From the book
Centuries of Meditations
Thomas Traherne · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordDesert is what someone or something deserves; merit can name excellence calling for due acknowledgement.
- In TraherneTraherne repeatedly asks for a response proportioned to its object: a creature’s goodness deserves pleasure, divine love deserves answering love, and the services of the world deserve gratitude.
- In this edition“Desert” here means deserving, not an arid place.
- A place to beginRejoicing is to answer the merit of the goodness discovered in creation.
Meaning
Desert is what someone or something deserves; merit can name excellence calling for due acknowledgement. In a different theological construction, Christ’s merits are the saving worth of his person and work.
Use in the book
Traherne repeatedly asks for a response proportioned to its object: a creature’s goodness deserves pleasure, divine love deserves answering love, and the services of the world deserve gratitude. This language is not primarily a calculation of what the recipient has earned. Creation is freely given before any such achievement. In the prayer to Christ, however, “merits” belongs to justification and is not merely a synonym for the attractiveness of natural objects. Keeping the two uses distinct prevents both the gift from becoming wages and the prayer from becoming an aesthetic appreciation.
Places to read
In this edition
“Desert” here means deserving, not an arid place. Neither desert nor merit has one uniform doctrinal function throughout the book.