From the book
Centuries of Meditations
Thomas Traherne · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordA balance weighs; proportion expresses a fitting relation between quantities, powers, or ends.
- In TraherneThe world becomes dust in a balance when compared with the understanding's reach.
- In this editionThe balance image is figurative weighing.
- A place to beginThe understanding comprehends the world like dust in a balance.
Meaning
A balance weighs; proportion expresses a fitting relation between quantities, powers, or ends. To be proportionable is to answer the worth of the thing concerned, not necessarily to possess a measurable numerical ratio.
Use in the book
The world becomes dust in a balance when compared with the understanding's reach. Traherne uses the smallness of a weighed object to reverse the reader's first estimate of body and soul. Elsewhere he denies any proportion between the whole world and the soul's relation to eternity, while still demanding proportion in love and conduct. There is no contradiction: measurable comparison fails at the first level, whereas moral fittingness remains necessary at the second. An enjoyer rendered useless amid magnificent gifts would be out of keeping with the divine purpose. Proportion therefore asks that response correspond to value, not that love be restricted to a comfortably finite allotment.
Places to read
In this edition
The balance image is figurative weighing. “Improportionable” is the negative form used for a moral mismatch, not merely a geometrical irregularity.
Source note
Primary text: I.19, II.69, II.70, IV.47. The article keeps quantitative comparison distinct from fittingness of love and purpose.