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← ExitThe Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II

Reading language

YEAR 1808

There is also a masked-ball voice there, the voice of a role.

January 7.

One must judge such works by the laws of an “extraordinary” criticism.

Of Alexander and the king of Persia. Boldness and success have blinded the historians. It was more fitting, and more in the order of things, for the king of a great country to rule a small one. The reverse could come about only through a monstrous reversal of the ordinary course of human things and through dreadful misfortunes. The author of an upheaval that cannot sustain itself is less praiseworthy for succeeding than blameworthy for attempting it. He had short foresight and limited prudence. He saw no farther than his own ascendancy and his arm, so to speak.

Seeing no farther than his sword...

The duke of Foëns, a Portuguese, said of the prince of Waldeck: “I think he finds me a little old. For my part, I found him a bit of an old woman.”

January 8.

“Pagan theology.” It is not theology but pagan poetry that matters to us, you imbecile! Change your title if you do not want to put people off your book.

And, it is not a matter of taste, nor even of judgment, but a matter of tact, of delicacy of tact.

January 11.

— noise at the doors and windows (at the eyes, the ears, the senses); boredom, solitude, and silence in the interior, that is to say in the soul. One then amuses oneself around the house, and not within it. (Louïs XI at Plessis lez Tours.)

Error agitates, truth gives rest.

January 12.

One dislocates one’s mind as one does one’s body.

Children must be given examples of sentences in which the agreement between adjective and noun is not only grammatical but moral, as in “the holy temple.” But if you said “the unfortunate thief,” the agreement would not be moral, because beside the offense one must place the idea of punishment and not that of misfortune. The same moral agreement must be found between the nominative and the verb. “Courageous soldiers love war.” This grammatical relation is not moral. It associates and inseparably binds the idea of bravery with that of attack and quarrel. But if you said, “Courageous soldiers love victory and not carnage,” the relation would be moral. For then, in the mind that receives it, you associate the idea of courage with that of the hatred one must have for useless destruction. And you speak the truth, and you give a lesson. The epithet is a judgment, and the most insinuating of all, for it slips in with the word. And if nothing is more important than sound ideas, nothing is more important, too, than this agreement I ask for between adjective and noun, between verb and its object. The use of particles and adverbs also has its morality. I shall adduce examples: “Courageous soldiers, etc., but they detest carnage...”

Here are some epithets to avoid: “a child in love, a feeble-minded old man, a miserly father, an amorous mother”; although experience and censure sometimes warrant such associations among people, it would be dreadful to accustom young minds to them.

There are other associations of adjective and noun that are innocent but painful and must be excluded from these first examples because they sadden the memory in some way; as in “the birds of the sea”: say “the fish of the sea.” Say “the birds of the groves, the flowers of the fields, and the vegetables of the gardens.” In short, put everything in its place in the mind by leaving everything in its place in the world. “The bushes of the hills” would also be better than “the birds of the hills,” for that is not where birds most delight to be. It is there that bushes take refuge. It is there that we like to find them, for they adorn the aridity, they are its wealth, just as they are the poverty of a fertile soil. In short, show order in all things and you will be at once agreeable and useful.

“Too little pious” is a better example than “too pious.” And, in attribution or attraction, “undisciplined and unbearable” is good; “undisciplined and lovable” would not be fitting. In short, “of things that cohere ill with one another.”

I shall therefore say to these makers of translation exercises: — Always join nouns with adjectives that express the idea and the feeling one ought to have about each thing.

January 13.

It has rightly been said: “Mezerai had no just idea of the freedom of history.” He was a bold writer rather than a learned and wise historian.

January 14.

I am, like Montaigne, “unsuited to continuous discourse.”

January 15.

— nor solely for the life of feeling and morality, for the virtues, in short, more than for the sciences.

January 16.

Like Aeolus they distributed winds and tempests. The conceptions of these minds were only inflated skin bags.

T21.The two nominal descriptions keep the masked ball and the performed role as distinct images. No actor or speaker is identified.

T22.The quotation marks remain around extraordinary alone. The word may suggest criticism outside ordinary rules; it is not silently replaced by exceptionally good criticism.

T23.The comparisons, qualification of success, and bodily limit of the arm remain Joubert’s historical judgment. Short foresight renders the plural courtes prévoyances collectively; the source does not enumerate forecasts. The following separate participial paragraph replaces the arm image with the sword without an added conclusion.

T24.The joke turns on masculine vieux for the duke and feminine vieille for the prince. English makes the second feminine description explicit as a bit of an old woman. For my part retains the emphatic Moi. The name Foëns and the change from present finds to past found remain.

T449.Foëns retains its printed diaeresis, confirmed in an enlarged facsimile. The feminine vieille remains beside masculine vieux; no agreement repair is supplied.

T25.Pagan theology remains the quoted title in Joubert’s sentence, not an added entry heading. No author or particular book is identified. The following paragraph distinguishes taste and judgment from tact, and repeats tact.

T450.Payenne and poësie retain their printed spellings. In the French source, the period follows the initial quoted phrase and the comma follows Et. No title or addressee is identified.

T26.The opening list remains a fragment. Doors and windows, senses, interior, and soul keep the architectural analogy. The parenthetical historical reference is retained as Joubert’s; no additional incident is asserted. In the next paragraph gives rest retains the contrast with agitation rather than making truth itself inactive.

T451.The opening remains nominal. Louïs has a diaeresis over i, confirmed in an enlarged facsimile; Plessis lez Tours remains unhyphenated. Two physical paragraphs are preserved.

T27.Dislocates renders luxe as displacement from a joint. The same verb applies to mind and body; it is not a reference to luxury.

T28.The nominative remains the grammatical nominative. Régime is rendered grammatical relation in the examples, a contextual reading of the linkage established by the verb and its object; the period grammatical term can designate the dependent word or object itself. In the final pairing verbe et régime, it is rendered object. Epithet means a qualifying expression in this discussion of adjectives, not necessarily an insult. The distinctions between bravery, courage, attack, quarrel, victory, and carnage remain. The final quoted example abbreviates its opening with etc. and ends in an ellipsis.

T452.All five physical paragraphs remain in one undated source block; paragraph 3 continues across 637–638. Phrazes, authorise[nt], quelque fois and feseurs retain their printed forms; the letters nt are supplied in source square brackets. The masculine plural innocents remains beside feminine associations. The quoted grammatical examples retain their own punctuation and capitalization. No moral assertion is silently modernized. The printed distinction between nominatif/verbe and verbe/régime remains. Short underline-like traces occur beneath several roman words in the facsimile; they are not treated as printed italics. The Latin alone is visibly italic within paragraph 4, with printed æ ligatures.

T29.Amorous renders galante in the example of the mother, reflecting the period feminine sense associated with love affairs rather than merely polite conduct. Feeble-minded retains the description of impaired understanding in imbécile. The source editor supplies only nt in authorise[nt]; English warrant has no corresponding added plural ending, so those brackets are recorded here rather than attached to a whole English word. The moral evaluations belong to Joubert.

T30.The French retains masculine innocents beside feminine associations; English innocent does not reproduce grammatical gender. Memory stays singular, and the bushes retain their refuge, adornment, wealth, and poverty. The paragraph continues across pages 637–638 without division.

T31.Too little pious keeps the unusual comparative form of trop peu pieux beside trop pieux. Attribution or attraction retains both printed terms without silently substituting one for the other. Of things that cohere ill with one another translates the italic Latin de his quæ inter se male cohærent; the English translation carries the same emphasis.

T32.Translation exercises renders thèmes in the pedagogical context of phrases given to children. No particular destination language is supplied. Idea and feeling remain distinct objects of instruction.

T33.Mezerai keeps the spelling on this page; the next page prints Mezeray. Freedom of history retains the compressed relation between historical writing and its liberty of judgment. The quoted source is not independently identified here.

T34.The quotation remains Joubert’s attribution to Montaigne. Continuous discourse preserves the sustained sequence implied by discours continu, without restricting it to public speaking. The exact Montaigne passage was not independently located.

T35.Nor remains without a supplied preceding negation or governing clause. The relative emphasis on virtues and sciences remains. The reading vertus at the damaged right margin is qualified in the French source record.

T454.The opening ni remains without a supplied governing clause. The final letters of vertus meet the damaged right margin; the word is a qualified reading from the surviving letters and context.

T36.Aeolus is the English form of Eole. Skin bags renders outres as containers made from animal skins, keeping their inflation. No wine is supplied to the image, and the unnamed plural is not identified.