From the book
Centuries of Meditations
Thomas Traherne · Diotimos Editions · 2026
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At a Glance
- The wordA cordial is something that strengthens or revives the heart, especially a restorative medicine.
- In TraherneTraherne’s opening promise compares loving instruction with medicine: tenderness administers balms and cordials rather than corrosives.
- In this editionThe medicinal gloss is supplied by the 2026 note to IV.21.
- A place to beginLoving instruction is compared with the gentle administration of balms and cordials.
Meaning
A cordial is something that strengthens or revives the heart, especially a restorative medicine. The noun’s older medical force is stronger than its familiar modern association with a sweet drink.
Use in the book
Traherne’s opening promise compares loving instruction with medicine: tenderness administers balms and cordials rather than corrosives. The desired method should refresh the recipient as well as advance a serious purpose. Later, poisons themselves become cordials in the royal chemist’s art. A fallen world requires occasions of harm to be transformed into healing goods. Traherne does not deny that the poison is harmful; its conversion supplies the force of the image. The two passages link a gentle method with the more demanding work of extracting good from evil.
Places to read
In this edition
The medicinal gloss is supplied by the 2026 note to IV.21. Both attested uses are nouns; the unrelated modern description of polite or friendly manners is not the point.
Source note
Primary text: I.4, IV.21; historical medical gloss: 2026 edition note to IV.21.