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March 2.
The force of communication — or — of the faculty and ease of communicating oneself. — That is, of changing others into oneself, of bringing one’s thoughts into their mind and one’s feelings into their souls, of animating them with one’s fire, of giving them one’s movement so that they perpetuate it, of charming them, of imprinting one’s enchantments in them, of having such command over them that, despite differences of climate and temperament, they see all things as we see them and imagine the world as we ourselves imagine it. The great means of possessing this power is etc...
Voltaire and Rousseau. Voltaire communicates his mood to them and J.-J. communicates his virtue. — His mood, his mobility, the first. The world that he stirred too violently, the second has made settled.
There is a force of communication with substance and palpability, like that of earthly fire; there is another, subtle, fine, whose existence makes itself felt and does not show itself, like that of ether in amber. Through the first one communicates one’s passions, through the second one’s wisdom.
March 3.
Of fables and credulity in the physical sciences, which depend on the eyes. How they revolt us, and why. Of weight, measure, and geometric rigor in the moral sciences, which depend on imagination. How they displease us, and why. The palpable and the marvelous must exclude one another.
Of fables and the marvelous in the physical sciences. Have something odious about them. It seems there is more gullibility than good faith in believing them, and more presumption than levity in spreading them.
March 4.
Credulity in physics, rigor in metaphysics. It is to have soft bones and hard nerves. Each of these defects in bodily organization is a hideous monstrosity. In every mind there must be one part compact and firm, another subtle and flexible. (Hardness of mind; un-imagination; minds without feathers.) That the study of each kind of science requires the use of a different kind of faculty.
March 5.
We have philosophized badly.
March 8.
To hear with the eyes, to see with the ears, to represent with air, to circumscribe in little space and great voids or great fullnesses—what am I saying? immensity itself and all matter: such are the incontestable and easily verified wonders perpetually wrought by speech and writing.
— Princes who no longer wished to be princes, the great who no longer wished to be great, the incapable who no longer wished to be idle, and the mediocre who no longer wished to be obscure...
Allow me, divine Plato... And my ivy to your column...
March 9.
One must leave heaven its share, as in navigation there is the wind’s share. — They construct fullnesses without a void: their ship cannot sail.
Hollow ideas. The beautiful sense this expression could bear if taken favorably. Hollow like a palace, not like a cavern. Hollow; and one can enter them, one will find wonders there, riches and beauties, grandeurs and charms. Hollow and transparent like crystal vessels containing celestial essences. Hollow like cedar columns in which treasures were enclosed.
Abbé de Paw is the Scourge of the Greeks.
I am weary of these books in which nothing but matter is ever at issue or spoken of. One would think the sciences were studied and treated only by mine operators, masons, carpenters, weavers, surveyors, or bankers. I do not know whether this manner of instructing oneself and others favors the prosperity of the arts, but it is certainly fatal to the elevation of the mind and pernicious to hearts, to morals, etc.
Has nature, then, given us a snout to grub in the earth, or hands to sow it? Sowing and gathering: that is what is essential in the relations between this globe and ourselves.
The method of teaching in use. For the convenience of the teachers, not that of the pupils.
These knowledges in which the mind gets bogged down. It emerges earthy and muddy, laden with mire.