DiotimosReading Desk

Felicity and enjoyment

Room

room; narrow room; infinite room — available scope or capacity

Room means space available for something, not only a chamber in a house.

From the book

Centuries of Meditations

Thomas Traherne · Diotimos Editions · 2026

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Orientation

At a Glance

  • The wordRoom means space available for something, not only a chamber in a house.
  • In TraherneInfinite love requires room for its expression, yet its gifts must also be receivable within the finite-seeming centre of a person.
  • In this editionRead “besides” in V.6 as introducing an additional consideration of duration, not merely more space beyond a distant boundary.
  • A place to beginInfinite love is expressed both beyond finite room and within the soul’s centre.

Meaning

Room means space available for something, not only a chamber in a house. It readily joins spatial extent to a capacity for thought, gifts, or enjoyment.

Use in the book

Infinite love requires room for its expression, yet its gifts must also be receivable within the finite-seeming centre of a person. Traherne makes the soul an infinite sphere in a centre: the vocabulary does not simply compare a large external container with a smaller internal one.

The Fifth Century presses the question further. Space appears to leave no room for anything else, but duration supplies another region in which every moment and age can be present. Room thus becomes a way of asking how divine abundance exceeds the limits first imagined for it. It names the welcome given to further treasure as much as sheer empty extension.

Places to read

  1. II.80Infinite love is expressed both beyond finite room and within the soul’s centre.
  2. V.3Infinity provides room for imagination, desire, and treasures.
  3. V.4Divine power and bounty require an adequate scope for expression.
  4. V.6Eternal duration is another room of joys beyond the present spatial expanse.

In this edition

Read “besides” in V.6 as introducing an additional consideration of duration, not merely more space beyond a distant boundary. The meditation explicitly distinguishes beyond from besides.

Source note

Primary text: II.80, V.3, V.4, V.6. No 2026 editorial notes used.