From the book
Centuries of Meditations
Thomas Traherne · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordInterminable means boundless or without an ending or limit.
- In TraherneThe soul is an interminable temple because temporal and spatial distance cannot make its contemplated objects simply unavailable.
- In this editionThe 2026 note to IV.66 supplies the boundless gloss.
- A place to beginThe soul’s temple brings distant events, especially the Cross, into living nearness.
Meaning
Interminable means boundless or without an ending or limit. Its frequent modern implication of tiresome prolongation is absent from Traherne’s celebratory uses.
Use in the book
The soul is an interminable temple because temporal and spatial distance cannot make its contemplated objects simply unavailable. Christ’s Cross remains present to understanding even when imagined millions of ages away. Love is likewise an interminable sphere: its beams reach objects with undiminished vigour rather than fading as physical distance increases. The two images relate limitless receptivity to limitless communication. Neither requires the embodied person to occupy an infinitely large physical volume; their force lies in spiritual presence, thought, and affection.
Places to read
In this edition
The 2026 note to IV.66 supplies the boundless gloss. The exuberance of the images should not be flattened into the modern complaint that something lasts too long.
Source note
Primary text: I.92, IV.66; historical gloss: 2026 edition note to IV.66.