From the book
Centuries of Meditations
Thomas Traherne · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordPurity is freedom from corrupting mixture or defilement.
- In TraherneIII.5 says that purity reaches deeper than mild anger, simple passions, or easy trust.
- In this editionPurity in III.5 is explicitly defined through thought, habit, and perception.
- A place to beginThe analogy of false colour, grit, and jaundice makes purity a condition of truthful enjoyment.
Meaning
Purity is freedom from corrupting mixture or defilement. The childhood argument gives it a specifically perceptual and formative meaning.
Use in the book
III.5 says that purity reaches deeper than mild anger, simple passions, or easy trust. False colours and evil habits must be removed so that the soul can see what stands before it. Grit and jaundice figure the distortions through which real objects acquire a misleading appearance.
The desired result is not an empty or disengaged mind. It is a recovered field of God’s works, light, parental love, human beings, and the heavens. Purification removes acquired obstructions so that native powers can enjoy their proper objects. Moral and perceptual restoration thus belong together, without reducing purity to sexual abstinence or ceremonial cleanliness.
Places to read
In this edition
Purity in III.5 is explicitly defined through thought, habit, and perception. A narrower modern moral association would obscure its stated scope.