Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Plates
- Dedication
- General Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Poems from the Dobell Folio
- Poems of Felicity
- Dedication
- The Author to the Critical Peruser
- The Publisher to the Reader
- The Salutation
- Wonder
- Eden
- Innocence
- An Infant-Ey
- The Return
- The Præparative
- The Instruction
- The Vision
- The Rapture
- News
- Felicity
- Adam's Fall
- The World
- The Apostacy (‘Blisse’, stanzas 5 & 6)
- Solitude
- Poverty
- Dissatisfaction
- The Bible
- Christendom
- On Christmas-Day
- Bells. I
- Bells. II
- Churches. I
- Churches. II
- Misapprehension
- The Improvment
- The Odour
- Admiration
- The Approach
- Nature
- Eas
- Dumness
- My Spirit
- Silence
- Right Apprehension
- Right Apprehension. II (‘The Apprehension’)
- Fulness
- Speed
- The Choice (‘The Designe’)
- The Person
- The Image
- The Estate
- The Evidence
- The Enquiry
- Shadows in the Water
- On Leaping over the Moon
- ‘To the same purpos’
- Sight
- Walking
- The Dialogue
- Dreams
- The Inference. I
- The Inference. II
- The City
- Insatiableness. I
- Insatiableness. II
- Consummation
- Hosanna
- The Review. I
- The Review. II
- The Ceremonial Law
- Poems from the Early Notebook
- Textual Emendations and Notes
- Manuscript Foliation of Poems
- Glossary
- Index of Titles and First Lines
The Inference. II
from Poems of Felicity
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 May 2015
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Plates
- Dedication
- General Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Poems from the Dobell Folio
- Poems of Felicity
- Dedication
- The Author to the Critical Peruser
- The Publisher to the Reader
- The Salutation
- Wonder
- Eden
- Innocence
- An Infant-Ey
- The Return
- The Præparative
- The Instruction
- The Vision
- The Rapture
- News
- Felicity
- Adam's Fall
- The World
- The Apostacy (‘Blisse’, stanzas 5 & 6)
- Solitude
- Poverty
- Dissatisfaction
- The Bible
- Christendom
- On Christmas-Day
- Bells. I
- Bells. II
- Churches. I
- Churches. II
- Misapprehension
- The Improvment
- The Odour
- Admiration
- The Approach
- Nature
- Eas
- Dumness
- My Spirit
- Silence
- Right Apprehension
- Right Apprehension. II (‘The Apprehension’)
- Fulness
- Speed
- The Choice (‘The Designe’)
- The Person
- The Image
- The Estate
- The Evidence
- The Enquiry
- Shadows in the Water
- On Leaping over the Moon
- ‘To the same purpos’
- Sight
- Walking
- The Dialogue
- Dreams
- The Inference. I
- The Inference. II
- The City
- Insatiableness. I
- Insatiableness. II
- Consummation
- Hosanna
- The Review. I
- The Review. II
- The Ceremonial Law
- Poems from the Early Notebook
- Textual Emendations and Notes
- Manuscript Foliation of Poems
- Glossary
- Index of Titles and First Lines
Summary
David a Temple in his Mind conceiv'd;
And that Intention was so well receiv'd
By God, that all the Sacred Palaces
That ever were did less His Glory pleas.
If Thoughts are such; such Valuable Things;
Such reall Goods; such human Cherubins;
Material Delights; transcendent Objects; Ends
Of all God's Works, which most His Ey intends.
O! What are Men, who can such Thoughts produce,
So excellent in Nature, Valu, Use?
Which not to Angels only grateful seem,
But God, most Wise, himself doth them esteem
Worth more than Worlds? How many thousand may
Our Hearts conceiv and offer evry Day?
Holy Affections, grateful Sentiments,
Good Resolutions, virtuous Intents,
Seed-plots of activ Piety; He values more
Than the Material World He made before.
To such as these the Blessed-Virgin-Mother
Of God's own Son, (rather than any other)
Apply'd her Mind; for, of her pious Care
To treasure up those Truths which she did hear
Concerning Christ, in thoughtful Heart, w're told;
But not that e'r with Offferings of Gold
The Temple she enricht. This understood,
How glorious, how divine, how great, how good
May we becom! How like the Deity
In managing our Thoughts aright! A Piety
More grateful to our God than building Walls
Of Churches, or the Founding Hospitalls:
Wherin He givs us an Almighty Power
To pleas Him so, that could we Worlds creäte,
Or more new visible Earths and Hev'ens make,
'Twould be far short of this; which is the Flower
And Cream of Strength. This we might plainly see,
But that we Rebels to our Reason be.
Shall God such sacred Might on us bestow?
And not employ't to pay the Thanks we ow?
Such grateful Offerings able be to giv;
Yet them annihilat, and God's Spirit griev?
Consider that for All our Lord hath don,
All that He can receiv is this bare Summ
Of God-like Holy Thoughts: These only He
Expects from Us, our Sacrifice to be.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Works of Thomas Traherne VIPoems from the 'Dobell Folio', Poems of Felicity, The Ceremonial Law, Poems from the 'Early Notebook', pp. 183 - 184Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2014