The Poetical Works of Thomas Traherne, 1636?-1674, from the original manuscripts

By this, Traherne proceeds, parents and nurses should learn the right way of teaching children. Nothing is easier than to teach the truth because the nature of the thing confirm...

Magnanimity and contentment are very near allied; like brothers and sisters they spring from the same parents, but are of several features. Fortitude and Patience are kindred to...

It remains for me to tell the strange story of the fate of Traherne's manuscripts after his death. They passed, we may reasonably suppose, together with his books, into the hand...

An inward Omnipresence here Mysteriously like His within me stands Whose knowledge is a Sacred Sphere That in itself at once includes all lands. There is some Angel that within...

For giving me desire, An eager thirst, a burning ardent fire, A virgin infant flame, A Love with which into the world I came, An inward hidden heavenly love, Which in my soul di...

And what than this can be more plain and clear? What truth than this more evident appear? The Godhead cannot prize The sun at all, nor yet the skies, Or air, or earth, or trees,...

Sir Orlando Bridgman was not only a very able lawyer, but also an honourable, conscientious, and upright statesman. He was, perhaps, a little wanting in strength of character, a...

That Custom is a second Nature, we Most plainly find by Nature's purity. For Nature teacheth nothing but the truth; I'm sure that mine did in my virgin youth: The very Day my Sp...

My youth was ever constant to one dream, Though hope failed oft--so hopeless did it seem-- That in the ripeness of my days I might Something achieve that should the world requit...

Flight is but the preparative. The sight Is deep and infinite, Ah me! 'tis all the glory, love, light, space, Joy, beauty and variety That doth adorn the Godhead's dwelling-plac...

In the last analysis it will always be found that it is the poet himself and not his poetry that has the greatest interest for us. Unless he is interesting in himself he will no...

This book would hardly be complete without some account of the above work. It is a small 12mo volume of 146 pages, with an engraved frontispiece. It is written--excepting the th...