From the book
Centuries of Meditations
Thomas Traherne · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordRapine is violent plunder, forcible seizure, or predatory taking.
- In TraherneTraherne’s opening promise opposes the gentle advancement of the reader to the glory claimed through war and dethronement.
- In this editionKeep its forceful sense distinct from generic greed.
- A place to beginThe promised path to glory removes rapine and bloodshed.
Meaning
Rapine is violent plunder, forcible seizure, or predatory taking. The older noun names a concrete social wrong rather than desire for possessions in the abstract.
Use in the book
Traherne’s opening promise opposes the gentle advancement of the reader to the glory claimed through war and dethronement. Rapine disappears from the paths he offers, along with bloodshed and malice. In the Fourth Century it belongs to the vices that have disfigured a world originally ordered toward peace and beauty. The word therefore helps locate suffering in human action rather than in the gifts of creation themselves. Its violence also qualifies any reading of the book’s universal possession as permission to seize what others hold: true enjoyment should abolish predation, not perfect it.
Places to read
In this edition
Keep its forceful sense distinct from generic greed. The initial contrast with conquest makes a merely financial or abstract gloss too weak.