From the book
Stobaeus, Volume I
John Stobaeus · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Practice and exercise
μελέτη
meletēMeletē is practice or sustained preparation.
Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordMeletē is practice or sustained preparation.
- In StobaeusIn the Phaedo excerpt, philosophy is described as practicing death: the soul gathers into itself and seeks separation from bodily distractions.
- In this edition“Practice” conveys repeated cultivation; “preparation” helps explain the otherwise startling expression about death.
- A place to beginPhilosophical purification is interpreted as preparation for the soul’s separation.
- English renderings
- practice; exercise; preparation
Meaning
Meletē is practice or sustained preparation. Its object determines whether the activity is bodily, intellectual, or ethical.
Use in the book
In the Phaedo excerpt, philosophy is described as practicing death: the soul gathers into itself and seeks separation from bodily distractions. The phrase concerns a cultivated condition of soul and readiness for separation. It does not describe an exercise in causing physical death.
Places to read
- I.49.57.2Philosophical purification is interpreted as preparation for the soul’s separation.
Translation in this edition
“Practice” conveys repeated cultivation; “preparation” helps explain the otherwise startling expression about death.
Source note
Wachsmuth, volume I, printed pp. 431. The Greek also speaks of being dead, emphasizing the state of separation for which the philosopher prepares.
From the book
Centuries of Meditations
Thomas Traherne · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Exercise and practice
practice; exercise; exercised; operation
Exercise is the active use of a power; practice is its repeated enactment.
Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordExercise is the active use of a power; practice is its repeated enactment.
- In TraherneIV.95 insists that the richest gifts remain ineffectual for a soul that will not employ itself.
- In this editionThe primary sequence supplies both the principle and its application.
- A place to beginStates that gifts must be actively enjoyed and describes idleness as the soul’s rust.
Meaning
Exercise is the active use of a power; practice is its repeated enactment. In these meditations the terms cover thinking, meditating, tasting, seeing, and enjoying. They are not confined to bodily exertion or to a preliminary drill before real spiritual life begins.
Use in the book
IV.95 insists that the richest gifts remain ineffectual for a soul that will not employ itself. A person may be surrounded by beauty and treasure yet remain inwardly desolate. The contrast is between available good and good actually apprehended and enjoyed. Idleness resembles rust because a faculty loses its living usefulness when it is left inactive.
The following meditations explain what exercise accomplishes. Frequent meditation makes celestial things familiar: what appeared distant or uncertain becomes present and evident, while supposedly irrelevant goods disclose their relation to the thinker. Trial also reveals a capacity that could not be certified in advance merely by inspecting oneself. The soul discovers that it can attend to immense matters, including divine eternity and goodness, without the bodily strain required to move a great weight.
Traherne’s confidence is expansive, but the point is practical rather than magical. Exercise does not turn contemplation into physical command over the world. It makes the soul’s spiritual strength available for understanding and delight. The sequence also gives the reader a reason to continue after an initially unpromising attempt: the power to manage a subject can emerge in using it.
Places to read
In this edition
The primary sequence supplies both the principle and its application. IV.98 continues the account of spiritual strength; its bold claims should be read as claims about contemplation, rather than bodily mastery.
Source note
Primary text: IV.95–98234. The interpretation is based on the primary sequence; no historical parallel from the editorial notes is required.