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← ExitThe Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II

Reading language

Mr. Hochet and Mme de Sévigné.

Intelligence with no “point.” And those whose gaze has no point. Always open like a compass that pierces nothing, used for every measurement.

September 29.

A justice without a retinue (as Plato would say), that is, accompanied neither by generosity nor by... The virtues must be queens.

September 30.

Everything that nature finishes perfectly is perfectly polished. (Indian chestnut, velanti podica). To the life. Thus those chestnuts that fall have a luster those knocked down have none.

What workmen call the finishing touch. It is luster and grace.

The shadow of the shadow.

October 1.

One must direct upon oneself, one’s thought, and one’s action the gaze of intelligence and the hand of the will.

October 2.

Almost bodily memory, where everything is written. There is another whose seat is intelligence. Only what is spiritual can enter it and be engraved there.

For we respect, despite ourselves, those we see respected.

What is man? — a spirit clothed in a body.

Why in certain centuries style is naturally too ornate.

October 9.

The body is therefore the soul’s shadow. Man’s body is therefore man’s shadow, and even the horse’s body is the horse’s shadow. (See Plato’s cave.)

It is through flesh that we judge the hard and the soft.

October 10.

Man, then, could make or represent with colors or marble bodies more beautiful than God himself has been able to make with flesh, because of this matter’s opposition and resistance; and when I say more beautiful bodies, I mean more in conformity with God’s exemplary or archetypal idea. (observation important for the Arts.)

T110.Point preserves the connection between mental penetration and the physical point of a drawing compass. The fragment moves from intelligence to those whose gaze lacks a point, then compares the always open gaze with a compass. No new named subject is supplied.

T292.The opening nominal fragment and the compressed plural-to-singular comparison remain unchanged.

T111.The royal image links retinue with the virtues as queens. The second neither/nor phrase has no complement after by; its incompleteness is retained. As Plato would say remains Joubert’s comparison, without asserting an exact Platonic quotation.

T112.Castanea indica is rendered literally as Indian chestnut, without identifying a botanical species. The following printed velanti podica is uncertain and remains untranslated. Ad vivum is rendered to the life, preserving its separate status. The French has no conjunction or separating punctuation between the luster of falling chestnuts and those knocked down; that compression remains.

T113.Finishing touch renders the workmen’s term fion in the context of perfect polish, luster, and grace. It is a practical craft term rather than an abstract improvement. This remains the second paragraph of the September 30 block.

T114.The gaze of intelligence and the hand of the will preserve two distinct bodily metaphors. The English reads oneself, one’s thought, and one’s action as the objects toward which they are directed. The compressed French places these phrases before the gaze and hand. Another possible reading directs thought and action upon oneself, with gaze and hand as their appositional images; the compressed syntax does not settle the choice.

T115.The translation understands printed ou as où, where, in the description of almost bodily memory. French retains the unaccented source form. The other memory has intelligence as its seat; spiritual and engraved preserve the distinction and the inscription metaphor.

T116.Clothed retains revêtu and the image of the body as a garment. Spirit renders esprit here; it is not silently replaced by soul, which renders âme in the following shadow passage.

T117.The source begins Why but ends with a period. Its formulation remains an unfinished inquiry rather than an asserted explanation of ornate style. Naturally qualifies how the style becomes too ornate.

T118.The two occurrences of therefore remain. The horse example is not generalized into an unnamed animal. Vid. is translated See; Plato’s cave is Joubert’s supplied reference, not an added passage title or an exact quotation.

T119.Could retains pourroit, while has been able to make retains a pu faire. The claim about the resistance of flesh and the artist’s more beautiful bodies is not softened. Exemplary or archetypal describes God’s idea as a model; it does not merely praise the idea as admirable. The lowercase opening of the final parenthesis and capital Arts follow the source.