Impertinence

Use in the book

Traherne applies the word both to a mistaken judgment about things and to a fruitless way of studying them. In III.40 even God and angels can be the subjects of impertinent study if the learner seeks only display, idle knowledge, or curiosity. The sacredness of the topic does not by itself make the activity fruitful. The relevant question is whether study leads to love of God and goodness toward people.

IV.15 approaches the problem from the object’s supposed relation to oneself. A person who regards other human beings as irrelevant to happiness will scarcely love them. Misapprehension obstructs use, enjoyment, and affection just as mistaking a tool’s character prevents its proper employment. Calling someone impertinent to joy can thus disclose a defect in the observer’s understanding rather than a genuine absence of relation.

IV.96 supplies the remedy: repeated meditation makes apparently remote things familiar and reveals them as one’s own concern. Relevance is not restricted to what produces an immediate private advantage. It includes the relations through which the soul learns to esteem and enjoy a wider world.

Places to read

1. III.40Study pursued for ostentation is fruitless impertinence even when its subjects are divine.
2. IV.15Believing other people irrelevant to happiness obstructs love.
3. IV.96Meditation turns apparent irrelevance into recognized belonging and importance.

In this edition

The supplied 2026 note glosses the historical word as irrelevance. Preserve the difference between truly fruitless inquiry and things only mistakenly judged irrelevant; Traherne uses both applications.