Diotimos Library · Journals, Notebooks & Fragments Collection · Bilingual Edition
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume I
Complete Notebooks · French with an independent English translation.
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English Page · Branch 151 of 3781
YEAR 1787 · Entry 151
French
p. 301... Et que la pierre des carrières françaises.
Ces festons suspendus à des murailles nuës et que rien ne décore, et ces guirlandes tristes comme les fleurs qui croissent dans un coin de jardin abandonné...
Un million de petits vitraux unis par les ligamens du plomb qui les enlacent, ne forment qu’un seul tout ; leurs innombrables parties se réunissent à l’œil en un ensemble commun, et dans leurs compartimens divisés donnent un jour diminué qui est convenable aux temples. Ces verres quarrés au contraire n’offrent rien que de mesquin dans leur proportion moyenne et dans leur multiplicité. Il est trop facile de les compter et le jour qu’ils produisent est trop crud.
— Dans la plaine ils semblent s’élever de la terre et la fuir. Sur les coteaux, ils semblent y rentrer avec effort au contraire ; et leur hauteur même leur y donne à l’œil un poids qui les enfonce.
— Cette multitude d’angles dont les pointes aiguës brisent le regard, et qui ont si peu d’accord avec les beaux contours du portail et du dôme.
— Des bas-reliefs continués auroient dû offrir dans tout son tour la vie de la sainte et ceindre tout l’édifice par une suite de représentations historiques et pieuses.
— En général un temple doit être semblable au palais du soleil. Cent degrés doivent à peine suffire pour y monter.
— ...semblable à l’étable où elle était née...
— Mesurer son élévation de son sommet à sa baze...
— ...et semblable aux dernières marches d’un escalier enseveli.
— Au lieu de faire tenir cet édifice debout, il devoit l’asseoir.
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume I: YEAR 1787
p. 302No individual date printed
... And than the stone of French quarries.
Those festoons suspended on bare walls that nothing adorns, and those garlands sad as the flowers growing in the corner of an abandoned garden...
A million little panes of glass, united by the ligaments of lead that entwine them, form only a single whole; their innumerable parts join together to the eye in a common ensemble, and in their divided compartments give a diminished light fitting to temples. Those square panes, on the contrary, offer nothing but paltriness in their middling proportions and their multiplicity. They are too easy to count, and the light they produce is too harsh.
— In the plain they seem to rise from the earth and flee it. On the hillsides, on the contrary, they seem to reenter it with effort; and there their very height gives them, to the eye, a weight that sinks them into it.
— That multitude of angles whose sharp points break the gaze, and which accord so little with the beautiful contours of the portal and the dome.
— Continuous bas-reliefs ought to have displayed the saint’s life all the way around it and girdled the whole building with a succession of historical and pious representations.
— In general, a temple must resemble the palace of the sun. A hundred steps should scarcely suffice to ascend to it.
— ...like the stable where she was born...
— Measure its elevation from its summit to its base...
— ...and like the last steps of a buried staircase.
— Instead of making this building stand, he ought to have seated it.
Socrates
Reading The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume I · YEAR 1787 · Entry 151
Ask about a concept, passage, contradiction, or connection.
Socrates will begin with this book and its sources.About This Reading Edition
Joubert’s notebooks return to the work of thinking and writing, the demands of friendship, and questions of faith, beauty and conduct. This edition pairs the French with a new English translation, preserving the order of the chosen source and the unfinished character of its fragments. Dates and source references allow readers to follow a thought through time or return to its printed context.
Historical Text and Translation
The French text follows André Beaunier’s 1938 edition of Les Carnets de Joseph Joubert, published by Gallimard from Joubert’s autograph manuscripts. Volume I presents the entries on printed pages 32–475. French and English are aligned paragraph by paragraph, retaining the source order, printed dates and page references so readers can return to the facsimile.
About Diotimos Editions
Diotimos Editions prepared this new English translation directly from the French, preserving Joubert’s distinctions, recurring images, ambiguities and unfinished thoughts. Translator’s notes clarify wording, references and uncertain readings: Essential keeps notes that help explain a passage, while All includes technical detail. Annotations from the 1938 source edition remain distinct from the new translator’s notes.
Rights
The linked facsimile records identify the French source as public domain in the United States. The new English translation and editorial notes are © 2026 Diotimos, with source annotations and new editorial contributions credited separately. This edition pairs the complete French notebooks with an independent English translation, preserving the distinction between Joubert’s text and its accompanying notes.