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← ExitThe Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume I

Reading language

[On Voltaire.]

You know that I have often listened to old men, and you ask me for anecdotes. Here are some I have from Mr. de Ch., whose loss you announced a few months ago in one of the articles in your obituary record. “He was a man and a mind of the old literature,” these three words painted him entire.

He used to tell us that, while studying law, he had long lived in a furnished lodging house kept by a former valet of Mr. Arouët the father. This man told him that, when he went into young Arouët’s room in the morning before he rose, he found him “sitting up, occupied with his verses, his face animated, his eye blazing” (I quote faithfully) “his head, neck, shoulders, arm, and hands wrapped in his woolen blanket.” That was his bed mantle.

I heard a former vicar general of the diocese of Meaux say that the great Bossuet used the same attire when he worked in his study in the morning before daylight and had no other dressing gown.

It was doubtless a habit the young poet had from school and Bossuet from the seminary. Our men of letters of the moment show less fidelity to their first education. Among the youngest and the least established in dignity, one would not find a single one who, even in the privacy of his bedroom and in the transports of his inspiration, did not take care to drape himself with greater richness and better taste. It is true that these qualities shine less in their writings, which in the system of compensations makes a kind of balance, but through an unfortunate counterweight.

He never treated [as] enemies any but those he had been unable to charm (win over). The desire to please...

He had a carriage for... and horses that were ugly, to soften men of letters. How thin they were! They were veritable bones that he thus gave pale envy (criticism) to gnaw, preferring to amuse envy rather than irritate her. But she was not put off the scent; he was hissed at and bitten by her: unable to accuse him of ostentation, she accused him of avarice.

—For ill rumors outlive opinions. One goes on repeating out of habit, for a long time, what one no longer believes, and the lie (if I may express myself so) is more tenacious of life than error, which it sows after losing it.

He had seen this injustice arise... Imputation... His life has denied it in vain: people still burden his memory with it.

—Voltaire kept this childhood habit until the end of his youth, and (what has been little remarked) he retained throughout his life, in society and in affairs, a very strong impression of the spirit of his first masters. Impetuous as a poet and polished as a courtier, he knew how to be insinuating and cunning as a Jesuit. No one has observed more carefully, but with greater art and measure, the famous maxim he so often mocked, “to make oneself all things to everything.” He took especial care to handle men of letters gently. In his life, in his mind, and in his manners there was grace, charm, flattery, condescension, suppleness, something caressing, and sometimes a brusque impetuosity. That is to say, there was in him something of the courtier, the man of the world, the poet, and the Jesuit. He needed to please even more than to dominate, and took more pleasure in bringing his charms into play than his strength.

—This man of whom it has been so well said that the fineness of his taste could have taken the place of all morals for him.

—This man who keeps the attention of two kinds of excellent minds, very different from one another, perpetually occupied. I mean those who, reading him every day, impose upon themselves, in an invincible manner, the necessity of loving him; and those who, no longer reading him but observing the influences his mind has spread, make it an act of equity, a rigorous obligation, and a duty to hate him.

Impartial equity favors his merit but is disastrous to his renown.—Nothing can ever harm him but impartial equity; and it is not esteem that one can withhold from him, but the enthusiasm his charms inspire that can make him dangerous. For enthusiasm comes to him from his faults, his aberrations, and esteem from his reason, his great sense.

S1.Source editor’s annotationThe piece that follows does not come from the notebooks, but from two separate leaves, one of which bears the date February 15, 1803 (and also the date “April 2”); the other is undated, but contains another draft of the same essay. I bring the two drafts together.

S2.Source editor’s annotationI believe this refers to Menu de Chomorceau, who died at Villeneuve in April 1802. And it is quite possible that the notice Joubert alludes to is by Joubert himself, for he wrote a notice on Menu de Chomorceau.

T78.These three words retains Joubert’s compressed reference to the characterization just quoted; it is not changed to match an English word count. The initial Ch. remains as printed; Beaunier’s proposed identification appears separately in his note.

T87.Beaunier explicitly combines two separate leaves, one dated February 15 and also April 2, the other undated. His joined presentation and bracketed heading are preserved in source order; no single new authorial date is assigned to the composite text.

T239.Beaunier explicitly combines two separate-leaf redactions; their dated and undated status is described in the apparatus, not converted into a single invented entry date. Minor clipped initials and endings are restored. On page 365, l’ before avoir perduë is a contextual restoration at the damaged left edge; only avoir perduë remains clear. The alternation poëte/poète/poëte is confirmed in the facsimile. Source en démentir, tout à tout, and all fragments remain as printed.

T79.The scene is reported through successive speakers, and I quote faithfully remains Joubert’s claim. The printed singular arm stays singular among the plural shoulders and hands. Bed mantle preserves the comparison rather than replacing it with the dressing gown in the next paragraph.

S3.Source editor’s annotationThe first paragraph, “You know...,” is on the leaf I shall call B. The continuation is on the other leaf only (leaf A); but on this leaf A, twice. These are two drafts: I borrow from both; the variants are insignificant. The second draft of this passage adds, with crossings-out: “Let us pass over this sad glimpse and return to the anecdotes, (this, struck out). But let us return to our accounts; I am only at the beginning.” After this, the date “April 2.” Then, under the date February 15, this note: “Bossuet on quietism. It is (he says to Mme Guyon) in the nature of free will (or, to copy exactly): the nature of free will is to be instructed, guided, exhorted.” (Perhaps it would have been better to introduce this piece on Voltaire under the date April 2.)

T80.School renders collège without implying a modern university. Established in dignity preserves the comparison of literary standing. The system of compensations, balance, and counterweight remain linked, as do the writers’ fine clothing and the qualities of their writing.

T88.Beaunier’s account distinguishes leaf B, leaf A, two drafts on A, crossed-out wording, and a further note on quietism. His suggestion of placing the piece under April 2 is retained in his apparatus; it does not authorize reordering this edition. The supplied exact-copy formulation of free will remains distinct from the preceding version.

T81.The source supplies [en], represented by [as]. Charm renders séduire in the context of gaining allies and readers, with win over retaining Joubert’s parenthetical alternative gagner. The desire to please remains unfinished.

T82.The carriage’s for... remains incomplete. Pale envy is personified as her, keeping the bones to gnaw, the thwarted attempt to put her off the scent, and her hissing and biting. The parenthetical criticism is Joubert’s own.

S1.Source editor’s annotationVariant: “One repeats for a long time what was said once, and for a long time believes out of habit even what one knows to be false...”

T83.The lie remains the subject of sows and loses; error remains its object. The image is deliberately odd: a lie can go on spreading an error its speaker no longer believes. The source variant remains in the apparatus rather than replacing this formulation.

S2.Source editor’s annotationVariant: “...to everyone.”

T84.The main text prints tout à tout, represented as all things to everything. Beaunier’s variant gives à tous, represented as to everyone. The two are not silently conflated. The descriptions of Jesuit manners remain Joubert’s characterization.

S3.Source editor’s annotationVariant: “...those on whom the pleasure of reading him imposes the necessity of loving him, and those who, no longer reading him but observing his influence, have made it their duty to hate him.”

T85.The paired reader groups remain distinct: daily reading imposes love, while observing the influence without continuing to read becomes an obligation to hate. The English retains the first invincible manner without explaining away its force.

T86.The English favors a negative cleft: esteem is not what one can withhold from him. This agrees with the surrounding distinction between merit deserving esteem and enthusiasm arising from faults; the sentence then changes construction to what can make him dangerous. A relative-clause reading, the esteem that one may withhold, is grammatically possible but less persuasive in that context. The shift of construction is retained rather than regularized.