Diotimos Reading Desk

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← ExitThe Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume I

Reading language

[Malebranche.]

“In general (as Mr de Bonnal very rightly said), everything is what it ought to be, but needs to be kept so.” Let us say: everything occupies its place, but not everything is within its bounds.

V—t—R is an angel of darkness.

Yes, in general I can very well picture Bossuet, Fénelon, even Plato, and even Muhammad bringing their works before God. Even Pascal, and even Labruyère, and even Vauvenargues, and even Lafontaine, for their works paint their souls. (And all those whose works have something of pure spirit.) But not J.-J. Rousseau, who put into his only his humor and his efforts; as for Voltaire, his also paint him, and they will be counted to him, it seems to me, but against him. Racine is not in his. And so he grew disgusted with them. His talent is there, but not he.

To employ in thinking of God the matter that makes the passions. All other subjects of reflection excite it and set it in motion, but this one annihilates it by giving it another course.

When one has passed from philosophy to religion, one must repel philosophy; it would tend to lead us back. Only those who are beyond (sic) need to pass through it.

July 27.

Ancients. They had no more genius, but their art was better than ours. And there was better taste in their countries than in ours. They had inherited habits that were better.

July 28.

Of the duration of punishments. Philosophy does not know their duration, but religion fixes it. And it calls it eternal. Now you know what we have said of the limits of the former and the necessity of the latter. We shall not contradict it, all the more so because, to combat it, philosophy would have to advance beyond those limits and go farther than we have said it ought to go.

The time I once lost in pleasures, I lose today in sufferings.

Sunday, July 29.

To ponder. People who are going to die. Thieves. Faith kept. Girls. Admiration. Vanity. Fidelity. A singular reply to Desprez: — Shall I see many stars there? — They are the grains of sand of the country you are going to.

What do you say of those who are always drunk, and of their happiness? Well!...

When one writes with ease, one always believes one has more talent than one has.

July 30.

Fievée. He has punch.

T163.Bonnal retains the source spelling. Joubert marks a quotation and then offers his own formulation with Let us say; the two voices remain distinct. Occupying a place and staying within bounds are not conflated.

T164.The abbreviated name, its letter case, and its dashes remain unexpanded in both language texts. The angel of darkness is retained as Joubert’s image.

T165.The repeated even and the contrast between a person, his soul, and his talent are retained. Humor renders humeur as personal disposition or mood, rather than comic wit. Counted to him, but against him preserves the shift from credit to adverse reckoning. Muhammad renders Mahomet; the joined spellings Labruyère and Lafontaine remain as printed.

T166.The object of excites, sets in motion, annihilates, and gives another course is the matter that makes the passions. The apparent tension between annihilation and redirection is Joubert’s and remains unexplained in the text.

T167.The source explicitly prints au delà (sic). Beyond is retained despite its apparent difficulty in the argument; on this side or short of is not silently substituted. The final it refers to philosophy.

T405.The source marks au delà with italic sic in parentheses; no conjectural au deçà is substituted.

T168.The discussion of an eternal term and the relative authority of religion and philosophy supports punishments for peines here. The former is philosophy and the latter religion. Religion is the subject of fixes and calls; duration is the object of both. The later it in not contradict it and to combat it refers to religion. The final it in it ought to go refers to philosophy.

T169.The brief words and sentences remain a sequence without added connections. Songer is read as to ponder, though it can also suggest dreaming. Faith kept and fidelity retain the separate Foi gardée and Fidélité. The source gives no name for the speaker asking about stars, or for the speaker of the reply.

T170.Poing literally means fist. He has punch preserves the compressed suggestion of force or impact without making a claim about a particular blow. Fievée retains the source’s accent pattern.