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← ExitThe Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II

Reading language

Mr. Hochet and Mme de Sévigné.

Voltaire. To despise and disparage the times one speaks of is to take all interest from the history one writes of them.

September 12.

This disposition to live only with one’s own heart and one’s illusions is nothing but a delicate debauch.

September 13.

I have too much brain for my head. It cannot move at ease in its case.

September 15.

It is not from our hands that our intelligence came to us; but it is from our intelligence that our hands came to us.

September 16.

“To believe that the gods do not concern themselves with human affairs is an impiety,” the ancients said. And this does indeed prevent men from being pious.

September 18.

(Journey from Paris to Villeneuve.) Morning light. The first light of day is more cheering than that of the hours that follow it. It has, properly speaking, an essential character of cheerfulness. It tinges all our humors with it, without our participation.

And, for example, each village has its beauty; but these are beauties by comparison.

What an insurmountable barrier separates the animal’s instinct from man’s reason! and what an insurmountable barrier also separates man’s reason from the angel’s penetration!... But human reason knows its limits, and instinct does not know them. Enormous difference.

(Arrived at Villeneuve the same day, September 18.)

Limits of natures. But then, our eyes cannot pierce a fog, and the eyes of intelligence the gauzes that hide truth from us. Heaven has allowed us to know only what is necessary to life and virtue.

September 19.

(At Villeneuve, first day.) Penetrating minds go beyond the preliminaries. They do not stop at the edge of questions, and they stop no one there.

Tone. — Ch. Delalot laughs while prancing. He puffs himself up and admires himself in his insults like a turkey spreading its tail. Lives on contempt: I do not mean the contempt he inspires, but the contempt he feels. It has pleased divine providence to make truth hated by placing it in this mouth.

— when one has read him, and one feels one has become worse.

— and the torment of knowing oneself.

... not to strike at the head, but his is invulnerable.

He resembles only Jurien. If, however, that is not too great an insult to Jurien.

... more carefully worked than befits the mediocrity of his thoughts.

Penetrating minds, and for that very reason not very discreet, though eloquent. For in every question they promptly grasp what is best and express it just as promptly; the last word (the decisive word) is always the first to present itself to them.

That: there is a good because there is an evil; and that consequently...

Perfectibility. — If... then make yourselves a million times better than you are. But they speak only of a certain literary and learned perfectibility.

They judge with their pleasure, like the ignorant, instead of judging with art and knowledge, like the skilled.

T86.Debauch renders crapule as debauchery or excessive indulgence rather than its use for a disreputable person. Delicate retains the striking adjective attached to such indulgence in one’s own heart and illusions. The exclusiveness of only with is preserved.

T87.Brain is the substance too abundant for the head that contains it. The following It refers to the brain, whose free movement is obstructed by its case. The translation keeps the physical image rather than replacing it with an assertion of superior intelligence.

T88.The causal direction is reversed in the two clauses: intelligence does not come from hands; hands come from intelligence. Both remain Joubert’s assertion, without an added account of bodily development.

T89.Cheerfulness renders hilarité as joyful disposition, without imposing the modern implication of loud laughter. Humors keeps humeurs, which can join bodily and emotional dispositions in the image of being tinged by light. Without our participation preserves the unbidden effect.

T90.Insurmountable barrier is repeated for the two separations. Penetration names the angel’s power of insight, distinct from human reason. The conclusion is that reason knows its limits and instinct does not; it does not assert that reason crosses the barrier. The separate arrival circumstance remains after the paragraph.

T282.The parenthetical arrival circumstance remains after the main paragraph in its closing position. Both occurrences of connoît visibly have a circumflex.

T91.The eyes of intelligence and their gauzes parallel the eyes facing fog. The second half keeps its omitted verb. The concluding permission is limited to what life and virtue require, and the paragraph continues onto page 571.

T284.The place circumstance opens the first of seven physical paragraphs. Rouë has a diaeresis. Vit is a finite verb without an expressed subject; the following dash-led and ellipsis-led fragments remain incomplete. The construction quand ... et is retained. Jurien retains the printed final n.

T92.Prancing retains piaffant before the separate turkey image. The insults serve as a surface in which he admires himself. Lives on contempt lacks an expressed subject as in Vit. Joubert distinguishes the contempt felt from that inspired, then says truth is made hateful through the mouth that speaks it.

T93.The September 19 Villeneuve block contains seven physical paragraphs. Its dash-led and ellipsis-led fragments remain separate and unfinished, including when... and, the torment of self-knowledge, the invulnerable head, and the final description of excessive care. Jurien remains the printed name without a silent historical normalization.

T94.Not very discreet describes the lack of restraint that accompanies prompt insight and expression here. The last word and first to present itself preserve the reversal, with decisive word retained in the parenthesis.

T95.The opening That: and the closing and that consequently remain incomplete in the first paragraph. The second begins with an unfinished If before the challenge to become a million times better. Literary and learned qualify the narrower perfectibility attributed to the unnamed they.

T285.The opening Que and concluding par conséquent remain without a completed governing construction. Si... is uncompleted in paragraph 2. Scavante has no cedilla.