Centuries of Meditations

Name: Centuries of Meditations
Author: Thomas Traherne

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

Explore the Lexicon

Centuries of MeditationsThe Fourth Century · Meditation IV.77

Swipe or use the arrow keys.

English Edition · Branch 391 of 454

The Fourth Century · Meditation IV.77

Book Mode

Centuries of Meditations

p. 391

77

“O infinite liberality of God the Father! O admirable and supreme Felicity of Man! to whom it is given to have what he desires, and to be what he wishes. The brutes when they are brought forth bring into the world with them what they are to possess continually. The spirits that are above were, either from the beginning or a little after, that which they are about to be to all Eternities. Nascenti Homini omnigena vitae germina indidit Pater; God infused the seeds of every kind of life into man: whatever seeds every one chooseth those spring up with him, and the fruits of those shall he bear and enjoy. If sensual things are chosen by him, he shall become a beast; if reasonable a celestial creature; if intellectual an Angel and a Son of God; and if being content with the lot of no creatures, he withdraws himself into the centre of his own unity, he shall be one Spirit with God, and dwell above all in the solitary darkness of His Eternal Father.”

323.Pico’s O summam Dei patris liberalitatem, summam et admirandam hominis foelicitatem! His felicitas is Traherne’s Felicity, the word this book has made its own (see Key Words, felicity). Traherne drops Pico’s tag from the poet Lucilius, that the brutes bring what they will possess with them from the mother’s bag.

324.Pico wrote omnifaria semina et omnigenae vitae germina, seeds of every sort and shoots of every kind of life; Traherne’s Latin shortens the phrase, and omnigena should read omnigenae. He also drops the first rung of Pico’s ladder, si vegetalia, planta fiet, if a man cultivates the vegetative powers he will become a plant, and begins with the beasts.

325.Pico’s in solitaria Patris caligine; Traherne adds Eternal. The divine darkness is that of Exodus 20:21, where Moses “drew near unto the thick darkness where God was”, as read by Dionysius the Areopagite in Mystical Theology I. Withdrawal into the centre of one’s own unity is the Platonists’ return of the soul to the One (Plotinus, Enneads VI.9), and to be one Spirit with God is 1 Corinthians 6:17 (see IV.28).

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.