An ornamental woodcut headpiece features a repeating row of floral and fleur-de-lis decorative motifs.

THEATER

OF FATE.

The first to step onto the stage is
HERMES

the inventor of letters and the benevolent parent of wisdom. All history agrees, however inconsistent and discordant it may otherwise be, that he was more famous and excellent than the rest of mortals. The Egyptians competed to attribute the glory of the arts they invented to him, and authors record that he left behind several thousand verses in every genre of learning. Clement of Alexandria, Stromata, book 6, page 633.

Therefore, it should not be concluded, as Becanus thought, that no Hermes existed at all. Rather, it is better to conclude that many famous men existed in various ages whom they called Hermes indiscriminately, even though their writings were all attributed to that single Hermes Trismegistus Thrice-Greatest Hermes.