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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 IYEAR 1797 · Entry 753

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Facing Pages · Branch 753 of 3781

YEAR 1797 · Entry 753

Translator notesBook Mode

French

p. 1505

Trois choses attachoient les anciens à leur sol natal, les temples, les tombeaux et les ancêtres. Les deux grands [liens] qui les unissoient à leur gouvernement étoient l’habitude et l’ancienneté. Chez les modernes l’espérance et l’amour de la nouveauté ont tout changé. Les anciens disoient nos ancêtres, nous disons la postérité; nous n’aimons pas comme eux la patrie, c’est-à-dire le pays et les loix de nos pères; nous aimons plutôt les loix et le pays de nos enfans; c’est la magie de l’avenir et non pas celle du passé qui nous séduit. Mais la première est naturelle, la seconde est artificielle.

S1.Source editor’s annotationA cette place et, je crois, avec la date du 24 mars, une série d’extraits un peu commentés, d’orateurs grecs, Andocide et Dinarque. « Et au nombre de quinze cens, vous avez en vos mains le salut de la république. Dinarque contre Démosthène pag. 510. Cette idée, le salut de la république, présente une telle grandeur que le nombre quinze cens en paroît petit et remarquez que plus il s’apetisse, plus il acquiert de dignité, chose étonnante! Si on vouloit lui ôter de la dignité, on l’agrandiroit par quelque autre circonstance, en disait par exemple : et, au nombre de quinze cens, vous allez juger un procès. » Puis à la suite de condamnations à mort prononcées par les Athéniens, et que révèle Dinarque : « Quelle idée une telle sévérité donne à notre esprit de la douceur des mœurs et de la bonté naturelle qui régnoient chez les Athéniens! Quelquefois donc les loix rigides annoncent un peuple qui est bon. » Joubert loue les moqueries de Dinarque à Démosthène qui se renferme dans les murs quand on entre en campagne, qui est député quand on reste dans les murs et qui, parmi les députés, est fugitif : « Il y a dans ce peu de mots un art de gradation qui par je ne scais quel prestige fait voir à l’imagination un homme inconstant agité, qui échappe et se sauve toujours. »

The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume I: YEAR 1797

p. 1506

Three things bound the ancients to their native soil: temples, tombs, and ancestors. The two great [bonds] that united them to their government were habit and antiquity. Among the moderns, hope and the love of novelty have changed everything. The ancients said our ancestors; we say posterity. We do not love the fatherland as they did, that is, the country and laws of our fathers; we love rather the laws and country of our children. It is the magic of the future, not that of the past, that beguiles us. But the first is natural, the second artificial.

S1.Source editor’s annotationAt this point and, I believe, under the date March 24, a series of excerpts, with a little commentary, from the Greek orators Andocides and Dinarchus. “And, fifteen hundred in number, you hold the safety of the republic in your hands. Dinarchus against Demosthenes, p. 510. This idea, the safety of the republic, presents such grandeur that the number fifteen hundred seems small beside it, and notice that the smaller it becomes, the more dignity it acquires—an astonishing thing! If one wished to deprive it of dignity, one would enlarge it by some other circumstance, saying, for example: and, fifteen hundred in number, you are going to try a lawsuit.” Then, following death sentences pronounced by the Athenians and disclosed by Dinarchus: “What an idea such severity gives our minds of the gentleness of manners and natural goodness that prevailed among the Athenians! Sometimes, then, rigid laws betoken a people that is good.” Joubert praises Dinarchus’s mockery of Demosthenes, who shuts himself within the walls when men take the field, who is an envoy when men remain within the walls, and who, among the envoys, is a fugitive: “In these few words there is an art of gradation that, by some spell I cannot explain, shows the imagination an inconstant, restless man, forever slipping away and saving himself.”

T25.The source explicitly says the first is natural and the second artificial after naming the magic of the future and of the past. The English keeps first/second in that order; it does not swap them to harmonize the argument.

T26.The French annotation retains printed en disait, while the English interprets the phrase as saying. Beaunier’s uncertainty about the date is preserved; the quoted excerpts are not given an invented separate date.

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.