From the book
Centuries of Meditations
Thomas Traherne · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Plato
Plato; Platonic testimony; the citadel of reason
Plato is a named philosophical authority in the Centuries.
Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordPlato is a named philosophical authority in the Centuries.
- In TraherneII.84 joins Plato with Cato and the Apostle as witnesses to the divine Mind.
- In this editionThe 2026 note at III.60 identifies the Latin sentence as an untraced attribution with a Platonic image.
- A place to beginPlato is named with Cato and the Apostle in support of the language of divine Mind.
Meaning
Plato is a named philosophical authority in the Centuries. His presence should be located through Traherne’s actual citations rather than inferred from every resemblance.
Use in the book
II.84 joins Plato with Cato and the Apostle as witnesses to the divine Mind. Their converging authority supports the claim that human minds should become active likenesses of the eternal understanding. The following Latin verse, however, shortens the opening couplet of the Distichs of Cato; it does not come from a Platonic dialogue.
III.60 attributes a sentence about rest in the highest citadel of reason to Plato. Its role is practical: seeing felicity brings repose and redirects reform toward the perceiver. The 2026 note cautions that the sentence is not a known direct quotation. The entry therefore records Traherne’s use of authority without converting an attributed commonplace into a verified verbatim source.
Places to read
In this edition
The 2026 note at III.60 identifies the Latin sentence as an untraced attribution with a Platonic image. Do not cite it as Plato’s verified wording.
Source note
Primary text: II.84, III.60. The 2026 editorial notes at II.84 [150–151] distinguish the witnesses and the Cato couplet; III.60 [217] cautions against a direct Platonic attribution.
From the book
Heinrich Khunrath’s Magnesia Catholica Philosophorum
Heinrich Khunrath · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Plato
Platone attestante
Plato is named as a witness that nothing under the sun comes into being without a preceding legitimate cause.
Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordPlato is named as a witness that nothing under the sun comes into being without a preceding legitimate cause.
- In KhunrathThe statement on page 36 follows Aristotle's demand for teaching through causes and certain principles.
- In this editionThe article records an attribution by Khunrath.
- A reading distinctionThe friendship maxim at page 109 is linked by the modern note to a classical maxim involving Plato, but Khunrath does not name Plato there.
Meaning
Plato is named as a witness that nothing under the sun comes into being without a preceding legitimate cause.
Use in the book
The statement on page 36 follows Aristotle's demand for teaching through causes and certain principles. It strengthens Khunrath's requirement that a claimant give a sufficient why for the proposed matter. The margin's demand for a cause makes clear that this is a rule of explanation, not merely learned ornament.
No dialogue is named, and the sentence is not used to present a complete Platonic theory. The local sequence moves from causal teaching to causal priority and then to the happiness of recognizing causes, before dismissing groundless claims as Amadis-like trifles. Plato's function is one distinct link in that sequence.
Places to read
- 1599 p. 36Plato is explicitly cited for the causal priority underlying Khunrath’s demand for explanation.
- 1599 p. 36 · margin2The demand that a cause be supplied gives the citation its immediate practical force.
Translation in this edition
The article records an attribution by Khunrath. It does not authenticate the sentence as a verbatim passage from a particular Platonic work.
Source note
The friendship maxim at page 109 is linked by the modern note to a classical maxim involving Plato, but Khunrath does not name Plato there.