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← ExitThe Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II

Reading language

Mr. Hochet and Mme de Sévigné.

December 3.

“The modest man (he used to say) is moderate in everything.”

To possess one’s soul and to possess one’s mind.

December 4.

Their logic is contrary to rhetoric. How. To be eloquent, taste must act first, and not reflection. It is the instinct for what persuades that makes the orator. And argumentation does not make reason. Argumentation serves the wars of dialectic and serves against others, but never for oneself alone.

Two ages of life must be without sex. The child and the old man must be modest like women.

December 5.

Saint Martin is indeed a man who rises to divine things with bat’s wings.

Will and talent alone do not bring beautiful works into being: opportunity is also needed.

December 6.

I need to oil my brain.

December 11.

Of the coward and the fearful. They are not one and the same thing. Lc—st was fearful and was not a coward.

“Both converse and live”... (Boileau.) These are among those displacements that please the reader’s mind because he can easily remedy them and thus contribute to the work himself. The reader is then charmed to become an author.

I stop when I see no more light: it is impossible for me to write by groping.

December 13.

Things seen at night. God makes us see them (as in a mirror) and forget them. To see, to dispose our soul and our inclinations; to forget, to fulfill our lot blindly.

“Fiction in the frame and truth in the painting.” This saying is good, very good, though it was spoken by a fool. (See journal 11 and 12.)

T193.The repeated possess and the distinct soul and mind remain. The phrase can suggest command of oneself, but the translation retains the possession image rather than replacing both terms with self-control.

T194.How retains the source period. Taste acts before reflection, and instinct for persuasion makes the orator. Argumentation is distinct from reason and serves against others rather than for oneself alone. The wars of dialectic remain an image rather than a reference to a particular controversy.

T195.The source speaks of two ages of life and names the child and the old man. Sex and the comparison with women remain without being rewritten as a modern category or a general rule about all ages. Modest renders modestes in this context of sexual restraint.

T196.The image gives Saint Martin bat’s wings as he rises to divine things. The translation preserves that incongruous means of ascent without replacing it with an explicit assessment of his philosophy.

T197.Will and talent are insufficient alone; opportunity is also required. Beautiful works remains broader than books, and opportunity does not become a named patron or commission.

T198.Coward and fearful distinguish a judgment about courage from susceptibility to fear. The source moves from singular poltron to plural peureux, then applies the distinction to the unexpanded Lc—st.

T199.The source places 2 above converser and 1 above vivre. These are word-order marks, retained above the corresponding English converse and live; they are not note calls. The quoted order remains unchanged, since the following reflection concerns the reader’s pleasure in correcting such displacements. The quoted words occur in Boileau’s L’Art poétique, Chant IV; the unprinted beginning of the verse is not added.

T200.The light and the tactile groping remain connected images. The translation does not reduce them to simply running out of ideas or being uncertain.

T201.Things seen at night translates the Latin Noctu visa. Seeing and forgetting are both caused by God in the stated account, and the two subsequent infinitives give their different purposes. Lot renders sort as what one is to fulfill; blindly is not softened.

T202.Frame and painting retain the visual distinction between fiction and truth. Good, very good preserves the repetition despite the judgment of the speaker as a fool. The journal reference has only 11 and 12; no month or full source is supplied.