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June […]7.
Vauvenargues. The arts! the arts! Men invented the arts to adjust or accommodate nature to themselves.
July […].
Hidden erudition. Thorns beneath the leaves, beneath the flowers; knots beneath the bark and roughness beneath the polish.
Eloquence of oil. — ...The mind exhausts itself expressing them. And — [they] give more pleasure to those who write them than to those who read them.
Bad authors (whether of Greek or Latin literature). To speak of them or translate them is to introduce into the world and bring to light a bad example that lay hidden there. To leave them in obscurity, yet preserve them, so that they may be known to those who cannot misuse them. But for that, scholars would need the strength to conceal part of what they know, which is difficult for most.
To go too far; that is to pierce through what one should only touch (whether in expression or in thought.)
Sunday, July 3.
Poor Boyer!
Once balloons had been invented, everyone could go up in them.
July […]9.
To keep within duty. The younger do not keep within duty when they show no deference to the older, nor do the older when they demand nothing of the younger.
July 12.
The emblem of Mme de XXX. A moon surrounded by clouds, with these words: often obscured and never tarnished.
On Mme de Bᵗ: The senses on the outside.
Nothing withdrawn into herself: too naked.
June 27.
Truth. She cannot grow old (Vauvenargues.) But her garment can wear out and — continual repairs must be made to knowledge.
June 20.
To Mercier. The world would not have enough paper to receive so much writing, nor the curious enough eyes and time to read it, nor the mind enough attention to understand it, nor memory enough compartments to house all these recollections.