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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French Page · Branch 1564 of 3781
YEAR 1800 · Entry 1564
French
p. 3127Les mathématiques sont parmi nous ce que sont pour les Chinois les caractères de leur écriture. Quand on les scait après beaucoup d’efforts, on scait lire et rien de plus, et ceppendant on est tout fier.
Ce n’étoit pas simplement pour lire de la géométrie que les anciens les apprenoient, mais parce qu’elles servoient à entendre une sorte de philosophie qui s’exprimoit par elle et qui avoit la réputation d’enseigner un sens admirable et caché. Quelques philosophes en effet s’en servoient comme d’un chiffre, ne voulant par sagesse être entendus que des scavans. D’autres en usèrent pour leur commodité, pour être courts et se rendre inutiles les explications étendues. Elles étoient pour eux des espèces de notes abréviatives. Les étudier comme nous faisons simplement pour les étudier, c’est apprendre l’alphabeth pour ne jamais lire, ou la gamme pour ne pas chanter. Les mathématiques en effet n’étoient chez eux que l’alphabeth d’une foule de sciences.
Nos amateurs en ce genre et nos faiseuses de dentelles ne diffèrent que par ce que celles-ci, en exécutant leurs figures, n’en connoissent pas les rapports, les nombres et les noms. Les premiers au contraire scavent combien de fois certaine ligne en vaut une autre, en idée et sur le papier.
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume I: YEAR 1800
p. 3128Mathematics is among us what the characters of their writing are for the Chinese. When, after much effort, one knows it, one knows how to read and nothing more, and yet one is quite proud.
It was not simply to read geometry that the ancients learned mathematics, but because it served to understand a kind of philosophy that expressed itself through it and was reputed to teach an admirable and hidden meaning. Some philosophers, indeed, used it as a cipher, wishing in their wisdom to be understood only by the learned. Others used it for their convenience, to be brief and make extended explanations unnecessary for themselves. For them it was a kind of abbreviated notation. To study it as we do, simply to study it, is to learn the alphabet never to read, or the scale not to sing. Mathematics, indeed, was among them only the alphabet of a host of sciences.
Our enthusiasts in this kind and our women who make lace differ only in that the latter, in executing their figures, do not know their relations, numbers, and names. The former, on the contrary, know how many times one line is worth another, in idea and on paper.
Socrates
Reading The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume I · YEAR 1800 · Entry 1564
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.