From the book
Centuries of Meditations
Thomas Traherne · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordIn-being means a thing’s manner of being in something else.
- In TraherneThe closing meditation of the First Century uses a technical distinction to explain the devotional claim that Christ dwells in the heart by faith.
- In this editionThe 2026 notes distinguish this scholastic sense of objectively from modern usage and explain the Aristotelian reference.
- A place to beginThe complete argument moves from an object’s presence in a faculty to Christ’s indwelling, reciprocal communion, and the practice of meditation.
Meaning
In-being means a thing’s manner of being in something else. An object may be in the mind that apprehends it without being enclosed there as a body in a vessel. Objectively here means as an object of apprehension, not impartially or independently of a perceiver.
Use in the book
The closing meditation of the First Century uses a technical distinction to explain the devotional claim that Christ dwells in the heart by faith. A thing’s physical location cannot by itself accomplish the end for which the thing is given. A beautiful object standing in an unperceived room has no enjoyer there; known by a living soul, it can elicit pleasure proportioned to its goodness, wisdom, steadfastness, love of its giver, and thanksgiving. This is why Traherne ranks its presence to a faculty above other manners of inclusion.
The contrast does not make the external thing unreal. Both the placed thing and its place enter understanding. What changes is their experienced and acknowledged significance. The meditation thus connects knowledge with love and use: mental presence is fruitful when the soul sees excellency and answers it, rather than merely recording that something exists. Historical distance likewise ceases to prevent inward presence. Christ’s conception, birth, life, and death can be continually before the believer; all ages, kingdoms, saints, and angels become objects of understanding and esteem.
Traherne explicitly translates the language of things being within us into their being in our sight, sense, love, and esteem. This gloss controls the otherwise extravagant claim to comprehend eternity and infinity. He is describing the soul’s receptive and appreciative relation to divine and created realities, not the physical compression of the universe into a human organ. The reciprocal assertion that the saints are in him and he in them extends this account to communion.
He mentions eight manners of in-being but does not list them. The supplied editorial note relates the number to Aristotle’s classification, whose examples range from part and whole to form and matter and physical containment. That historical connection clarifies the vocabulary; Traherne’s own emphasis falls on the superior fruitfulness of an object known and loved.
Places to read
- I.100The complete argument moves from an object’s presence in a faculty to Christ’s indwelling, reciprocal communion, and the practice of meditation.
In this edition
The 2026 notes distinguish this scholastic sense of objectively from modern usage and explain the Aristotelian reference. Their list of eight relations is editorial background, not a list supplied by Traherne. The passage ends in prayer and praise, so its technical vocabulary serves a devotional purpose.
Source note
Primary text: I.100. Supplied 2026 editorial notes to I.100, especially notes 84–87, provide the Aristotle reference, historical sense of objectively, and scriptural identifications.