From the book
Centuries of Meditations
Thomas Traherne · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Wonder
wonder; wonders; wonderful; admire — astonished attention to unexpected excellence
Wonder is both astonishment and the remarkable thing that provokes it.
Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordWonder is both astonishment and the remarkable thing that provokes it.
- In TraherneCommon things become wonders when habit no longer hides their significance.
- In this editionProfitable wonder is intended to enrich understanding and life, not merely entertain curiosity.
- A place to beginThe book proposes to fill an empty volume with profitable wonders.
Meaning
Wonder is both astonishment and the remarkable thing that provokes it. In Traherne it can begin inquiry and survive the understanding that inquiry brings.
Use in the book
Common things become wonders when habit no longer hides their significance. The child’s first apprehension discloses a world whose familiarity has not yet dulled its gifts, while mature reasoning returns to those gifts with a fuller account of their relations. Wonder is therefore not confined to ignorance or novelty.
The soul itself becomes one of the greatest wonders. Its ability to consider other souls and their objects defeats the expectation that equal capacities would simply exhaust one another. Traherne openly marks the difficulty rather than disguising it as an obvious commonplace. A further movement of wonder attends divine patience: the retrospective poem marvels not only at childhood illumination but at love that continued through years of rejection and finally brought conversion.
Places to read
In this edition
Profitable wonder is intended to enrich understanding and life, not merely entertain curiosity. Wonderful can retain the strong sense of provoking astonishment where modern usage would make it a casual compliment.
Source note
Primary text: I.1, III.2, III.4, II.71. No 2026 editorial notes used.
From the book
Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume I
Marsilio Ficino · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Wonder and familiarity
admiratio; admirari; diuturna consuetudo; spectaculum; educare; ambigere
Admiratio is wonder; consuetudo familiarity or accustomed experience; spectaculum something presented to sight.
Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordAdmiratio is wonder; consuetudo familiarity or accustomed experience; spectaculum something presented to sight.
- In the Platonic TheologyFicino says that long familiarity diminishes wonder.
- In this editionThe English “suppose” appropriately keeps the conditional construction.
- A place to readFamiliarity is said to diminish admiration.
Meaning
Admiratio is wonder; consuetudo familiarity or accustomed experience; spectaculum something presented to sight. Educare concerns bringing up, and ambigere being in doubt. The imagined restriction of vision tests the effect of habit on judgment.
Use in the book
Ficino says that long familiarity diminishes wonder. He asks the reader to imagine being raised in a house shut on every side and first seeing the world’s beauty at thirty. The newly encountered spectacle would, he claims, make even a former doubter certain of providential craftsmanship. The age specifies the thought experiment; it is not a biographical report or a rule about intellectual maturity. Its argumentative role differs from the organ and motion arguments: the hypothetical change of perspective makes an allegedly overlooked order newly striking. Ficino’s confidence about the observer’s response is part of the rhetorical experiment, not empirical evidence that every newly sighted person would draw this conclusion.
Selected annotated passages.
Places to read
Translation in this edition
The English “suppose” appropriately keeps the conditional construction. “Wonder” does not itself mean proof; the conclusion is supplied by Ficino’s subsequent inference from the stable order of the world’s parts.
admiratio / consuetudo
admiratio / consuetudo. Printed forms: Admirationem; admiratus; consuetudo.
Wonder / familiarity or accustomed experience. Long familiarity is said to dull wonder, motivating the enclosed-house thought experiment. References: II.13.19, II.13.20. See Wonder and familiarity.
ambigere
ambigere. Printed forms: ambigere; ambiguus.
Be uncertain or in doubt. Ficino claims the newly seen order would remove the imagined observer’s previous doubt about providence. References: II.13.20. See Wonder and familiarity.
educare / spectaculum
educare / spectaculum. Printed forms: educavissent; spectaculum.
Bring up / spectacle or object newly seen. A hypothetical upbringing without sight of the world makes its first appearance dramatically striking; the scenario is not biographical. References: II.13.20. See Wonder and familiarity.