THE SUBJECT-MATTER OF THE HYMN-CYCLES

there is one Coptic psalm in which a similar treatment of the soul is maintained throughout.1 This psalm is so important for comparison with the hymn-cycles that it is quoted here in full:

Come to me, my kinsman, the Light, my guide.
. . . my soul, bear up: thou hast thy Saviour:
thy defense is Christ, for he will receive thee into his Kingdom.
Since I went forth into the darkness I was given a water to drink which
. . . me. I bear up beneath a burden which is not my own.
I am in the midst of my enemies, the beasts surrounding me;
the burden which I bear is of the powers and principalities.
They burned in their wrath, they rose up against me, they ran
to . . . me, like sheep that have no shepherd.
Matter and her sons divided me up amongst them, they
burnt me in their fire, they gave me a bitter likeness.
The strangers with whom I mixed, me they know
not; they tasted my sweetness, they desired to keep
me with them.
I was life to them, but they were death to
me; I bore up beneath them, they wore me as a
garment upon them.
I am in everything, I bear the skies, I am the foundation, I support the
earths, I am the Light that shines forth, that gives joy to
souls.
I am the life of the world: I am the milk that is in all
trees: I am the sweet water that is beneath
the sons of Matter.
. . . I went forth to the . . .
. . . the Aeons . . . they sent me forth to the . . .
I bore these things until I had fulfilled the will of my Father;
the First Man is my father whose will I have carried out.
Lo, the Darkness I have subdued; lo, the fire of the fountains I have
extinguished it, as the Sphere turns hurrying round, as the sun receives
the refined part of life.
O soul, raise thy eyes to the height and contemplate thy bond . . .
. . . thou hast reached it; lo, thy Fathers are calling thee.
Now go aboard the Ships of Light and receive thy garland
of glory and return to thy kingdom and rejoice with all
the Aeons.
Glory and honor to our Lord Mani and his
holy Elect and the soul of the blessed Mary.2

1. Psalm ccxlvi.
2. Ps. Bk. 54-55.