆν καὶ συμφθείρει τὴν ἐν τῷ σώματι κατακεκλεισμένην ψυχήν, μὴ ἐῶσα ἐνορμίζεσθαι τοῖς τῆς σωτηρίας λιμέσι.
Whither are you carried, O men, drunken, having drained the unmixed word of ignorance, which you cannot even bear, but are already vomiting up? Stand still, sober up; look up with the eyes of the heart — and if not all can, yet those at least who are able. For the evil of ignorance floods all the earth, and corrupts the soul imprisoned in the body, not allowing it to come to anchor in the harbours of salvation.
The seventh treatise, a public sermon (Κηρύγματα) in the voice of Hermes, opens as a cry to a crowd. Where are you rushing, drunk on the neat, undiluted 'word of ignorance' you have drunk to the dregs and can no longer even keep down? Stand still, sober up, and look up with the eyes of the heart. Not all can — but those who can, let them. For the flood of ignorance drowns the earth and corrupts the soul locked in the body, keeping it from ever reaching the harbours of salvation.
CH VII is not a dialogue but a κήρυγμα — a herald's cry, a street sermon — and it begins the way the Gnostic preachers and the Baptist alike begin, by shouting at a crowd it takes to be asleep on its feet. 'Whither are you carried, O men, drunken? (Ποῖ φέρεσθε, ὦ ἄνθρωποι, μεθύοντες;)' The image is exact and physical: not merry tipsiness but the helpless reeling of someone swept along, who has drunk 'the unmixed word of ignorance (τὸν τῆς ἀγνωσίας ἄκρατον λόγον).' Greeks cut their wine with water; ἄκρατος wine, drunk neat, was what wrecked you. Ignorance here is that neat draught — and the drinkers are so far gone they can 'not even bear it, but are already vomiting it up (οὐδὲ φέρειν δύνασθε, ἀλλ' ἤδη αὐτὸν καὶ ἐμεῖτε).' The cure is the one word the whole treatise turns on: 'sober up (νήψαντες).' νήφω is the opposite of μεθύω, and in this literature it is nearly a technical term for the soul come to itself.
Then the reveal-layer's key organ: 'look up with the eyes of the heart (ἀναβλέψατε τοῖς ὀφθαλμοῖς τῆς καρδίας).' Not the eyes of the body — the καρδία, the heart, is where true sight happens, exactly as CH VII.2 will insist God is seen 'by mind and heart' and not by the eye. (Ephesians 1:18 has the same phrase, 'the eyes of your heart enlightened,' and the coincidence is worth pausing on.) The sermon is honest about its own limits — 'if not all can, yet those who are able' — a hard saying that the light is not for everyone equally, only for those with the capacity to turn. And it closes on the flood: 'the evil of ignorance floods all the earth (ἐπικλύζει πᾶσαν τὴν γῆν)' and drowns 'the soul imprisoned in the body (τὴν ἐν τῷ σώματι κατακεκλεισμένην ψυχήν)' — the body as prison, the sea as ignorance, salvation as a harbour the drowning cannot reach on their own. Every image of the next two sections is already set here: current, harbour, anchor, sight.
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