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 372 of 454
The Fourth Century · Meditation IV.58
Centuries of Meditations
p. 37258
Shall I not love him infinitely for whom God made the world and gave His Son? Shall I not love him infinitely who loveth me infinitely? Examine yourself well, and you will find it a difficult matter to love God so as to die for Him, and not to love your brother so as to die for him in like manner. Shall I not love Him infinitely whom God loveth infinitely, and commendeth to my love, as the representative of Himself, with such a saying, What ye do to him is done unto Me? And if I love him so, can I forbear to help him? Verily had I but one crown in the world, being in an open field, where both he and I were ready to perish, and twere necessary that one of us must have it all or be destroyed, though I knew not where to have relief, he should have it, and I would die with comfort. I will not say, How small a comfort so small a succour is did I keep it: but how great a joy, to be the occasion of another’s life! Love knows not how to be timorous, because it receives what it gives away, and is unavoidably the end of its own afflictions and another’s happiness. Let him that pleases keep his money, I am more rich in this noble charity to all the world, and more enjoy myself in it, than he can be in both the Indies.
Socrates
Reading Centuries of Meditations · The Fourth Century · Meditation IV.58
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.