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← ExitThe Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II

Reading language

Mr. Hochet and Mme de Sévigné.

November 18.

The journal de l’Empire of November 16, 1806, advertises a Manual of Justices of the Peace, “by M. the terrible Tribune, member of the legislative section of the tribunal.” It is a title to make one recoil.

Sunday, November 23.

Old men are scarcely ancient. Grown men were born yesterday, young people today. Even a centenarian is only a little child in God’s eyes.

... practices that apparently have no sufficient human reason, so that they may seem to come more directly from heaven.

November 24.

Imagine a mirror in which images subsist when the objects have disappeared; imagine that these images sometimes come apart and that strange figures form in the mirror from their separated limbs; that these strange figures in turn disassemble and that the various borrowed limbs of which they had been composed return to the trunk of the figures to which they first belonged: you will have an idea of the brain, of delirium, and of the restoration of reason in the imagination.

November 25.

All those who are alike will all go to the same heaven.

November 27.

There are manners and customs attached to human nature that will always be found everywhere.

There are beautiful souls everywhere; even in Africa.

Africa. Mohammedanism satisfies there man’s need for revelation.

By the law of the association of ideas, this color, which they have always seen attached to beauty, seems to them inseparable from it.

November 30.

Studied refinements, — no. Because reflection is contrary to feeling, but not to exactness. And everything here must seem exact and maturely deliberated.

One pays little attention to the words with which one thinks.

December 1.

Observe with what dramatic talent one makes the characters the brain puts on stage in one’s dreams move and speak. (And the music one invents and performs.)

A comedy has been written entitled The Self-Centered Man. Surely it is my brother-in-law they meant to portray in it.

T182.November 16, 1806, belongs to the cited newspaper, while November 18 is the entry date. The French prints Tribun terrible and tribunal; their wording is retained without identifying a named author or silently correcting the institution. The English title translates the announcement as printed. A BnF catalogue listing records an 1806 Manuel des justices de paix by the tribun Tarrible, a possible referent. The actual newspaper announcement has not been independently checked, so neither the name nor the title is corrected in the text.

T327.The November 16, 1806 date belongs to the cited journal, not the November 18 entry heading. The wording Tribun terrible and tribunal is retained without inventing a personal identification.

T183.Ancient distinguishes anciens from old. The contrast among yesterday, today, and a centenarian keeps the scale that ends with a little child in God’s eyes. The following practices fragment is a separate undated source unit.

T328.The following centered separator is degraded but its position and angular projections agree with the adjacent source separators; the next fragment is kept as a separate undated unit.

T184.The practices are said apparently to lack a sufficient reason, so that they may seem to come from heaven. Apparently and seem retain the distinction between appearance and an unqualified claim of divine origin. The fragment keeps its opening ellipsis.

T329.The centered separator is degraded and largely filled. Comparison in the enlarged facsimile with the adjacent clear separators supports a distinct starred unit; this fragment remains undated.

T185.The repeated Imagine is retained. Limbs, trunk, disassembly, and return preserve the physical model of images in the mirror, ending in the brain, delirium, and restored reason. The whole remains one paragraph across pages 579–580.

T186.Both occurrences of all remain, together with same heaven. The repetition is not compressed away.

T187.Manners and customs distinguish mœurs and coutumes. Their attachment to human nature and the combined always and everywhere remain, without adding particular examples.

T188.The source’s even in Africa remains, including the historical attitude conveyed by even. Mohammedanism preserves the older designation mahométisme for Islam, consistently with earlier passages in this translation. The need for revelation and its satisfaction remain Joubert’s stated account. The two paragraphs retain their source pairing.

T189.The unnamed they have always seen the color attached to beauty, and it consequently seems inseparable to them. The English does not identify a population from the preceding passage or turn their association into an objective property of beauty.

T190.Studied refinements reads Recherches in the literary sense used in the nearby discussion of affectation; investigations remains another lexical possibility. Reflection is contrary to feeling but not to exactness. The source’s fragmentary no and Because opening remain without an invented question.

T191.Observe reads the infinitive Remarquer as a direction to attend. The brain stages the characters, and one makes them move and speak in dreams. The music is both invented and performed; the parenthesis does not acquire an additional named composer.

T192.The Self-Centered Man translates L’homme personnel as a play title; personal in the merely private or individual sense would miss the likely character judgment. The brother-in-law remains unnamed. The passage states Joubert’s inference about the intended portrayal, not a verified casting or authorial intention. Contemporary reports in the Mémoires secrets for February 20 and 24, 1778, associate the title with Barthe; they do not establish the brother-in-law as its model.