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 199 of 454
The Second Century · Meditation II.85
Centuries of Meditations
p. 19985
You know that Love receives a grandeur of value and esteem from the greatness of the person, from whom it doth proceed. The love of a King is naturally more delightful than the love of a beggar: the love of God more excellent than the love of a King. The love of a beautiful person is more pleasing than that of one deformed. The love of a wise man is far more precious than the love of a fool. When you are so great a creature as to fill ages and kingdoms with the beauty of your soul, and to reign over them like the Wisdom of the Father filling Eternity with Light and Glory, your love shall be acceptable and sweet and precious. The world therefore serveth you, not only in furnishing you with riches, and making you beautiful, and great and wise, when it is rightly used: but in doing that which doth infinitely concern you, in making your love precious. For above all things in all worlds you naturally desire most violently that your love should be prized: and the reason is, because that being the best thing you can do or give, all is worthless that you can do besides: and you have no more power left to be good, or to please, or to do anything, when once your love is despised.
Socrates
Reading Centuries of Meditations · The Second Century · Meditation II.85
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.