A paper written by Philip Harvey for Spiritual Reading Group on Zoom at the Carmelite Library, Wednesday the 16th of March, 2022. All references in the paper, plus many other Traherne sources, are available on this site under the headings Thomas Traherne LINKS and Thomas Traherne BIBLIOGRAPHY.
A LIFE OF GLORIOUS PRINCIPLES
Thomas Traherne is one of the most significant, original, and remarkable English spiritual writers of the seventeenth century. This is something we can say now in the twenty-first century because most of his writing has only come to light in the last 100 years or so. It’s one reason why we call him a modern writer.
“Why is this soe long detained in a dark Manuscript, that if printed would be a Light to the World, and a universal Blessing?”
We are still not fully confident of his birth date, but it was probably 1637. A biographer of the time knew enough about Traherne to say he was the son of shoemaker, which makes him what people called a commoner. His childhood and youth were a time of supreme value to Traherne. We know this because childhood is a major theme in his writing, an explanation of his thought, an autobiographical key.
“Once I remember (I think I was about 4 years old, when) I thus reasoned with my self – sitting in a little Obscure Room in my Fathers poor House. If there be a God, certainly He must be infinit in Goodness. And that I was prompted to, by a real Whispering Instinct of Nature. And if He be infinit in Goodness, and a Perfect Being in Wisdom and Love, certainly He must do most Glorious Things: and giv us infinit Riches; how comes it to pass therfore that I am so poor? of so Scanty and Narrow a fortune, enjoying few and Obscure Comforts? I thought I could not believ Him a GOD to me, unless all his Power were Employd to Glorify me. I knew not then my Soul, or Body: nor did I think of the Heavens and the Earth, the Rivers and the Stars, the Sun or the Seas: all those were lost, and Absent from me. But when I found them made of Nothing for me, then I had a GOD indeed, whom I could Prais, and rejoice in.”[Centuries of Meditations III 36]
Traherne was very bright and entered Brasenose College, Oxford at the age of 15. His transit through that place was supported by funds from a relative. He completed his MA in 1661.
“Having been at the University, and received there the Taste and Tincture of another Education, I saw that there were Things in this World of which I never Dreamed, Glorious Secrets, and Glorious Persons past Imagination. There I saw that Logick, Ethicks, Physicks, Metaphysicks, Geometry, Astronomy, Poesie, Medicine, Grammar, Musick, Rhetorick, all kind of Arts Trades and Mechanicismes that Adorned the World pertained to felicity. At least there I saw those Things, which afterwards I knew to pertain unto it; And was Delighted in it. There I saw into the Nature of the Sea, the Heavens, the Sun, the Moon and Stars, the Elements, Minerals and Vegetables. All which appeared like the Kings Daughter, All Glorious within, and those Things which my Nurses and Parents should have talkt of, there were taught unto Me.’ [Centuries of Meditations III 36]
This passage opens up the personality of Thomas Traherne for our attention. We see that he has an enquiring mind, a love of education in its relationship to the world around him, a marvelling perception and delight in existence. He makes a point that this was not the kind of education he had received from his parents and others, which I interpret as Traherne relishing the next stage of learning. But like many who go to university, he is also aware of something missing. What is it?
“Nevertheless som things were Defectiv too. There was never a Tutor that did professely Teach Felicity : tho that be the Mistress of all other Sciences. Nor did any of us Study these things but as Aliena [i.e. as foreign, outside the normal coursework], which we ought to hav Studied as our own Enjoyments. We Studied to inform our Knowledg, but knew not for what End we so Studied. And for lack of aiming at a Certain End, we erred in the Manner. How beit there we received all those Seeds of Knowledg that were afterwards improved; and our Souls were Awakened to a Discerning of their faculties, and Exercise of their Powers.” [Centuries of Meditations III 37]
The subject of Felicity is not on the curriculum at the University of Oxford. It is clearly however the main subject on Traherne’s mind. It is the central expression of Traherne’s vision of God and life. Before completing his degrees, in 1657, Traherne had already been appointed to the living of Credenhill, a beautiful village in Herefordshire. He was ordained in October 1660. While some sources say he held this position all of his relatively short life, other sources including the plaque to Traherne in St Mary’s Credenhill itself say he was there for ten years. Whatever, and scholars will continue their explorations, it is this inspiring country place that Traherne writes about later.
“When I came into the Country, and saw that I had all time in my own hands, having devoted it wholy to the Study of Felicitie, I knew not where to begin or End; nor what Objects to chuse, upon which most profitably I might fix my Contemplation. I saw my self like som Traveller, that had Destined his Life to journeys, and was resolvd to spend his Days in visiting Strange Places: who might wander in vain, unless his Undertakings were guided by som certain Rule; and that innumerable Millions of Objects were presented before me, unto any of which I might take my journey – fain I would have visited them all, but that was impossible. What then should I do? Even imitat a Traveller, who because He cannot visit all Coasts, Wildernesses, Sandy Deserts, Seas, Hills, Springs, and Mountains, chuseth the most Populous and flourishing Cities, where he might see the fairest Propects, Wonders, and Rarities, and be entertained with greatest Courtesie: and where indeed he might most Benefit Himself with Knowledg, Profit and Delight: leaving the rest, even the naked and Empty Places unseen. For which caus I made it my Prayer to GOD Almighty, that He, whose Eys are open upon all Things, could guid me to the fairest and Divinest.” [Centuries of Meditations III 52]
He placed himself in God’s care and guidance. And he wrote about the experience. We now know that Traherne was a dedicated writer all of his adult life. One of his writing projects during the 1660s was to send meditations to a woman of serious religious intentions, by name Susanna Hopton. Susanna was the wife of a Welsh Judge and lived in Herefordshire outside the village of Kington. She corresponded with many spiritual thinkers and kept what we might call a spiritual reading group of friends and acquaintances. The things Traherne sent her seem to have been the handouts to guide the group’s reflections. This is why, when we read ‘Centuries of Meditations’, as the handouts are now called, we meet someone who is enthusing us in the shared pursuit of the ways of God. Everything we read here was first a correspondence about the spiritual life written by Thomas Traherne for the use of Susanna Hopton. We may read these, in turn, as messages to us through time, one to one.
“Till your Spirit filleth the whole World, and the Stars are your Jewels, till you are as Familiar with the Ways of God in all Ages as with your Walk and Table: till you are intimately Acquainted with that Shady Nothing out of which the World was made: till you lov Men so as to Desire their Happiness, with a Thirst equal to the zeal of your own: till you Delight in GOD for being Good to all: you never Enjoy the World. Till you more feel it then your Privat Estate, and are more present in the Hemisphere, Considering the Glories and the Beauties there, then in your own Hous. Till you remember how lately you were made, and how wonderful it was when you came into it: and more rejoice in the Palace of your Glory, then if it had been made but to Day Morning.” [Centuries of Meditations I 30]
Sometime in the later sixties or early seventies, Traherne became chaplain to the Lord Keeper of the Seal, Sir Orlando Bridgeman. This placed him very close to the centre of power in England at the Restoration. Politics being politics, when Sir Orlando fell out of favour with the monarch, his chaplain went with him. This is why Traherne was living at Bridgeman’s house in Teddington when he died in 1674, at the young age of 37. The cause of death remains unknown. Nor is there a portrait likeness of him in existence, despite the appearance of certain unexplained claimants on Google Image.
It helps to place the scant facts about Traherne’s life in the context of the volatile events of national life in England. His growing up was spent watching the English tear themselves apart in what is called the English Civil War, or the English Revolution, a period that witnessed the execution of the king, the effective abolition of the church, and war between social and religious factions. That is, when he became rector of Credenhill in 1657, the Church of England was banned, there were no bishops, and the Puritans determined who could serve in a parish; circumstances overturned with the Restoration. Traherne survived a year of plague and then the Great Fire of London in 1666. It is, nevertheless, out of this dire period of national crisis that Traherne grew into maturity to express a vision of life that is buoyant, exuberant, joyous, enquiring, and immensely generous.
“You
never Enjoy the World aright, till the Sea it self floweth in your Veins, till
you are clothed with the Heavens, and Crowned with the Stars: and perceive your
self to be the Sole Heir of the whole World: and more then so, because Men are
in it who are evry one Sole Heirs, as well as you. Till you can Sing and rejoice
and Delight in GOD, as Misers do in Gold, and Kings in Scepters, you never
Enjoy the World.” [Centuries of Meditations I 29]
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