Man, image of the cosmos — sympathy with the world, notion of God; and God the compass of all
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Hermes — Τὸ δὲ τρίτον ζῶον, ὁ ἄνθρωπος κατ᾿ εἰκόνα τοῦ κόσμου γενόμενος, νοῦν κατὰ βούλησιν τοῦ πατρὸς ἔχων παρὰ τὰ ἄλλα ἐπίγεια ζῶα, οὐ μόνον πρὸς τὸν δεύτερον θεὸν συμπάθειαν ἔχει, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἔννοιαν τοῦ πρώτου τοῦ μὲν γὰρ αἰσθάνεται ὡς σώματος, τοῦ δὲ ἔννοιαν λαμβάνει ὡς ἀσωμάτου καὶ νοῦ τοῦ ἀγαθοῦ.
Tat — Τοῦτο οὖν οὐκ ἀπόλλυται τὸ ζῶον;
Hermes — Ευφήμησον, ὦ τέκνον, καὶ νόησον τί θεός, τί κόσμος, τί ζῶον ἀθάνατον, τί ζῶον διαλυτόν· καὶ νόησον ὅτι ὁ μὲν κόσμος ὑπὸ τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ ἐν τῷ θεῷ, ὁ δὲ ἄνθρωπος ὑπὸ τοῦ κόσμου καὶ ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ· ἀρχὴ δὲ καὶ περιοχὴ καὶ σύστασις πάντων ὁ Θεός.
And the third living being, man, made after the image of the cosmos, having mind by the will of the Father beyond the other earthly living beings, not only has sympathy with the second god but also a notion of the first; for the one he perceives as a body, while of the other he takes a notion as incorporeal and the good Mind. — This then, does it not perish, this living being? — Hush, O child, and understand what God is, what the cosmos, what an immortal living being, what a dissoluble one; and understand that the cosmos is under God and in God, and man under the cosmos and in the cosmos — and the beginning and the container and the constitution of all is God.
And the third living being, man, made after the image of the cosmos, having mind by the will of the Father beyond the other earthly living beings, not only has sympathy with the second god but also a notion of the first: for the one he perceives as body, while of the other he takes a notion as incorporeal and the Good Mind. Tat: does this living being, then, not perish? Hermes: Hush, child, and understand what God is, what the cosmos, what an immortal living being, what a dissoluble one; and understand that the cosmos is under God and in God, and man under the cosmos and in the cosmos — and the beginning and the container and the constitution of all is God.
The triad completes with man, and the treatise gives him the same double citizenship CH X will make its climax. Man is 'the third living being (τὸ… τρίτον ζῶον), made after the image of the cosmos (κατ' εἰκόνα τοῦ κόσμου),' and — the differentia — 'having mind by the will of the Father (νοῦν κατὰ βούλησιν τοῦ πατρός),' unlike the other earthly animals. That mind gives him a reach in two directions at once: 'not only sympathy with the second god (συμπάθειαν… πρὸς τὸν δεύτερον θεόν),' the cosmos, 'but also a notion of the first (ἔννοιαν τοῦ πρώτου).' The two verbs are exact: 'the one he perceives as body (αἰσθάνεται ὡς σώματος)' — the cosmos met through the senses — while 'of the other he takes a notion as incorporeal (ἔννοιαν λαμβάνει ὡς ἀσωμάτου) and the good Mind' — God grasped by intellect alone. Sense reaches the world; thought reaches God; man alone spans both.
Tat asks the anxious question the whole treatise has been circling — 'does this living being not perish (οὐκ ἀπόλλυται τὸ ζῶον)?' — and Hermes answers with a rebuke that is also the doctrine: 'Hush (Εὐφήμησον),' the ritual word for reverent silence, for not speaking ill-omened things. The cure for the fear of death is not argument but right understanding: 'understand what God is, what the cosmos, what an immortal living being, what a dissoluble one.' And the frame that dissolves the fear is the nested order, stated as pure containment: 'the cosmos is under God and in God (ὑπὸ τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ ἐν τῷ θεῷ), and man under the cosmos and in the cosmos,' with God as 'the beginning and the container and the constitution of all (ἀρχὴ… καὶ περιοχὴ καὶ σύστασις πάντων ὁ Θεός).' Nothing can be lost that is held in God; to fear perishing is to have forgotten where you are. The treatise that began by unspelling 'death' ends by relocating the self inside the one who contains all — and there, annihilation has no room to happen.
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