From the book
Centuries of Meditations
Thomas Traherne · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordA clue is originally a ball of thread; it can therefore be a guiding thread through a labyrinth.
- In TraherneWhen the speaker recognizes his own delight in creation within David’s psalms, nature proves to have guided him into celestial joy.
- In this editionThe 2026 note recalls the thread in the Cretan labyrinth.
- A place to beginThe clue of Nature leads the speaker to the joys he recognizes in David.
Meaning
A clue is originally a ball of thread; it can therefore be a guiding thread through a labyrinth. The modern sense of evidence for solving a puzzle retains only part of this image.
Use in the book
When the speaker recognizes his own delight in creation within David’s psalms, nature proves to have guided him into celestial joy. The labyrinth is not simply a trap from which he must escape. Its inward destination is a discovery that natural apprehension and scriptural praise have been led by one Spirit. The thread image makes continuity visible: an apparently private experience is connected to an inherited devotional language. Following it requires attentive contemplation, not the collection of disconnected curiosities.
Places to read
- III.70The clue of Nature leads the speaker to the joys he recognizes in David.
In this edition
The 2026 note recalls the thread in the Cretan labyrinth. Theseus is explanatory background supplied by the editor, not a name used in this meditation.
Source note
Primary text: III.70; historical image: 2026 edition note to III.70.