From the book
Centuries of Meditations
Thomas Traherne · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordSweetness begins in taste but readily names gentleness, delight, and the felt goodness of a relation.
- In TraherneThe sweetness of repose and of morning belongs to the world’s ordered changes.
- In this editionThe adjective need not indicate sugary taste, softness, or lack of seriousness.
- A place to beginDaily changes make different sweetnesses possible.
Meaning
Sweetness begins in taste but readily names gentleness, delight, and the felt goodness of a relation. Traherne retains the sensory vividness while extending its objects.
Use in the book
The sweetness of repose and of morning belongs to the world’s ordered changes. No uniform splendour can replace all these differentiated pleasures. Spiritual sweetness similarly depends on intelligent appreciation: corrupt fashions can make people unable to taste the nobility of nature, while grace alters the palate by which praise is received.
The word often describes love’s communicated quality rather than an isolated pleasurable sensation. To know oneself loved, to remember divine friendship while walking or eating, and to share another person’s joy are sweet because they unite benefit with the recognition of its source. Sweetness is thus a mode of experienced value, not a guarantee that whatever immediately gratifies appetite is good.
Places to read
In this edition
The adjective need not indicate sugary taste, softness, or lack of seriousness. Its figurative uses can describe demanding fidelity and the deep pleasure of recognizing love.
Source note
Primary text: II.9, III.13, III.81, IV.90. No 2026 editorial notes used.