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 291 of 454
The Third Century · Meditation III.77
Centuries of Meditations
p. 29177
Hearken, O Daughter, and consider and incline thine ear, forget also thine own people and thy father’s house. So shall the King greatly desire thy beauty, for He is thy Lord, and worship thou Him. The King’s daughter is all glorious within, her clothing is of wrought gold. She shall be brought unto the King in raiment of needlework, the virgins her companions that follow her shall be brought unto Thee. With gladness and rejoicing shall they be brought, they shall enter into the King’s Palace. Instead of thy fathers shall be thy children, whom thou mayest make princes in all the Earth. The psalmist here singeth an Epithalamium upon the marriage between Christ and His Church: whom he persuadeth to forsake her country and her father’s house together with all the customs and vanities of this World: and to dedicate herself wholly to our Saviour’s Service. Since she is in exchange to enter into His palace, and become a bride to so glorious a person. The Bridegroom and the Bride, the Palace (which is all the world) with all that is therein, being David’s joy and his true possession. Nay every child of this Bride is if a male, a Prince over all the earth; if a female, Bride to the King of Heaven. And every Soul that is a spouse of Jesus Christ, esteemeth all the Saints her own children and her own bowels.
Socrates
Reading Centuries of Meditations · The Third Century · Meditation III.77
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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.