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 1808

Among the ancients, all movements in cadence were called dan[…]. They therefore danced through their gait, and not always by jumps. Jumps, bounds are the extravagances of dance and suit only joyful dances. Religious dances could not have them, by their very nature.

Indeed, painting is more Christian. Raphael was bound to excel and surpass the painters of antiquity. — And that it is not only because worship is inward. (Why sculpture is not very Christian.)

Of the clarities of mind that are born of purity. God! what admirable loves chastity produces! Of what raptures our intemperances […]vent us!

That painting is more Christian, not only because […] worship is “inward” through the building, but also because it is inward through feeling. One does not love a statue. One is content to detach its expression from it; but one can love a painting. One can carry it whole within oneself. Its features, its colors, its dimensions can stick to the mind all the more because everything in it is surface. Sculpt the devil and paint God. Fear likes to look at its object; it wants to have it outside itself! Love likes embracing its own still more than seeing it. Fear always has its eyes open, love likes to close its own.

The evening of life brings with it its lights and its lamp, so to speak.

When children play their games, they take all the steps and make all the movements necessary to persuade themselves and make themselves better imagine that their fictions are realities. They omit nothing to make themselves believe it over again.

Of simple ideas applied to complicated questions. That this is a cutting instrument fit to cut through difficulties, but not fit to resolve them.

That questions of morality must be decided by moral ideas, and questions of civil or political law by civil ideas: the question of venality, etc.

January 29.

One must seek in Plato only forms and ideas. That is what he himself sought.

Charms, beauty. We call charms what attracts us, and beauty what makes us love it.

When what was meant to nourish the body nourishes the mind, one is the worse for it in health, but thinks only the better for it.

January […]0.

Truth! God alone sees it.

January […]1.

Sensual pleasure. Habit does more for it than youth.

T58.The residue dan[…] remains in French because the word ending and its original punctuation cannot be certified; danse and danses are possible. The displayed period is provisional at the boundary before the clearly capitalized Ils. The remaining damaged readings are separately qualified in the French record. Gait, jumps, and bounds keep the distinctions among movements. The claim about religious dances remains Joubert’s.

T470.Only dan is secure at the start of the damaged word after s’appelloient; the ending and terminal punctuation are lost. The period is provisional to display the next clearly capitalized Ils sentence. Danse or danses is possible but not certified. Des before sauts, ne before conviennent and the ending of pouvoient are partly obscured; their readings are qualified restorations from surviving traces and syntax. Gaïes retains the printed diaeresis.

T59.Was bound to renders a dû as inferred inevitability in the comparison with ancient painters, rather than an imposed obligation. Inward worship remains distinct from the claim about painting. The dependent And that and the parenthetical Why are not completed. Several damaged endings are qualified restorations in the French source record.

T471.The endings of exceller and seulement and the wrapped opening of chrétienne are heavily obscured at the right edge; these are qualified contextual restorations from the visible beginnings and next-line tienne. The Et que and parenthetical Pourquoi constructions are not completed with a supplied governing clause.

T60.Clarities preserves the plural clartés. The final verb’s beginning is lost; its surviving French ending vent is retained in the English gap rather than treated as the English verb vent. Privent, meaning deprive, is possible but is not supplied. Chasteté is a qualified restoration from the surviving beginning and continuation. Admirable loves and raptures remain distinct.

T472.The opening remains a nominal relative construction. Chasteté is partly obscured across the line break and is a qualified restoration from the visible beginning and next-line teté. The opening of the verb ending vent is lost at the right margin. Privent is contextually plausible but is not certified or inserted; the visible next-line vent is retained after the gap.

T61.The opening That remains dependent, and the lost material before culte is not replaced by the expected article. Only the first inward is quoted in the source. The statue’s detached expression contrasts with the painting carried whole within oneself. Stick to the mind preserves se coller; embrace retains both bodily and mental possibilities. Fear and love remain personified without identifying their objects beyond the stated contrast. Damaged word endings are qualified in the French source record.

T473.The word or words between parce que and next-line culte are lost; the expected article le is not certified and is not supplied. The opening Que remains dependent. The wrapped intérieur and Sculptez, and endings of contente, peut, dimensions, objet, embrasser and amour meet the right-edge damage. Their full forms are qualified contextual restorations from the surviving beginnings and sentence continuations; punctuation after objet is likewise provisional. Only intérieur is enclosed in guillemets; quotation marks are not extended to the second use.

T62.The plural lights and singular lamp remain distinct within the image of life’s evening. So to speak translates the qualified margin reading pour ainsi dire.

T474.The ending of pour is obscured at the right edge and provisionally restored from its visible beginning and the following ainsi dire.

T63.Steps and movements remain distinct. The translation reads recroire as believing over again; no new subject is inserted after Ils at the damaged line end. Fictions and realities retain their contrast.

T64.The cutting instrument is fit to cut through difficulties and unfit to resolve them. Both the initial Of and the following That remain dependent constructions. The separate second paragraph stays within the same source entry.

T476.Two physical paragraphs are preserved without an intervening asterisk. The initial Que and Qu’il clauses remain without supplied governing verbs. The ending of morales is partly clipped and contextually restored.

T65.Venality retains vénalité without supplying a specific office, sale, or legal case. Moral, civil, and political distinctions remain as printed; the second comparison says civil ideas. The initial That has no supplied governing clause.

T66.Forms and ideas remain two terms, both lowercased. The restriction applies to what one should seek in Plato, followed by the assertion about Plato’s own search.

T67.Charms renders the plural appas; attraction remains distinct from being loved. The repeated definitions retain the same two nouns as the opening fragment.

T68.The nourishment passes from body to mind; poorer health and better thinking remain the two opposed consequences. No particular food, illness, or bodily mechanism is supplied.

T480.Only the final day digit 0 is securely visible at the damaged left edge; no preceding digit is supplied from chronology.

T69.Sensual pleasure renders volupté, preserving its distinction from pleasure in general. Habit is said to serve it more than youth; the statement does not assign a particular activity or age.

T481.Only the final day digit 1 is secure; the preceding narrow strokes cannot certify a numeral.