Diotimos Library · Journals, Notebooks & Fragments Collection · English Edition
Centuries of Meditations
Annotated Edition · With an Introduction, Notes and an Outline.
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English Edition · Branch 408 of 454
The Fourth Century · Meditation IV.94
Centuries of Meditations
p. 40894
Having once studied those principles you are eternally to practise them. You are to warm yourself at these fires, and to have recourse to them every day. When you think not of those things you are in the dark. And if you would walk in the light of them, you must frequently meditate. These principles are like seed in the ground, they must continually be visited with heavenly influences, or else your life will be a barren field. Perhaps they might be cast into better frame, and more curiously expressed; but if well cultivated they will be as fruitful, as if every husk were a golden rind. It is the substance that is in them that is productive of joy and good to all.
Socrates
Reading Centuries of Meditations · The Fourth Century · Meditation IV.94
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.