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 454 of 454
Sources · Part 2
Centuries of Meditations
p. 454Reception. The Athenaeum, no. 3957, 29 August 1903; The Athenaeum 1903, bound volume; The Spectator, vol. 101, no. 4177, 18 July 1908, “Profitable Wonders”; The Spectator, index for July-December 1908; W. H. Hudson, Far Away and Long Ago (1918); Gladys E. Willett, Traherne (An Essay) (1919); W. R. Inge, The Platonic Tradition in English Religious Thought (1926); Aldous Huxley, The Perennial Philosophy; K. W. Salter, Thomas Traherne: Mystic and Poet (1964); C. S. Lewis and his Dobell edition of Traherne’s Centuries, Surprised by Traherne; Arend Smilde, Lewisiana, quotations in The Screwtape Letters; C. S. Lewis, preface to The Screwtape Letters; Guidelines for Spiritual Reading from C. S. Lewis, Inklings Forever; Sehnsucht 14, on Lewis’s reading lists; Dorothy Sayers compares Traherne to Dante and Wordsworth, Surprised by Traherne; Paul Murray, T. S. Eliot and Mysticism, introduction; Traherne’s technique of repetition (on Louis L. Martz), Surprised by Traherne; Professor Martz’s structural study of Traherne’s Centuries, Surprised by Traherne; Carol L. Marks, “Thomas Traherne and Cambridge Platonism”, PMLA 81 (1966); Carol L. Marks, “Thomas Traherne and Hermes Trismegistus”, Renaissance News 19 (1966); Denise Inge, Wanting Like a God (SCM Press); Review of Wanting Like a God, Journal of Theological Studies; Elizabeth S. Dodd and Cassandra Gorman (eds), Thomas Traherne and Seventeenth-Century Thought; Kathryn Murphy, Oxford English Faculty; Kathryn Murphy, “Thomas Traherne, Thomas Hobbes, and the Rhetoric of Realism”; Richard Willmott, Three Choirs Festival talk (2017); Thomas Traherne Association; The Oxford Traherne, Traherne 350 events; Thomas Traherne Association, Each Jubilant Chord; Andrew Burn, notes to Finzi’s Dies Natalis, Hyperion; Matthew McCullough, “A History and Analysis of Gerald Finzi’s Dies Natalis”, British Music Society; Each Jubilant Chord, Gavin Bryars; Bienen School of Music, Grammy awards 2018; The Crossing, The Fifth Century; Each Jubilant Chord, Mike Heron; Douglas Harding and Traherne, headless.org; Hilary Davies, the Audley Chantry windows, Beshara Magazine; Thomas Traherne Association, Places of interest; St Paul’s Cathedral, service sheet for October 2024 (calendar of the Church of England); Church of England, calendar; The Episcopal Church, A Great Cloud of Witnesses; UK Reading Experience Database, W. H. Hudson reading Traherne.
Socrates
Reading Centuries of Meditations · Sources · Sources · Part 2
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.