Chapter XV.—Strange Account of the Origin of Matter, from the Various Affections of Achamoth.  The Waters from Her Tears; Light from Her Smile.

Well, now, the Pythagoreans may learn, the Stoics may know, Plato himself (may discover), whence Matter, which they will have to be unborn, derived both its origin and substance for all this pile of the world—(a mystery) which not even the renowned166    Ille. Mercurius Trismegistus, master (as he was) of all physical philosophy, thought out.167    Recogitavit. You have just heard of “Conversion,” one element in the “Passion” (we have so often mentioned). Out of this the whole life of the world,168    “Omnis anima hujus mundi” may, however, mean “every living soul.”  So Bp. Kaye, On Tertullian, p. 487. and even that of the Demiurge himself, our God, is said to have had its being. Again, you have heard of “sorrow” and “fear.” From these all other created things169    Cetera. took their beginning. For from her170    Achamoth’s. tears flowed the entire mass of waters.  From this circumstance one may form an idea of the calamity171    Exitum. which she encountered, so vast were the kinds of the tears wherewith she overflowed. She had salt tear-drops, she had bitter, and sweet, and warm, and cold, and bituminous, and ferruginous, and sulphurous, and even172    Utique. poisonous, so that the Nonacris exuded therefrom which killed Alexander; and the river of the Lyncestæ173    These two rivers, with their peculiar qualities, are mentioned by Pliny, H. N. ii. 103; [and the latter by Milton against Salmasius.] flowed from the same source, which produces drunkenness; and the Salmacis174    Ovid. Metam. iv. 286. was derived from the same source, which renders men effeminate. The rains of heaven Achamoth whimpered forth,175    Pipiavit. and we on our part are anxiously employed in saving up in our cisterns the very wails and tears of another. In like manner, from the “consternation” and “alarm” (of which we have also heard), bodily elements were derived. And yet amidst so many circumstances of solitude, in this vast prospect of destitution, she occasionally smiled at the recollection of the sight of Christ, and from this smile of joy light flashed forth.  How great was this beneficence of Providence, which induced her to smile, and all that we might not linger for ever in the dark! Nor need you feel astonished how176    Qui. from her joy so splendid an element177    As light. could have beamed upon the world, when from her sadness even so necessary a provision178    Instrumentum: water is meant. flowed forth for man. O illuminating smile! O irrigating tear! And yet it might now have acted as some alleviation amidst the horror of her situation; for she might have shaken off all the obscurity thereof as often as she had a mind to smile, even not to be obliged to turn suppliant to those who had deserted her.179    Christ and the Holy Spirit. Oehler.

CAPUT XV.

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Age nunc discant Pythagorici, agnoscant Stoici, Plato ipse, unde materia , quam innatam volunt, et originem, et substantiam traxerit in omnem hanc struem mundi, quod nec Mercurius ille Trismegistus magister omnium Physicorum recogitavit. Audisti Conversionem, genus aliud Passionis; ex hac omnis anima hujus mundi dicitur constitisse, etiam ipsius Demiurgi, id est Dei nostri. Audisti moerorem et timorem; ex his initiata sunt caetera. Nam ex lacrymis 0568A ejus universa aquarum natura manavit. Hic aestimandum, quem exitum duxerit, quantis lacrymarum generibus inundarit. Habuit et falsas, habuit et amaras, et dulces, et calidas, et frigidas guttas, et bituminosas, et ferruginantes, et sulphurantes, utique et venenatas, ut et Nonacris inde sudaverit quae Alexandrum occidit, et Lyncestarum inde defluxerit quae ebrios efficit, et Salmacis inde se solverit quae masculos molles . Coelestes imbres pipiavit Achamoth (e): et nos in cisternis etiam alienos luctus et 0569A lacrymas servare curamus. Proinde ex consternatione et pavore corporalia elementa ducta sunt. Et tamen in tanta circumstantia solitudinis, in tanto circumsepto destitutionis, ridebat interim, qua conspecti Christi recordans, eo de gaudio risus lumen effulsit. Cujus hoc providentiae beneficium, quale illam ridere cogebat, idcirco ne semper nos in tenebris moraremur? Nec obstupescas, qui laetitia ejus tam splendidum elementum radiaverit mundo, cum moestitia quoque ejus tam necessarium instrumentum defluxerit saeculo? O risum illuminatorem! o fletum rigatorem! Et tamen poterat remedio jam agere cum illius loci horrore. Omnem enim obscuritatem ejus discussisset, quoties ridere voluisset, vel ne cogeretur desertores suos applicare .