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← ExitThe Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II

Reading language

YEAR 1807

April 13.

Modesty and piety. — That one must respect them in the frivolities of conversation. That exposing them to blushes and withering them is a true assault, a coarse game. Do feelings so delicate and qualities so modest not have enough beauty?

April 14.

Good sense applied to facts (that is M. b.) and good sense applied to ideas (that is R—v—r—l). Good sense applied to actions and political events (that is Rblrs), good sense applied to the arts, for example poetry (that is...)

All good sense so applied (and especially the second kind) differs from common sense; it is a good sense superior to it in extent, in subtlety, in penetration, but not in usefulness. Common sense properly so called has as its object the needs of life and of the soul. The other good sense has as its object the delights of thought. This good sense, which one may call literary and intellectual, needs to be associated with common sense, not that the latter can cooperate in the other’s occupations and take an active part in them; but it is useful and necessary to it for preventing, stopping, or correcting its deviations and for judging its efforts.

But if you paint a false window, at least paint it closed. Your lie will be more sensible, will be smaller, and will deceive better.

A senseless lie is one that will not be able to get itself believed.

— thus God does not speak to them then, but touches them; and without knowing it they obey the impressions they receive from him.

Inclination where there is no slope, to speak as St François de Sales does. Is impossible (as this saint adds) for feelings of the nature of water, but not for those of the nature of fire. Fire flows upward, so to speak. There are therefore two slopes for man, who is composed of water and fire, — one from his soul to earth, the other from his soul to heaven.

April 16 (at night).

God. Intelligence and love. — Intelligence and love that embraces the world. — [He] repays us for our hope, smiles upon it.

God is not alone. Is not content to see. But he is seen; someone sees him. The Angels? and why not souls too. God delights in being known.

God wants to be known, and for that he prepares us, he preserves us: the chrysalis.

The idea is the model, the thing is the portrait, the image is the copy.

April 17.

Someone said (I read it this morning): “happiness is a hermit.” One would not have said that a hundred years ago. In those days one thought (to speak as Chateaubriand does) that solitude was good only with God.

Sunday, April 19.

“Virtue without reward is melancholy.” (Today’s Publ.) Indeed, she does not complain, does not grow indignant, does not grow agitated; the injustice she suffers produces no resentment in her, but a gentle melancholy.

Thus Fontanes finds truth and great thoughts in seeking eloquence. And M. D—b. finds eloquence and beautiful words in seeking truth alone. In the one, song is born of music; and in the other, music is born of the song’s subject.

A little vanity and a little sensual pleasure: that is what makes up the lives of most women and men.

The lives of the others are made up of hatred and loves, friendships and reflections, enterprises and projects, labors and affairs perpetually repeated.

Today in literature one does masonry well, but architecture badly.

T244.Both That openings preserve the source’s dependent clauses. Exposing the personified qualities to blushes and withering them keeps rougir and flétrir as distinct interventions. The closing question remains a question about their existing beauty.

T451.The two Que clauses remain without a supplied governing clause; their source punctuation is preserved.

T245.Good sense renders bon sens, common sense renders sens commun; the distinction is essential to the second paragraph and is not collapsed into the same English phrase. M. b., R—v—r—l, and Rblrs remain unexpanded. The final parenthetical remains unfinished in content, with no supplied name or terminal period.

T246.The second kind refers to good sense applied to ideas. Literary and intellectual renders littéraire et spirituel here in relation to the delights of thought; spirituel can also carry wit, and is not narrowed to devotional spirituality. The later common sense does not actively share the other faculty’s work but prevents, stops, or corrects deviations and judges efforts. These roles and their pronoun relations remain distinct.

T247.The window is painted and false; closed is the condition proposed to make the illusion more credible. Lie remains repeated rather than being replaced throughout by illusion. More sensible, smaller, and better at deceiving retain the three comparisons and repeated will be. The next paragraph keeps its future inability to gain belief.

T248.The lower-case opening thus and the unnamed plural recipients remain. God’s touch, the impressions received, and obedience without awareness are preserved without supplying a named spiritual practice or group.

T249.Inclination and no slope retain the two separate source emphases. Is impossible keeps the finite phrase without an expressed subject. The later upward flow of fire and two slopes preserve the paradox, rather than replacing both with a generalized attraction. The Saint François de Sales attribution remains Joubert’s; no exact external location is supplied here.

T455.The facsimile distinguishes italic Inclination and pas de pente from the intervening roman words. St remains on the baseline. Est impossible is finite without an expressed subject, not an imperative or a supplied complete proposition. The left-clipped wrapped François and the openings of qui, du and pentes are restored from surviving letters and syntax.

T250.The period after God remains, as do the nominal fragments. Singular embraces preserves the source’s singular verb following intelligence and love as a joined phrase. [He] supplies the unstated subject of Nous paye, without adding a new identity. Our hope is the referent of it in smiles upon it.

T456.The source prints a period after Dieu before Intelligence. Singular embrasse follows Intelligence et amour, while the French Nous paye and Ne se contente retain their unstated subjects. The question about les âmes ends with a period; only Les Anges has a question mark. The third paragraph is printed at the top of page 614 before the next source asterisk. The final la chrysalide remains a nominal image after the colon, not an expanded explanation. The circumstance la nuit stays with the printed date.

T251.The subjectless Is not content to see remains. Only The Angels has a question mark; and why not souls too ends with the printed period. The lowercase and and God’s delight in being known retain the source’s movement from question to assertion.

T252.The third physical paragraph of the April 16 entry appears on page 614 before the next separator. At night belongs to the printed date. The chrysalis remains a brief nominal image after the colon, without an added account of resurrection or transformation.

T1.The three repeated is clauses distinguish idea, thing, and image without supplying a philosophical system or identifying an external source.

T2.Hermit preserves the personification in the quotation. The unnamed speaker remains unnamed; the Chateaubriand phrase is Joubert’s attribution, without an independently established external locus. Would not have said retains the past conditional.

T3.She preserves the personification of virtue through the repeated negatives. Today’s Publ. retains the abbreviated publication reference without expanding it; it is a same-day citation, not an additional entry date.

T187.Mélancholique and mélancholie retain the printed ch. The right-edge delimiter after jour. is partly damaged and is read with uncertainty as the closing parenthesis from its surviving curved/vertical trace; no expanded newspaper title is supplied. The right-edge wrapped injustice and the end of mais are restored from their surviving forms and syntax.

T4.M. D—b. remains unexpanded. The first person finds thought through eloquence, the second eloquence through truth; song and music then reverse their order of origin.

T5.Sensual pleasure renders volupté; women and men remain in the printed order. The following paragraph retains hatred in the singular and loves in the plural, alongside the successive pairs of activities.