Diotimos Library · Journals, Notebooks & Fragments Collection · English Edition
Centuries of Meditations
Annotated Edition · With an Introduction, Notes and an Outline.
Explore the LexiconSwipe or use the arrow keys.
English Edition · Branch 280 of 454
The Third Century · Meditation III.66
Centuries of Meditations
p. 28066
Little did I imagine that, while I was thinking these things, I was conversing with God. I was so ignorant that I did not think any man in the World had had such thoughts before. Seeing them therefore so amiable I wondered not a little, that nothing was spoken of them in former ages: but as I read the Bible I was here and there surprised with such thoughts, and found by degrees that these things had been written of before, not only in the Scriptures, but in many of the Fathers, and that this was the way of communion with God in all Saints, as I saw clearly in the person of David. Methought a new light darted in into all his psalms, and finally spread abroad over the whole Bible. So that things which for their obscurity I thought not in being were there contained: things which for their greatness were incredible were made evident, and things obscure plain. God by this means bringing me into the very heart of His Kingdom.
Socrates
Reading Centuries of Meditations · The Third Century · Meditation III.66
Ask about a concept, passage, contradiction, or connection.
Socrates will begin with this book and its sources.About This Reading Edition
Thomas Traherne’s Centuries explore felicity, childhood vision, love, and the soul’s capacity to enjoy the world. This annotated English edition presents all 410 meditations across five Centuries, with an introduction, explanatory notes, an outline, and textual apparatus.
Historical Text
The Centuries survive in Traherne’s manuscript and were first published by Bertram Dobell in London in 1908. The supplied edition follows the corrected Dobell text, with manuscript readings documented in its Note on the Text and Textual Notes. The four complete Centuries contain one hundred meditations each; the unfinished Fifth contains ten.
About This Edition
Diotimos Editions prepared the introduction, explanatory notes, glossary, reading guide, outline, and textual apparatus for this English original. Century and meditation numbers preserve the work’s structure, while verse line breaks, italics, and struck-through manuscript cancellations remain visible. Notes accompany their passages in the reader and Book Mode.
Rights
Thomas Traherne’s historical text and Bertram Dobell’s 1908 printing are in the public domain. The introduction, notes, and apparatus are © 2026 Diotimos Editions. Historical printing and transcription links identify the edition’s copy-text; manuscript corrections and unresolved readings are documented in the supplied editorial apparatus.