Diotimos Reading Desk

Tap the page, move to the top or bottom edge, swipe down, or press Tab to reveal reading controls. Use the arrow keys or swipe sideways to turn pages.

← ExitThe Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II

Reading language

YEAR 1807

January 20.

“action... in the soul.” That is the movement poetry must depict. See Oedipus at Colonus; he does not change his place, people go people come, — and it is the most beautiful tragedy in the world.

May what is promised you in a dream come to pass in a dream!

Judgment is a cold, strong faculty; wit a delicate, lively q[…].

January 21.

Matter itself must be conceived and spoken of with wit.

In metaphysics, to imagine well is to see well. And even in physics, if one does not imagine, one sees only halfway. And whoever makes one imagine nothing shows nothing clearly and makes nothing known. The essence and being of matter itself are wholly spiritual.

January 22.

To translate well requires art, and much art.

It is for new opinions that they ask for tolér[…] constantly provoking derision against old opinions.

January 23.

Those exchanges in which neither soul nor body has any part. I ap[…] by this name those conversations in which no one speaks from the depths of the heart, […] depths of their humor; in which there is neither abandon nor gaiety, neither épa[…]ment nor play; in which one finds neither movement nor rest, neither dis[…]tion nor relief, neither collectedness nor distraction. Finally one […] has given nothing and received nothing, which is no true commerce […] constraint without aim or necessity: the most unhealthy of […]mens, the most unbearable inconvenience of all dépenda[…] — established among friends, that is what one experiences or what one […] in certain circles, when...

The pumice stone. He perpetually passes his pumice stone over […] what you think and over everything you feel. He makes you […] With such people, writing would be a hundred times less painful than conversing. It has not yet happened that one made oneself the spectator […] man taking a walk and submitted his steps and all his movements to criticism, but that will come.

“To succeed in conversation,” they say. Is […] a theater, does one play a role there does one compete there for a p[…] does one have judges there instead of companions?

One sees written on their brow: “here one judges.” With them, one […] not relax; one must joust, fence, fight.

In light, the point that illuminates and the point that leads astray. It […] to hold to the first.

Barbarism is in manners, never in minds: exce[…] the times when antiquity is despised.

Those who have judgment exercise it as well in judging stones as in judging men.

I seem to hear it said: So-and-so was much applauded while taking a walk.

S1.Source editor’s annotationSome extracts from an article by “Ch. D[elalot], Z, in the Journal, imperial.” These extracts, in the notebook, and also on a separate, dated leaf referring to the Journal des Débats of January 20.

T20.The opening quotation remains lowercase and incomplete. The title Oedipus at Colonus is not made an extra heading. The singular he is retained beside the impersonal going and coming, with no conjunction inserted. The source annotation attaches to the end of this paragraph, not to its date heading.

T21.This is Beaunier’s separate annotation. The source expansion D[elalot] and the isolated Z remain. In the Journal, imperial translates the Latin in Diario, imperiali while retaining its unexpected intervening comma. The nominal description of the extracts has no finite verb supplied. January 20 belongs to the journal citation and does not date neighboring undated entries.

T22.Only the initial q of the noun paired with judgment’s faculty remains secure. The French residue is retained in English; qualité, quality, is plausible but not restored as established text. Wit renders esprit in the contrast with cold, strong judgment.

T268.The right-edge smear leaves only the beginning q of the noun after une securely legible. Qualité is plausible, but is not silently completed; faculté is not substituted from the first clause.

T23.Wit renders esprit in the injunction about conceiving and speaking of matter. The second paragraph develops imagining, seeing, and knowing, then calls matter’s essence and being wholly spiritual. The translation preserves that claim and the repeated imagine rather than substituting abstract reasoning.

T24.The damaged French tolér[…] remains in English. Toleration or tolerance would follow the likely completion tolérance, but its missing letters and following punctuation are not silently restored. The contrast with provoking derision against old opinions is secure.

T270.The right-edge ending of tolér[…] and any following punctuation are lost. Tolérance is the likely completion, but the ending is not certified. Provocant is printed with c.

T25.The bracketed gaps here mark damage to the reproduction, not Joubert’s deliberate ellipses. Uncompleted French words remain visible in the English where their exact wording is not established. Possible readings include J’appelle (I call), épanchement (outpouring), distraction (diversion), and dépendances (dependencies). These are possibilities, not certified completions. The damaged interval after Finally one may contain a negative element; the translation retains the visible nothing given and nothing received without inventing the missing construction. Commerce keeps the exchange image. Collectedness and distraction distinguish recueillement and dissipation. The source’s feminine établie, rendered established, and the final when remain syntactically incomplete.

T271.The source is extensively obscured at the right edge. Bracketed ellipses mark unreadable continuations or whole words, not authorial omissions. J’appelle, épanchement, distraction and dépendances are possible contextual completions but are not certified as complete visible readings. The wording l’âme ni le corps, the double b in abbandon, the hyphen in mal-sain, the feminine établie and the concluding lorsque... are retained. The damaged interval after Enfin on could include a negative element; its exact wording is unresolved. An independent enlarged facsimile confirms ép before the smear, with an a-like partial trace; the a retained in épa[…]ment is a qualified reading, not a secure complete prefix.

T26.The pumice stone, walking, and scrutiny of every movement remain physical images of criticism. The gaps after over, makes you, and spectator remain unrecovered; they are not filled with plausible words merely to make the English smooth. The first of three paragraphs gives the walking image, the second the theater and competition, and the third the combat.

T272.Several words and punctuation marks at the right edge are obscured. The gaps after sur, fait and spectateur, and the opening of the théâtre question, remain unresolved; tout, mal and d’un are possible contextual readings, not certified text. The words beginning p[…] may be prix and peut, but are not completed. The line-wrapped converser and mouvemens are retained through their clear continuation endings and context, although their right-edge beginnings are obscured. Fit and soumit remain unaccented as printed. No comma is added between rôle and est-ce. The introductory and final guillemeted phrases retain their different capitalization.

T27.The theater question has a damaged opening; the word beginning p may be prix, prize, but remains a French residue. The absent punctuation between role and the following question remains absent. Companions and judges retain the opposed roles.

T28.The modal verb before not relax is damaged and remains a gap in English; peut, can, is likely but not certified. The lowercase here and the three combat verbs remain. Fence renders ferrailler as clashing with blades in this figurative conversation.

T29.The noun point is repeated. The missing verb after It is not supplied as must, though faut is contextually plausible. The infinitive construction remains visibly incomplete.

T273.The verb after Il is obscured by the edge smear. Faut is contextually likely but not certified from the surviving mark.

T30.Manners and minds preserve mœurs and esprits. The damaged exce[…] is kept as French in English; excepté, except, is plausible but not certified. The reference to despising antiquity remains without an added historical example.