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 3592 of 3781
[Malebranche.] · Entry 3592
French
p. 7183Dieu, l’espace et le temps : idées simples. Dieu comme existence, l’espace comme étendue ou mesure. Le temps est du mouvement sur de l’espace, ou la boule sur le billard, la mesure du temps par nous ou par quelque autre chose dont les changemens ont été mesurés par nous. Nous sommes une horloge, une montre à secondes, par les mouvemens de notre pouls.
Toute aglomération ne paroît une que parce que nous concevons en elle une sorte d’essence qui fait un tout de ses parties. Or ce que nous appelons essence est conçu comme quelque chose de spirituel. Il y a pour notre imagination, entre l’essence et l’esprit, la seule différence qui [se trouve] entre l’air et la fumée.
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume I: [Malebranche.]
p. 7184God, space, and time: simple ideas. God as existence, space as extension or measure. Time is movement over space, or the ball on the billiard table, the measurement of time by us or by some other thing whose changes have been measured by us. We are a clock, a watch that marks seconds, through the movements of our pulse.
An agglomeration appears one only because we conceive in it a kind of essence that makes a whole of its parts. Now what we call essence is conceived as something spiritual. For our imagination, the only difference between essence and spirit is that which [is found] between air and smoke.
Socrates
Reading The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume I · [Malebranche.] · Entry 3592
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.