A rectangular decorative woodcut headpiece. In the center is a woven basket overflowing with various flowers, including roses and carnations. From the basket, ornate symmetrical scrolling vines and floral motifs extend outward to fill the frame.

CHAPTER I.

Concerning the infinite nature and the maker of all things.

Hermes, Sacred Discourses

INFINITE NATURE, which is the boundless Spirit—ineffable, beyond understanding, outside all imagination, above all essence, unnamable, to be preached by the heart alone, most wise, most merciful: FATHER, WORD, and Holy SPIRIT; the highest and only good, an incomprehensible depth, the unity of all creatures; which is stronger than all power, greater than all excellence, worthier than all praise; the indivisible TRINITY, a light most splendid and indescribable; finally, the divine mind, free and separated from all mortal composition, the glory of all things, divine nature, necessity, end, and renewal. This, I say, GOD, the highest and greatest of all, whose name be blessed forever, most skillfully founded the wonderful machine of the entire Macrocosm The "Macrocosm" refers to the great world or the entire universe, viewed as a single organism. and most beautifully adorned its structure. This is also what nearly all philosophers, both ancient and modern—except for the Peripatetics Followers of Aristotle, who argued the universe had no beginning. who wish for the world to be from eternity—assert with almost unanimous consent, naming this most divine founder of the universe with many titles fitting to every property of his action. Among these, Hermes calls him eternal, Thales the most ancient, Plato the unbegotten principle of the world, others the infinite cause, existing as if outside all things and yet in all things and everywhere, others the Being of beings, the first cause (insofar as other causes and effects depend on him), the maker of all, the author, and according to Plato, the architectural intellect. Hence, some others have called him the Prince of worldly things, the governor, the ordainer, the first mover and the prime mover, and the immobile principle; since all things are moved by him while he remains immobile and subject to no passion, being always stable, fixed, and permanent. Trismegistus Hermes Trismegistus, a legendary Hellenistic figure associated with wisdom and alchemy. calls him the principle of the universe, by which he seems to understand the sole maker of the workmanship; finally, Plato and Mercury Trismegistus call him Father, insofar as he is the author of all fertility and the parent of all things. Finally, the great chorus of Philosophers concludes (among whom I name Orpheus and Democritus) that God has every name, because all things are in him and he is in all things; not otherwise than all straight lines drawn from a center to a circumference are said to be in the center, or just as number is said to be in unity, which is the common measure, source, and origin of all numbers, and contains every number joined uniquely within itself. Whence the Pythagoreans and those most skilled in numerical science adapted the monad or unity to God the maker; both because before all things he was alone and unique, and also because he stood forth as the first actor and sole mover to perfect the vast structure of the workmanship; his au-