From the book
Centuries of Meditations
Thomas Traherne · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordFame can mean what is reported about a person or thing, as well as an established reputation for distinction.
- In TraherneReputation can help concealed goodness find companionship.
- In this edition“Fame” in III.54 means received report as much as personal renown.
- A place to beginThe fame of virtue is a means of discovering otherwise hidden companions.
Meaning
Fame can mean what is reported about a person or thing, as well as an established reputation for distinction. It need not carry the modern association with mass celebrity.
Use in the book
Reputation can help concealed goodness find companionship. A person’s visible virtue may attract other holy souls and reveal them in return. Public report also guides the narrator toward doctrines and sacred histories whose intrinsic value he has not yet demonstrated. That guidance is preliminary: he resolves to study what the world celebrates. In the account of omnipresence, fame expands into a hope that worthy actions are known across the divine field of life. Recognition becomes a relation between virtue, spectators, and shared joy, rather than mere notoriety.
Places to read
In this edition
“Fame” in III.54 means received report as much as personal renown. Do not assume that public circulation itself supplies the final evidence of truth or worth.