Account and reckoning · Lexicon

From the book

Centuries of Meditations

Thomas Traherne · Diotimos Editions · 2026

Orientation

At a Glance

The wordTo account something a good is to esteem or judge it such.
In TraherneValuation is never merely numerical in the Centuries.
In this edition“Accounted” commonly means esteemed, not entered in a financial ledger.
A place to beginGod accounts what is done to the speaker as done to Himself.

Meaning

To account something a good is to esteem or judge it such. To reckon can be to enumerate benefits or to make a judgment of obligation. Both senses retain the image of bringing things into an intelligible account.

Use in the book

Valuation is never merely numerical in the Centuries. God accounts service to a person as service to Himself, investing the recipient with representative dignity. The child's inability to understand why money is “accounted” valuable exposes the learned conventions on which familiar prices depend. A very different reckoning occurs in the attempt to number God's thoughts: enumeration is acknowledged to be impossible, yet the attempt becomes praise. These uses connect an economy of exchange with an economy of gratitude without making them equivalent. What matters is the rule by which value is assigned. Common social estimates can diminish real treasures; divine accounting magnifies persons and converts acknowledgment of an unpayable debt into enjoyment.

Places to read

II.6God accounts what is done to the speaker as done to Himself.
III.9The monetary valuation of gold puzzles the inexperienced child.
IV.74The immeasurability of divine thoughts prompts an undertaking to reckon and glorify.

In this edition

“Accounted” commonly means esteemed, not entered in a financial ledger. “Reckon” in the scriptural language of IV.74 is an act of grateful enumeration.

Source note

Primary text: II.6, III.9, IV.74. II.6 and III.9 use evaluative accounting; IV.74 develops the scriptural language of counting divine thoughts.