Diotimos Library · Journals, Notebooks & Fragments Collection · Bilingual Edition

Joseph Joubert

The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume I

Name: The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume I
Author: Joseph Joubert

Complete Notebooks · French with an independent English translation.

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The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume I[Malebranche.] · Entry 3554

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English Page · Branch 3554 of 3781

[Malebranche.] · Entry 3554

Translator notesBook Mode

French

p. 7107

La beauté naît de l’accord; elle est une harmonie. On dit que de beaux traits ne suffisent pas pour former la beauté. Ils sont alors comme des sons qui ne sont pas assés liés.

La beauté est une harmonie, le beau une perfection. Le beau est l’idéal de la beauté. L’innocence est un caractère inséparable du beau. Le remords est l’innocence après le crime. Le beau est la beauté de l’âme (dans l’artiste et dans son sujet). L’innocence est au beau ce que la santé est à la beauté. Le beau peut se passer de la santé mais non pas la beauté. Et la beauté peut se passer de l’innocence, mais non pas le vrai beau.

The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume I: [Malebranche.]

p. 7108

Beauty is born of accord; it is a harmony. People say beautiful features do not suffice to form beauty. They are then like sounds that are not joined closely enough.

Beauty is a harmony, the beautiful a perfection. The beautiful is the ideal of beauty. Innocence is a character inseparable from the beautiful. Remorse is innocence after crime. The beautiful is the beauty of the soul (in the artist and in his subject). Innocence is to the beautiful what health is to beauty. The beautiful can do without health, but beauty cannot. And beauty can do without innocence, but the true beautiful cannot.

T101.The relation of features to beauty is compared with sounds insufficiently joined. Features retains the bodily sense of traits here, distinct from the later verbal strokes in Montesquieu’s style.

S1.Source editor’s annotationVariant: “in the midst of crime.” And, in this other version, Joubert adds: “The plumpness of the Cleopatra is health unto death and in death.” Then (June 29): “The beautiful is the beauty of the soul, or beauty for the soul. — That beauty is opposed to contemplation: it occupies the body through emotion, and the body thus occupied diverts the soul.”

T102.The equation of remorse with innocence after crime remains, followed by a separate source variant. Health, innocence and the beautiful retain different conditions. No moral exception is silently supplied to complete the comparison.

T103.Beaunier’s alternative wording and its following June 29 entry remain separate from the main passage. The Cleopatra is a named representation whose exact object is not established here; its plumpness remains physical. The final That clause is an unfinished proposition, not an editorial assertion.

T359.The June 29 date belongs to the quoted alternate wording, not to the undated main block.

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.