Thricegreatest Hermes - v. 3 Author:Hermes Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: EXCERPT I. OF PIETY AND [TRUE] PHILOSOPHY (Title from Patrizzi (p. 4); preceded by " Of Thrice- greatest Hermes." Text: Stobaus, Phys., xxxv. 1, under ... more »heading: "Of Hermes—from the [Book] to Tat"; G. pp. 273-278; M. i. 190-194; W. i. 273-278.1 Menard, Livre IV., No. i. of " Fragments from the Books of Hermes to his Son Tat," pp. 225-230.) l. Her. Both for the sake of love to man, and piety to God, I [now], my son, for the first time take pen in hand.4 1 G. = Gaisford (T.), Joannis Stobaei Florilegium (Oxford, 1822), 4 vols.; lo. Stob. Ec. Phys. et Ethic. Libri Duo (Oxford, 1850), 2 vols. M. = Meineke (A.), Joh. Stob. Flor. (Leipzig, 1855, 1856), 3 vols.; Joh. Stob. Ec. Phys. et Ethic. Lib. Duo (Leipzig, I860), 2 vols. W. = Wachsmuth (C.), lo. Stob. Anthologii Lib. Duo Primes . . . Ec. Phys. et Ethic. (Berlin, 1884), 2 vols. H. = Hense (0.), /. Stob. Anth. Lib. Tert. (Berlin, 1894), 1 vol., incomplete. I have numbered the paragraphs in all the excerpts for convenience of reference. 3 tiaianddas,—it might also be rendered by worship. For there can be no piety more righteous than to know the things that are, and to give thanks for these to Him who made them,—which I will never cease to do. 2. Tat. By doing what, 0 father, then, if naught be true down here, may one live wisely ? Her. Be pious,1 son! Who pious is, doth reach the height of [all] philosophy ; without philosophy the height of piety cannot be scaled. But he who learns what are existent things, and how they have been ordered, and by whom, and for whose sake,—he will give thanks for all unto the Demiurge, as unto a good sire, a nurse [most] excellent, a steward who doth never break his trust.8 3. Who giveth thanks, he will be pious; and he who pious is, will [get to] know both...« less