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 360 of 454
The Fourth Century · Meditation IV.46
Centuries of Meditations
p. 36046
O the superlative Bounty of God! Where all power seemeth to cease, He proceedeth in goodness, and is wholly infinite, unsearchable, and endless. He seemeth to have made as many things depend upon man’s liberty, as His own. When all that could be wrought by the use of His own liberty were attained, by man’s liberty He attained more. This is incredible, but experience will make it plain. By His own liberty He could but create worlds and give Himself to creatures, make Images and endow them with faculties, or seat them in glory. But to see them obedient, or to enjoy the pleasure of their amity and praises, to make them fountains of actions like His own (without which indeed they could not be glorious) or to enjoy the beauty of their free imitation, this could by no means be without the liberty of His creatures intervening. Nor indeed could the world be glorious, or they blessed without this attainment. For can the world be glorious unless it be useful? And to what use could the world serve Him, if it served not those, that in this were supremely glorious that they could obey and admire and love and praise and imitate their Creator? Would it not be wholly useless without such creatures? In creating liberty therefore and giving it to His creatures He glorified all things: Himself, His work, and the subjects of His Kingdom.
Socrates
Reading Centuries of Meditations · The Fourth Century · Meditation IV.46
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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.