to his gaze, and the principle and end of all things, the Being of beings, in all its unfathomable Unity, was delivered to his contemplation.[1]
Alike in everything, is the same in every place.
I have already said that the homogeneity of Nature was, with the unity of God, one of the greatest secrets of the mysteries. Pythagoras founded this homogeneity upon the unity of the spirit by which it is penetrated and from which, according to him, all our souls draw their origin.[2] This dogma which he had received from the Chaldeans and from the priests of Egypt was admitted by all the sages of antiquity, as is proved at great length by Stanley and the astute Beausobre.[3] These sages established a harmony, a perfect analogy between heaven and earth, the intelligible and the sentient, the indivisible substance and the divisible substance; in such a manner that that which took place in one of the regions of the Universe or of the modifications of the primordial Ternary was the exact image of that which took place in the other. This idea is found very forcibly revealed by the ancient Thoth, called Hermes Trismegistus,[4] by the Greeks, in the table of Emerald which is attributed to him.
In truth, and without fiction, in truth, in truth, I say to you, that things inferior are like unto the superior; both unite their invincible forces to produce one sole thing, the most marvellous of all, and as all things are emanated by the will of one unique God, thus all things whatsoever must be engendered by this sole thing,—by a disposition of Universal nature.[5]
- ↑ Euseb., Prœp. Evang., l. xiii., c. 12; Henric. Steph., Poes. philosop., p. 78.
- ↑ Porphyr., Sent., no. 10, p. 221; Stanl., In Pythag., p. 775.
- ↑ Stanley, De Phil. chald., p. 1123; Beausob., Hist. du Manich., t. ii., l. ix., c. 1, § 10.
- ↑ Τρισμέγιστος, thrice greatest.
- ↑ It is said that this famous table of Emerald was found in the valley of Hebron, in a sepulchre where it was between the hands of the cadaver of
