From the book
Centuries of Meditations
Thomas Traherne · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordA mistake is an erroneous apprehension or application.
- In TraherneThe tool analogy in IV.15 makes the sequence concrete.
- In this editionThe tool comparison is a practical epistemology: mistake is not just a wrong label, but an error that alters use, affection, and happiness.
- A place to beginA shared mistake in the choice of riches produces destructive social conduct.
Meaning
A mistake is an erroneous apprehension or application. In these meditations practical failure often follows from first misunderstanding what a thing is.
Use in the book
The tool analogy in IV.15 makes the sequence concrete. A saw cannot be used properly if taken for a knife. More consequential errors concern the world, the soul, and other people: what is not recognized as belonging to one’s felicity will not be loved or enjoyed adequately. Misapprehension destroys access without necessarily removing the object.
Mistaken riches then spread the problem socially. A community may agree in pursuing scarce and inadequate treasures, and its agreement makes error appear wisdom. The remedy must therefore be more searching than conformity to majority opinion. It requires a corrected apprehension of things and the uses through which their goodness becomes one’s own.
Places to read
In this edition
The tool comparison is a practical epistemology: mistake is not just a wrong label, but an error that alters use, affection, and happiness.