FOOTNOTES:
[A] See "Archæologia," vol. xxxvii, p. 204.
[B] "Roman Forgeries" must have had some popularity in its time, for it is, unlike "Christian Ethicks," a tolerably common book. Fifteen years after its publication Dean Comber, a writer of some note in his day, published a work of similar character, and with the same title. As Traherne's book was published anonymously, Dean Comber has usually received credit for that as well as for his own work. The Dean was a man of considerable ability, and he would hardly have been pleased had he been told that he would only be remembered in future times as the writer who helped himself to a striking title at the expense of one who was far superior to himself in character and genius.
[C] See "Nova Solyma": an Anonymous Romance. With Introduction, Translation, &c., by the Rev. Walter Begley. (1903.)
[D] "Nature is the great spendthrift. She will burn up the world some day to attain what will probably seem to us a very inadequate end; and in order to have things stated at their worst, once for all, in English, she took a splendid genius and made him—an army schoolmaster; starved his intellect, starved his heart, starved his body. All the adversity of the world smote him; and that nothing should be wanting to her purpose Nature took care that the very sun should smite him also! Time will avenge him: he is among the immortals."—John Davidson, in the Speaker, June 17, 1899.
[E] This poem is included in the "Oxford Book of English Verse"; and the Rev. Orby Shipley has included two of Traherne's poems in his "Carmina Mariana."
[F] It is not only in "My Spirit" that we find traces of Traherne's Berkeleianism. See the "Hymn on St. Bartholomew's Day," "The Preparative," and various passages in other poems. I do not contend, however, that we have the idea in a clear and unmistakable form anywhere but in "My Spirit."
[G] This title was probably the invention of the publisher—one Samuel Keble—and not of the author.
[H] From certain indications in the folio manuscript, from which the bulk of the poems in the present volume are derived, it seems clear that there must be a considerable quantity of verse by Traherne which has not yet been recovered. Appended to several poems in the folio volume are references to other poems, as, for example, at the end of "Innocence," "An Infant Eye, p. 1," and "Adam, p. 12." Other poems thus mentioned are "News," "The Odor," "The Inheritance," "The Evidence," "The Center," and "Insatiableness." As the manuscript volume containing these pieces consisted of at least 142 pages, it seems likely that the present volume contains not more than one half of Traherne's poetical works. It may be hoped, but hardly expected, that the volume containing the poems mentioned above will some day be recovered. Possibly this mention of it may, if it still exists, lead to its eventual discovery.
[I] In Traherne's "Centuries of Meditations" this poem is preceded by the following note: "Upon those pure and virgin apprehensions which I had in my infancy I made this Poem."
[J] These five lines have an alternative reading:
The Sun itself doth in its glory shine,
And gold and silver out of very mire,
And pearls and rubies out of earth refine;
While herbs and flowers aspire
To touch and make our feet divine.
[K] It is doubtful whether this poem is by Traherne.
[L] (?) Sparkle.
[M] Several passages in other poems are thus marked. Usually where these marks appear—but not invariably so—there is a slight falling off in the author's inspiration. As these passages, however, could not be omitted without leaving palpable lacunæ in the poems, I have taken no notice of them (save in one instance where I have suppressed a stanza which is clearly superfluous), preferring to leave the critical reader to discover such inequalities for himself.
Transriber's Note:
All original spelling has been retained.