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← ExitThe Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II

Reading language

Mr. Hochet and Mme de Sévigné.

September 20.

Lodged between his wine and his grain, by his granary and his cellar, the inhabitant of country houses...

September 21.

There must be several voices together in one voice for it to be beautiful. And several meanings in one word for it to be beautiful.

September 22.

Clarity alone ought to suffice to make one happy.

September 24.

Let us then say: The just man can be rewarded only in the other life, for there is nothing beautiful enough for his justice in this one.

September 19.

Let us then say: When one has some authority, whether in one’s hands, in oneself, or in one’s mind, one must not only be just (or equitable), but a dispenser of justice, that is, a punisher and a rewarder.

September 25.

These illnesses preserve the faculties whose use they suspend.

September 26.

Errors (in physics), unbearable, despised (first fact). Errors in metaphysics, though recognized or not adopted, can please and even be admired, second fact. Why.

When what is immaterial lacks solidity, one can do nothing with it and rejects it. But in what is purely imagined, appearance alone takes the place of solidity. Appearance is its existence and its reality.

Besides, God and the world are so great and have so many faces, so many sides and relations, that everything plausible one can imagine of them is true.

Memory, method. There are minds whose attention is always directed outward and before their eyes, and others that always look backward and into their brain. The first need figures, synoptic tables (as they are called), machines. The others must be left to arrange what they are to retain in their own head and according to their fancy. To give their features and the facts, that is enough.

Voltaire. A skillful, deft mind, doing everything he wished, doing it well, doing it quickly, but incapable of sustaining himself in excellence. He had the talent and the art of joking; but he did not have the knowledge of it, for he never feels which things one should laugh at and which one should not. He is a writer whose extreme elegance one must carefully avoid, or one will never think anything serious.

We love only absent glory, Memory is grateful, The eyes are ungrateful and jealous.

When one has learned these lines, one believes one has always known them. They seem eternal; compare them with Horace’s: We hate virtue unharmed, we seek it when it is taken from our eyes. It is the same thought. But it is half formed in the Latin author, and finished, completed, perfect in the French poet. Whoever wishes to express it otherwise will no longer express it so well.

Truth. Light. Its good and its usefulness lie in guiding. But if truth leads astray?

Then — every rule has its reason, which is its spirit. And when, in observing the rule, one departs from its reason, it is to the latter that one must conform.

September 27.

Virtue squares with truth. It must be a fruit of philosophy.

T96.Wine and grain are followed by granary and cellar in that order. The participial Lodged and the terminal inhabitant phrase remain without a main verb. Grain renders bled without specifying a crop not named in the source.

T97.The voice contains several voices together, just as the word has several meanings. The second sentence retains its omitted governing verb. The translation does not replace the image with a technical theory of harmonics.

T98.The just man and his justice preserve the repeated root. The reason given is the absence in this life of anything beautiful enough for that justice; the English does not substitute a claim about suffering or merit not printed here.

T99.Dispenser of justice renders justicier, distinguished from being just or equitable and immediately explained as punisher and rewarder. It does not designate an extralegal vigilante here. Authority may be in one’s hands, oneself, or mind. The printed September 19 remains after September 24.

T100.These illnesses remain unnamed. The sentence claims that they preserve the very faculties whose use they suspend; no diagnosis or general medical recommendation is supplied.

T101.The first and second facts remain labels within the paragraph, and Why ends with a period. Physics and metaphysics keep their separate places; the latter’s errors may please even when recognized or not adopted. No unprinted solution is appended to the question.

T102.The facsimile prints immatériel, immaterial, although its contrast with purely imagined may be difficult. The translation does not silently substitute material. Solidity, appearance, existence, and reality remain distinct terms in the ensuing argument.

T103.The conclusion calls everything plausible one can imagine of God and the world true. The English preserves that claim without weakening true to possibly true or altering plausible into proved. Faces, sides, and relations all remain.

T104.The two kinds of attention face outward and backward respectively. Figures, synoptic tables, and machines are external aids, while others arrange material in their heads. The final their features follows the printed leurs traits; it does not silently change the source to give them features. The possessive’s precise referent remains compressed.

T105.The repeated doing and the distinction between talent, art, and knowledge remain. The English retains the shift from past had to present never feels. Extreme elegance is the quality to be avoided; the translator does not soften the warning to excessive imitation.

T106.The French verse remains one paragraph in three lines. The lines occur in Le Brun, Odes I.1, À Monsieur de Buffon, sur ses détracteurs (Œuvres, 1811, volume I, p. 8). That text begins On n’aime; Joubert prints Nous n’aimons, retained here. Absent glory, grateful memory, and ungrateful and jealous eyes retain the contrasted terms. No unprinted author’s name is inserted before the verse.

T291.The three French verse lines form paragraph 1. Two centered Latin lines are embedded within paragraph 2; the prose resumes at the continuation margin afterward. The Latin is roman in the source. Scus, reconnoissante, poëte and Quiquonque retain their printed forms. The enlarged facsimile prints the anomalous Latin incolumens with terminal ns. It is retained rather than silently normalized to the grammatical incolumem of the Horatian phrase.

T107.The two Latin verse lines remain embedded in the second paragraph, followed by Joubert’s comparison with the French poet. The facsimile prints anomalous incolumens, interpreted here in the sense of incolumem, unharmed. Taken from our eyes renders sublatam ex oculis, and seek reads printed querimus in the sense of quaerimus. Horace, Odes III.24.31–32, has incolumem and quaerimus and continues with invidi. Joubert’s shorter wording and anomalous spellings remain in French; no missing end of Horace’s line is supplied.

T108.Truth, light, and the question about being led astray remain the first paragraph. In the second, the rule’s reason is its spirit. The final the latter refers to that reason, which takes precedence when observing the rule departs from it.

T109.Squares with preserves the image in quadre, and fruit remains the product of philosophy. Must retains the force of doit without adding an argument not supplied in the entry.