temple of immensity

• Temple of Immensity

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temple of immensity

1. (archaic, idiomatic, usually preceded by the) The universe or the complete overhead expanse of the heavens, especially as conceived as an object of religious reverence.
   • 1831, Thomas Carlyle, Sartor Resartus, Book 3, ch. 1:

     [T]his poor Cordwainer, as we said, was a Man; and the Temple of Immensity, wherein as Man he had been sent to minister, was full of holy mystery to him.

   • 1856, George Gilfillan, The History of a Man, page 151:

     They reminded him of a man who should, after climbing a lofty mountain—whence, as from a pinnacle of the great temple of immensity, earth, and the deep blues of air, and the everlasting brine of ocean were beheld—should turn away from the prospect.

   • 1860, Samuel Hallett Griffith, Literary reminiscences: selections from the papers of S.H. Griffith, page 34:

     . . . heavenly messengers, travelling through wide fields to explore the mysteries of creation, carrying intelligence from outpost to outpost of God's universe, his ministers to do his pleasure, and announcing their advent, or bestowing their blessing, as they speed their onward course, in a halo of glory, filling the temple of immensity with their train.

   • 1914, William Boulting, Giordano Bruno: His Life, Thought, and Martyrdom (2013 Routledge edition), →ISBN, p. 238 (Google preview):

     The De Immensa is . . . a prolonged hymn of wonder and praise and intellectual exaltation, sung in the temple of immensity.