The Initiations of Orpheus: IX: To Nature
IX.
TO NATURE. *
The FUMIGATION from AROMATICS.
NATURE, all parent, ancient, and divine,
O Much-mechanic mother, art is thine;
To all things common and in all things known,
Yet incommunicable and alone.
Without a father of thy wond'rous frame, 15
Thyself the father whence thy essence came.
All-flourishing, connecting, mingling soul,
Leader and ruler of this mighty whole.
Life-bearer, all-sustaining, various nam'd,
And for commanding grace and beauty fam'd. 20
Justice, supreme in might, whose general sway
The waters of the restless deep obey.
Ætherial, earthly, for the pious glad,
Sweet to the good, but bitter to the bad.
All-wife, all bounteous, provident, divine, 25
A rich increase of nutriment is thine;
Like swift descending streams, no respite know,
On an eternal hinge, with steady course 35
Is whirl'd, with matchless, unremitting force.
Thron'd on a circling car, thy mighty hand
Holds and directs, the reins of wide command.
Various thy essence, honor'd, and the best,
Of judgement too, the general end and test. 40
126:* Nature, according to the theologists, as related by Proclus, in Tim. p. iv. is the last of the demiurgic causes of this sensible world, and the boundary of the latitude of incorporeal essences: and is full of reasons and powers, by which she governs the universe, every where connecting parts with their wholes. Hence 129:33 Ver. 33.] By thee the world, &c. Since the world has an extended and composite essence, and is on this account continually separated from itself, it can alone be connected by a certain indivisible virtue infused from the divine unity. Again, since from a natural appetite, it is ever orderly moved towards good, the nature of such an appetite and motion must originate from a divine intellect and goodness. But since, from its material imperfection, it cannot receive the whole of divine infinity at once, but in a manner accommodated to its temporal nature: it can only derive it gradually and partially, as it were by drops, in a momentary succession. So that the corporeal world is in a continual state of flowing and formation, but never possesses real being; and is like the image of a lofty tree seen in a rapid torrent, which has the appearance of a tree without the reality; and which seems to endure perpetually the same, yet is continually renewed by the continual renovation of the stream.
) κόσμοσ καὶ τὰ ἑν αυτῳ παντα. i. e. "Nature, and the whole world, and whatever it contains. arc aptly connected together from infinites and finites."