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 3780 of 3781
[Malebranche.] · Entry 3780
French
p. 7559La danse est l’effet nécessaire de certains airs dont elle bat en quelque sorte la mesure. Dès que l’homme eût imaginé ceux ci, ils produisirent la danse.
La seule de nos danses qui eût un caractère moral (ou, comme disent les Chinois, qui enseignât la vertu), le menuet, a disparu et avec lui la dignité dans les plaisirs.
Toutes celles qui nous sont restées... accoutument l’âme au désordre, à la précipitation, à la folie.
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume I: [Malebranche.]
p. 7560Dance is the necessary effect of certain airs whose beat it in some sense marks. As soon as man had imagined these, they produced dance.
The only one of our dances that had a moral character (or, as the Chinese say, taught virtue), the minuet, has disappeared, and with it dignity in pleasures.
All those that have remained to us... accustom the soul to disorder, to haste, to madness.
Socrates
Reading The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume I · [Malebranche.] · Entry 3780
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.