From the book
Centuries of Meditations
Thomas Traherne · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordExpectation is an attentive anticipation of something not yet disclosed or possessed.
- In TraherneThe unknown good already draws the soul before it has a name.
- In this editionExpectation in these passages is not a promise that every novelty will satisfy.
- A place to beginThe reader is asked to recognise an expectation of some unnamed great thing.
Meaning
Expectation is an attentive anticipation of something not yet disclosed or possessed. It may blend hope, curiosity, and desire without amounting to a settled prediction.
Use in the book
The unknown good already draws the soul before it has a name. New objects and news can awaken the thought that happiness lies within them; the narrator tests and sometimes exhausts those promises. This anticipation makes him vulnerable to disappointment but also prepares recognition. Even the terrifying openness of the evening field contains hope at its borders. The eventual judgement on Scripture turns disappointment about its manner of arrival into appreciation of a provision exceeding what he had expected.
Places to read
- I.2The reader is asked to recognise an expectation of some unnamed great thing.
- III.23Fear in the empty field is accompanied by expectation from its distant borders.
- III.25News and curious discoveries are searched for the happiness they might conceal.
- III.32Scripture’s matter exceeds expectation while inquiry corrects dissatisfaction with its manner.
In this edition
Expectation in these passages is not a promise that every novelty will satisfy. Its proper education includes finding the limits of an object and revising the imagined form of fulfilment.