From the book
Centuries of Meditations
Thomas Traherne · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordParents are those who beget and raise children.
- In TraherneParents appear as both givers of love and transmitters of distortion.
- In this editionThe loins/lives contrast in III.8 is followed by an explicit relation to Adam.
- A place to beginParental happiness in children models the reciprocity of divine and human delight.
Meaning
Parents are those who beget and raise children. First parents names Adam and Eve; ordinary parents also provide an analogy for divine delight.
Use in the book
Parents appear as both givers of love and transmitters of distortion. I.52 compares God’s happiness in human happiness to parents’ joy in their children. The analogy conveys a relation in which another’s good is immediately one’s own delight.
The childhood account places parental lives within the social formation that can blind a receptive child. Its memorable contrast with parental loins emphasizes example over biological descent, while the following sentence still links corruption to Adam. The criticism is therefore concerned with what children are taught to attend to and prize. Parental influence is powerful precisely because the child is responsive, trusting, and eager to belong.
Places to read
In this edition
The loins/lives contrast in III.8 is followed by an explicit relation to Adam. Quoting only one half would make its doctrinal implication too simple.