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← ExitThe Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume I

Reading language

[On Voltaire.]

There is always, in a bad author, the beginning, the quarter, the middle of a great writer.

May 2.

Impious is the only insult the pious use. Even the Saints could use it, because the idea of God is in this reproach. But the... of scoundrels etc. that Laharpe puts into the mouth of his Saint Louis not only do not suit a heavenly soul, but would not suit truly good people even on earth. In all these words there is no idea but the idea of evil.

The insults of beautiful souls must be only simple negations of qualities: unskilled, unfeeling, incapable, pitiless, etc., unbelievable and not absurd.

(May 6.)—and first under penalty of error, and secondly under a much greater penalty, I mean that of a deterioration inevitably wrought in us by this fault, our feelings being at odds with the truth of things. (And nota: truth of things, truth of discourse.)

May 6.

We are neither all body, nor all heart, nor all mind, but these three things. Well, your mind has too few needs.

May 8.

Collections, thoughts. The man shows himself in them, if the author does not.

Mr. N. V.—To put books in galleries and divide paintings among rooms. His idea is very good.

I have many forms of ideas, but too few forms of sentences.

M[i]ch[au]d. It is his mind’s trade. Chênedollé said he was not the accomplice (one should say) the confidant of his thought. He does indeed seem to take little part in what he says.

May 13.

We measure minds by their stature (in a way); it would be better to rank them and esteem them by their beauty.

Enchainment. Ideas enchained, and saddened by their servitude.

Sunday, May 15.

Imagine now that they take their map for the country itself; and when they have thoroughly traveled over it, (sic) they believe they have inhabited it.

April 16.

Of tone (in style). How difficult (and important) to observe.

Bounds of minds. But minds can escape them by a thousand exits. They are of fire; mind is flame. It can consume its barriers and pass through a thousand openings. One must not picture it as water in a stone vessel, but as a fire in a room. It is not bounded like a body.

Thus, to be invariably true (and to know it well), it is better to consider its extent than its limits, for its extent is within it and its limits outside it, in what changes.

Nᵃ also bᵉ. this love of minds that in some is a mere taste and in others a need.

T5.Beginning, quarter, and middle retain the source’s successive partial measures. Middle is not silently changed to half.

T6.Impious preserves the reference to God within the insult. The awkward the... of scoundrels etc. follows the broken les... de scélérats etc.; no missing noun or complete quotation from Laharpe is supplied. The passage distinguishes the concept present in the insult from its suitability to the speaker.

T261.The source ellipsis les... de is not completed. The inline 6 mai date does not start a new unit. The absence of a governing clause in the final paragraph remains.

T7.The English uses negative formations to preserve Joubert’s proposed simple negations. Unbelievable remains distinct from absurd. The words are objects of discussion, not new characterizations supplied by the translator.

T8.May 6 remains inside the third paragraph under the opening May 2 heading. The clause beginning and first under penalty has no governing clause supplied. Nota is Joubert’s Latin reminder, meaning note.

T9.Collections and thoughts remain generic plural terms, not supplied book titles. The conditional if preserves the compressed relation between the person appearing and the author not appearing.

T10.The initials N. V. remain unexpanded. The objects are arranged in galleries and rooms as stated; the English does not identify the speaker or a particular library.

T11.The source editor’s partial name expansion remains. The correction from accomplice to confidant belongs to Joubert. His mind’s trade retains métier, which returns later in the reference to Socrates.

T12.Enchainment and enchained preserve the shared root and the extension into servitude. The image is not reduced to the neutral linking of ideas.

T13.The French parcouruë agrees with the feminine carte, while the final habité agrees with the masculine pays. English it cannot show the gender change. Beaunier’s (sic) is retained at its printed place and does not mark an error newly alleged by the translator.

T265.The source sic follows parcouruë, whose feminine agreement refers to carte; the following habité is masculine. The source marker remains separate from any new translator comment.

T14.The printed April 16 remains in its position among May entries. The elliptical construction supplies no grammatical subject or finite verb; to observe renders the source’s infinitive.

T266.The printed April date is retained in the surrounding May sequence.

T15.Bounds and limits remain distinct from the extent that belongs to mind itself. The fire can consume its barriers; the English retains the change from plural minds to singular mind and does not turn the stone vessel into the image preferred by Joubert.

T16.The printed Nᵃ and bᵉ. appear to abbreviate nota and bene, with aussi between them. Their abbreviated form and the lowercase this are retained; the phrase approximately means note well also. Love of minds remains distinct from mere taste and need.