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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Facing Pages · Branch 1340 of 3781
YEAR 1799 · Entry 1340
French
p. 2679Cette physique moderne si vantée, si inférieure cependant à celle d’Aristote si méconnue, n’a pour mérite propre qu’un peu d’industrie mécanique appliquée avec succès à mesurer quelques distances et à déterminer avec précision quelques formes. Des chiffres lui suffisent pour exprimer toutes ses découvertes, ce qui ne leur suppose pas une grande beauté. Quand un arpenteur a pris son graphomètre et peut dire « il y a deux mille toises un pied et un pouce de tel lieu à tel autre », il est fier et regarde en pitié celui qui dit « il y a de tel lieu à tel autre une demi-heure de chemin ». Le premier cependant avec sa rigoureuse exactitude se fait moins entendre et est moins utile que l’autre.
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume I: YEAR 1799
p. 2680This modern physics, so vaunted, yet so inferior to Aristotle’s, which is so little understood, has no merit of its own but a little mechanical ingenuity successfully applied to measuring a few distances and determining a few shapes precisely. Numbers suffice to express all its discoveries, which does not suggest any great beauty in them. When a surveyor has taken his graphometer and can say, “There are two thousand toises, one foot, and one inch from this place to that,” he is proud and looks with pity on the man who says, “It is half an hour’s journey from this place to that.” Yet the former, with his rigorous exactitude, makes himself less understood and is less useful than the other.
Socrates
Reading The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume I · YEAR 1799 · Entry 1340
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.