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← ExitThe Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II

Reading language

Mr. Hochet and Mme de Sévigné.

... it is the talk of a religion ashamed of being one and seeking to excuse itself for it.

— so that many things stimulate him and nothing presses him. But there are goads that press and do not stimulate.

Tuesday, December 23.

“The obscene (says M. de Bonald) is the last degree of the familiar.”

December 27.

La Bruyère says that “one must draw one’s thoughts from one’s judgment.” But one can draw their expression from one’s happiness and one’s imagination.

December 29 (December 28, in Paris.)

Thus soldiers would be chessmen, and everything would depend on the hand. But if there were chessmen of a wood easier to move and bring into play; if there were even some of an intelligent wood...

December 30.

Form, indeed, is what distinguishes a thing from all others, what separates the singular from the universal and makes it exist apart. And the most beautiful form is the one that, setting a thing apart from others most distinctly, nevertheless leaves it most in harmony with the whole.

Sometimes quality can take the place of form in distinguishing one material from every other. For example, a piece of gold or diamond inlaid in a wall stands out from it by its brilliance.

— To adorn in men’s eyes the victims who offer themselves to God.

December 31.

Feeling of the inner life!

— for wine is a wet fire.

December 22.

Eucharist. — Nothing indeed gives so inward and penetrating a feeling of God.

T215.Being one makes explicit the French infinitive’s reference to being a religion. The source’s shame and attempted excuse remain, without identifying the religion or substituting a particular doctrine.

T216.Stimulate and press preserve the distinction between excitent and presse, repeated in reverse with the goads. Him is a contextual personal reading of the otherwise unnamed referent; no person is supplied. The introductory so that remains dependent on an unprinted preceding thought.

T217.The obscene and the familiar remain abstract categories. Last degree retains dernier degré rather than weakening it into one possible example. The statement remains attributed to M. de Bonald within the source quotation.

T218.The source attributes the thought/judgment advice to La Bruyère. Their expression refers to the thoughts, and happiness and imagination are possible sources of that expression. Bonheur can also carry a sense of fortunate ease or felicity; the short passage does not resolve its range.

T219.Chessmen renders échecs in its sense of pieces, not defeats or the game as a whole. The hand, wood, movement, and play remain, including the unusual intelligent wood. The two if clauses are unfinished. The December 29 heading and parenthetical December 28 in Paris remain together, without selecting one as a replacement for the other.

T347.The parenthetical December 28 place circumstance remains with the printed December 29 heading. The first sentence’s right-edge punctuation after main is restored as a period; the following Mais begins a new printed line.

T220.Form separates the singular from the universal while the most beautiful form leaves it in the best harmony with the whole. Distinction and harmony both remain. The paragraph continues onto page 583 without a new entry.

T221.The source follows singular a piece with plural incrustés and s’en détachent. English uses singular agreement without altering the French wording. Brilliance makes the material stand out, preserving the preceding paragraph’s distinction image. This is the second paragraph of the December 30 block.

T222.The infinitive remains To adorn. In men’s eyes states how the victims are to appear; who offer themselves retains the reflexive s’offrent rather than naming a separate person who offers them. The victims are not identified.

T223.Feeling retains sentiment, while inner life renders vie intime without restricting it to a private diary or psychological diagnosis. The exclamation and nominal form remain.

T224.Wet fire retains the paradoxical physical image in feu humide. The opening for remains dependent, and no medical or chemical explanation is supplied.

T225.The Greek Εὐχαριστία can mean thanksgiving and can designate the Eucharist. The translation adopts Eucharist in this religious context without treating that sense as the only lexical possibility. The Greek letters remain in the French; the exact orientation of the damaged breathing mark is less secure than the letters and accent. The inward and penetrating feeling of God remains the statement’s effect. The printed December 22 follows December 31 in the source order.