(15) Not that, however, God ignoreth man; nay, right well doth He know him, and willeth to be known. This is the sole salvation for a man - God's Gnosis. This is the Way Up to the Mount. By Him alone the soul becometh good, not whiles is good, whiles evil, but [good] out of necessity. Tat: What dost thou mean, Thrice-greatest one? Hermes: Behold an infant's soul, my son, that is not yet cut off, because its body is still small and not as yet come unto its full bulk. Tat: How? Hermes: A thing of beauty altogether is [such a soul] to see, not yet befouled by body's passions, still all but hanging from the Cosmic Soul! But when the body grows in bulk and draweth down the soul into its mass, then doth the soul cut off itself and bring upon itself forgetfulness, and no more shareth in the Beautiful and the Good. And this forgetfulness becometh vice.