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 118 of 3781
YEAR 1786. · Entry 118
French
p. 235Musique
Certainement tous les effets de la musique sont fondés sur le diastole et le systole divers que les sons font éprouver non au pouls, mais au cœur, au poumon, au cours des humeurs et de la respiration, à l’élèvement et à la rémission qui s’opère invisiblement dans les parties molles et solides de tout le corps, comme elle s’opère sensiblement dans les mouvemens du sein d’une jeune fille. C’est par ce seul moyen que la musique peut exciter en nous des affections ; aussi sa grande puissance réside t’elle surtout dans la mesure. Par la qualité des sons plus ou moins beaux, plus ou moins doux, plus ou moins pleins, elle nous peint une nature plus ou moins belle ; mais c’est par la seule combinaison de ses sons, par leurs différentes successions, leurs différentes durées et terminaisons, qu’elle nous communique plus ou moins les passions qu’elle exprime. On n’a pas encore observé combien la manière dont la vie fait son cours dans l’homme à tous les instans, varie selon les affections morales qu’il éprouve. Dans l’amour heureux, les humeurs, le sang, la respiration, le mouvement, circulent en nous également, pleinement, librement, comme les ondulations du son dans un corps sonore dont la forme est parfaitement ronde, la matière parfaitement homogène et la surface absolument unie et sans aspérités. Dans le regret de l’absence, la respiration (pour ne citer que cette partie de l’homme) est rare, suspendue et traînée à longs intervalles ; dans le chagrin, elle est irrégulière comme le pouls pendant la fièvre ; dans la joye, elle est trop vive et trop fréquente, etc. Les différens sons dont le médium unique est l’air que nous respirons, règlent certainement de différentes manières nos respirations et affectent ainsi toute l’économie animale. Je ne doute pas que si l’on pouvoit intenter un pneumato-mètre qui notât les respirations et les rendit sensibles à l’œil, on n’acquît la démonstration de ces assertions. Je suis sûr qu’on verroit évidemment que nos respirations changent de nature ou d’allure à chaque aspect, à chaque toucher, à chaque regard, à chaque pensée qui varie nos affections. Dans l’homme rêveur et dont le corps est abandoné à ses propres loix et pour ainsi parler à son propre gré, j’ai remarqué que la marche se faisoit uniformément au mouvement naturel du pouls ; chacun de ses pas bat la mesure d’une pulsation ; de même dans l’homme intérieur chaque pulsation bat aussi la mesure de la musique qu’on entend, etc., etc.
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume I: YEAR 1786.
p. 236No individual date printed
Music
Certainly all the effects of music are founded on the varied diastole and systole that sounds cause to be experienced, not by the pulse, but by the heart, the lung, the flow of the humors and of respiration, on the rising and relaxation that take place invisibly in the soft and solid parts of the whole body, as they take place visibly in the movements of a young girl’s breast. It is by this means alone that music can arouse affections in us; and so its great power resides above all in measure. Through the quality of its sounds, more or less beautiful, more or less sweet, more or less full, it paints for us a nature more or less beautiful; but it is only through the combination of its sounds, through their different successions, their different durations and endings, that it communicates to us, more or less, the passions it expresses. It has not yet been observed how much the way life runs its course in man at every instant varies according to the moral affections he experiences. In happy love, the humors, the blood, respiration, movement circulate within us evenly, fully, freely, like the undulations of sound in a resonant body whose form is perfectly round, whose material is perfectly homogeneous, and whose surface is absolutely smooth and without roughness. In the sorrow of absence, respiration (to cite only this part of man) is infrequent, suspended, and drawn out at long intervals; in grief it is irregular, like the pulse during fever; in joy it is too quick and too frequent, etc. The different sounds, whose sole medium is the air we breathe, certainly regulate our breathing in different ways and thus affect the entire animal economy. I do not doubt that, if a pneumato-meter could be invented that recorded our breaths and made them perceptible to the eye, a demonstration of these assertions would be obtained. I am sure it would be clearly seen that our breathing changes in nature or pace at every sight, every touch, every look, every thought that varies our affections. In the man lost in reverie whose body is left to its own laws and, so to speak, to its own inclination, I have noticed that his walk follows the natural movement of the pulse uniformly; each of his steps beats the measure of a pulsation; likewise, in the inward man each pulsation also beats the measure of the music one hears, etc., etc.
Socrates
Reading The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume I · YEAR 1786. · Entry 118
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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.