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 602 of 3781
YEAR 1796 · Entry 602
French
p. 12037 mai.
La digestion se fait aussi par la force des muscles dont la chaleur et les épreintes paitrissent les alimens et les cuisent à diverses reprises. C’est ce dont peuvent s’assurer par une expérience (qui pour être déterminante n’a besoin que d’être soumise à une attention constante) ceux qui n’ont des digestions laborieuses que parce que le suc digestif abonde trop peu en eux. Ils sentent dans leur estomach une dilatation et des resserrements qui rendent ce viscère semblable dans ses opérations à une main qui pressure et qui tord. La forme même des matières très digérées qu’ils évacuent porte le signe de cette trituration interne. Ils ne digèrent bien évidemment que par la force. Aussi la nourriture les répare peu. Ils consument en se la donnant plus de vigueur vitale qu’ils n’en reçoivent en se l’appropriant.
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume I: YEAR 1796
p. 1204May 7.
Digestion also takes place through the force of the muscles, whose warmth and squeezing knead the food and cook it repeatedly. This is something those whose digestion is laborious only because their digestive juice is too scanty can establish by an experience that, to be conclusive, needs only to be subjected to constant attention. They feel in their stomach a dilation and contractions that make this organ resemble, in its workings, a hand that presses and wrings. The very shape of the thoroughly digested matter they evacuate bears the mark of this internal grinding. Plainly, they digest well only by force. Thus food does little to restore them. In giving it to themselves, they consume more vital vigor than they receive by assimilating it.
Socrates
Reading The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume I · YEAR 1796 · Entry 602
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.