Читать книгу Centuries of Meditations - Thomas Traherne - Страница 16

rather than loved. Is it necessary that I should prove this statement ? I think not ; but if I am asked for chapter and verse in support of my contention, I do not believe I shall have any difficulty in producing them.

Where, however, we find the greatest difference be- tween the two writers is in their attitude towards that Nature and human nature which the author of the " Imitation " seems (consciously or unconsciously) to have thought of as things separate and apart from himself ; things not to delight and rejoice in, but to be avoided and shunned as much as might be : whereas to Traherne they were, after God Himself, the great fountains of his happiness and the source of his enjoyments. It seems necessary to support such a statement as this by producing sufficient evidence to justify it. Therefore I will now quote some parallel passages which do, as I conceive, display this radical and profound difference between the two writers ; and I will first quote a very characteristic passage from the twentieth chapter of the " Imitation " : *

" 7. In solitude and silence the devout soul advances with speedy steps, and learns the hidden truths of the oracles of God. There, she finds the fountain of tears, in which she bathes and purifies herself every night : there, she riseth to a more intimate union with her Creator, in proportion as she leaves the darkness, impurity, and tumult of the world. To him, who withdraws himself from his friends and acquaintance to

* My quotations from this book are from the edition published in 1828, under the editorship of the Rev. T. F. Dibdin.

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