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 1725 of 3781
[On movement.] · Entry 1725
French
p. 344918 mai.
De l’idée ou impression. Dans les innées l’impression se fait au travers du corps tout entier, les yeux fermés, l’ouïe assoupie et toute la chair insensible.
Distinguons donc deux espèces d’idées dont les unes se font par image et peinture : telles sont celles qui entrent en nous par les yeux et les sens ouverts (on les conçoit mieux, en effet, en les imaginant ainsi). Les autres se font par empreinte, par gravure et imprimerie. Elles n’entrent point par les sens, mais elles passent au travers, comme les caractères d’une planche passent au travers d’un papier pour s’aller tracer sur un autre.
En considérant les idées sous cette dernière forme surtout (celle d’empreinte) on conçoit qu’elles sont quelque chose d’aussi réel que les figures d’une estampe.
Et les figures d’un tableau n’ont-elles pas aussi quelque réalité indépendante de la toile? Ne les communique et ne les multiplie-t’on pas par le calc? Eh que dis-je? ne les sépare-t’on pas réellement de la toile par des mordans? Ne transporte-t’on pas tous les jours des tableaux tout entiers et en personne, pour ainsi dire, d’une toile sur une toile et d’un bois sur un bois? Une idée a donc la réalité qu’a toute figuration.
La notion du juste et de l’injuste, du difforme et du beau viendront de l’empreinte de Dieu qui est mise en nous et qui nous rend en quelque sorte participans de ses pensées et (si je puis ainsi m’exprimer) de ses dégoûts et de son goût.
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume I: [On movement.]
p. 3450May 18.
On the idea or impression. In innate ones the impression is made through the whole body, the eyes closed, the hearing asleep, and all the flesh insensible.
Let us therefore distinguish two kinds of ideas, some of which are made by image and painting: such are those that enter us through the eyes and the open senses (indeed, we conceive them better by imagining them thus). The others are made by imprint, by engraving and printing. They do not enter by way of the senses, but pass through them, as the characters of a plate pass through one sheet of paper to trace themselves on another.
By considering ideas above all in this last form (that of an imprint), we conceive them as something as real as the figures in a print.
And do not the figures in a painting also have some reality independent of the canvas? Do we not communicate and multiply them by tracing? But what am I saying? Do we not actually separate them from the canvas by mordants? Do we not every day transfer paintings whole and, so to speak, in person, from canvas to canvas and from wood to wood? An idea therefore has the reality that every figuration has.
The notion of the just and the unjust, of the misshapen and the beautiful, will come from the imprint of God placed in us, which makes us in some way participants in his thoughts and (if I may express myself thus) in his distastes and his taste.
Socrates
Reading The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume I · [On movement.] · Entry 1725
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.