Centuries of Meditations

Name: Centuries of Meditations
Author: Thomas Traherne

Annotated Edition · With an Introduction, Notes and an Outline.

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Centuries of MeditationsThe Second Century · Meditation II.21

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English Edition · Branch 135 of 454

The Second Century · Meditation II.21

Book Mode

Centuries of Meditations

p. 135

21

When Amasis the King of Egypt sent to the wise men of Greece, to know, Quid Pulcherrimum? upon due and mature consideration they answered, The World. The world certainly being so beautiful that nothing visible is capable of more. Were we to see it only once, the first appearance would amaze us. But being daily seen, we observe it not. Ancient philosophers have thought God to be the Soul of the World. Since therefore this visible World is the body of God, not His natural body, but which He hath assumed; let us see how glorious His wisdom is in manifesting Himself thereby. It hath not only represented His infinity and eternity which we thought impossible to, be represented by a body, but His beauty also, His wisdom, goodness, power, life and glory, His righteousness, love, and blessedness: all which as out of a plentiful treasury, may be taken and collected out of this world.

First, His infinity; for the dimensions of the world are unsearchable. An infinite wall is a poor thing to express His infinity. A narrow endless length is nothing: might be, and if it were, were unprofitable. But the world is round, and endlessly unsearchable every way. What astronomer, what mathematician, what philosopher did ever comprehend the measures of the world? The very Earth alone being round and globous, is illimited. It hath neither walls nor precipices, nor bounds, nor borders. A man may lose himself in the midst of nations and kingdoms. And yet it is but a centre compared to the universe. The distance of the sun, the altitude of the stars, the wideness of the heavens on every side passeth the reach of sight, and search of the understanding. And whether it be infinite or no, we cannot tell. The Eternity of God is so apparent in it, that the wisest of philosophers thought the world eternal. We come into it and leave it, as if it had neither beginning nor ending. Concerning its beauty I need say nothing. No man can turn unto it, but must be ravished with its appearance. Only thus much, since these things are so beautiful, how much more beautiful is the author of them? Which was the note and observation of the wise man in the Book of ⸻. But the beauty of God is invisible, it is all Wisdom, Goodness, Life and Love, Power, Glory, Blessedness &c. How therefore shall these be expressed in a material world? His wisdom is expressed in manifesting His infinity in such a commodious manner. He hath made a penetrable body in which we may stand, to wit the air, and see the Heavens and the regions of the Earth, at wonderful distances. His goodness is manifest in making that beauty so delightful, and its varieties so profitable. The air to breathe in, the sea for moisture, the earth for fertility, the heavens for influences, the Sun for productions, the stars and trees wherewith it is adorned for innumerable uses. Again His goodness is seen, in the end to which He guideth all this profitableness, in making it serviceable to supply our wants, and delight our senses: to enflame us with His love, and make us amiable before Him, and delighters in His blessedness. God having not only shewed us His simple infinity in an endless wall, but in such an illustrious manner, by an infinite variety, that He hath drowned our understanding in a multitude of wonders: transported us with delights and enriched us with innumerable diversities of joys and pleasures. The very greatness of our felicity convinceth us that there is a God.

101.Amasis (Ahmose II, king of Egypt 570-526 BC) appears in Plutarch’s Dinner of the Seven Wise Men, where the king of Ethiopia’s answers to questions Amasis had set him, what is oldest, greatest, most beautiful, are read out before the Greek sages, and Thales corrects them, saying that the most beautiful thing is the universe (Moralia 153c-d; kosmos, a word that also means order and ornament). Diogenes Laertius gives Thales the saying “most beautiful is the world, for it is God’s workmanship” (I.35). The Latin Quid Pulcherrimum?, “What is most beautiful?”, suggests that Traherne met the story in a Latin collection.

102.The World-Soul of Plato’s Timaeus (30b, 34b), where the cosmos is a living creature endowed with soul and reason, and of the Stoics, for whom God was the mind pervading the universe. In the manuscript Traherne went on, “If GOD then be the Soul of the World, the World is His Body”, and then struck the sentence out. The next sentence gives the guarded form, a body God has assumed, as the Son assumed human nature, and “not His natural body”.

103.Whether the universe is infinite was an open question. Giordano Bruno had taught an infinite universe of worlds, Descartes called the world indefinitely extended (Principles of Philosophy II.21), and Henry More argued for infinite space. Here Traherne leaves the matter undecided; compare II.81.

104.Aristotle, called simply the Philosopher in the schools, who argued that motion and time, and so the world, had no beginning and will have no end (Physics VIII.1; De Caelo I.10-12). Christian teachers rejected the conclusion on the authority of Genesis, and Aquinas held that reason alone cannot prove the world had a beginning, which is known by faith (Summa Theologiae I q.46 a.2).

105.Traherne left the name of the book blank, and in the manuscript the rest of the line is empty; Dobell printed the gap with a footnote. The wise man is Solomon, to whom the Wisdom of Solomon was ascribed, and the observation is Wisdom 13:3-5, “by the greatness and beauty of the creatures proportionably the maker of them is seen”. The book belongs to the Apocrypha, which the Church of England reads “for example of life” but not to establish doctrine (Article VI).

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.