From the book
Centuries of Meditations
Thomas Traherne · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordA blessing can be a bestowed good, the happiness attending it, or a good conferred through a person.
- In TraherneBodily faculties are blessings that arrive before acknowledgment and become overlooked because they are so near.
- In this edition“Blessed” can describe genuine felicity, not merely a spoken benediction.
- A place to beginSenses and bodily members are unrecognized blessings that preceded awareness.
Meaning
A blessing can be a bestowed good, the happiness attending it, or a good conferred through a person. The word's movement between receiving and giving is especially important in Traherne.
Use in the book
Bodily faculties are blessings that arrive before acknowledgment and become overlooked because they are so near. False social valuations make common blessings harder still to prize. Their recognition changes what it means to be blessed: the recipient can become an object of delight and service to others. IV.47 states the reciprocal relation directly, finding blessedness in being a blessing. This is not a demand that gratitude make the original gift unnecessary. Rather, the benefit reaches a fuller form when the enjoyer becomes active and lovable within the same society of good. Blessing connects an original dependence on gifts with the dignity of becoming a giver.
Places to read
In this edition
“Blessed” can describe genuine felicity, not merely a spoken benediction. Conversely, “a blessing” may be a person who benefits others rather than an object received.
Source note
Primary text: I.66, III.13, IV.47. The entry distinguishes gifts called blessings from the interpersonal act of becoming one.