Diotimos Reading Desk

Tap the page, move to the top or bottom edge, swipe down, or press Tab to reveal reading controls. Use the arrow keys or swipe sideways to turn pages.

← ExitThe Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume I

Reading language

YEAR 1790

March 1, 1790.

What lives has its soul within itself; what is painted carries it outside+. Only around a statue’s posture and features can its life and soul be placed+. It has been very well said that grace is the outward soul of beauty...

June 20, 1790.

... They have loved, no doubt... (Comte de Comminge.)

The ears and eyes are the doors and windows of the soul.

...And to travel in open spaces where one sees only light... Like Plato.

October 7, 1790.

... They are born old...

To be one’s own heir. Note: in Ronsard, ode 17, book two.

Gather the violet for me. “That flower which bears the name of a month and a god,” says Ronsard, ode 21, book 2.

October 24, 1790

... This man is never alone with himself in his writings. And so Voltaire, however great he may be...

December 21, 1790.

Only by correcting does one become correct.

... once consul, once more master, once more all-powerful, and died almost happy in his house and in his bed. So greatly do human destinies sometimes depend on a word, a tone, a gesture, and a breath that is exhaled and vanishes while causing great changes felt by the whole earth and even by posterity!

T15.The two plus-shaped marks are present in the source text. They are retained as printed marks, not treated as calls to newly invented translator notes.

S1.Source editor’s annotation“October 23, 1790. Personne, οὔτις in Greek, non aliquis. Persona in Latin, from personare, a tragic or comic mask that amplified the voice because it resounded in its hollow. The masks were hollow. Etc.”

T17.The etymological remarks in source notes 1 and 3 on page 86 retain their original words and historical claims. Greek οὔτις means no one; Latin non aliquis means not someone. Personne, persona, personare, and Soni-pes remain the words under discussion, rather than being replaced with supposed English equivalents.

S2.Source editor’s annotation[1790.] “holding: Provence, an olive tree. Languedoc, a sheaf and perfumes. Dauphiné, a tablet of laws. Guienne, a cornucopia. Normandy, an apple branch with its fruit. Picardy, a sheaf of flax. Flanders (crowned with towers), a handful of barley ears intertwined with hops. Burgundy, a bunch of black grapes. Champagne, a bunch of white grapes. Parisis, a book. Touraine, Orléanais, etc., grouped together, a basket of fruit, etc. Brittany, an anchor and a sail. The colonies, a pineapple and oranges. Etc. 1790.”