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← ExitThe Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II

Reading language

YEAR 1808

Manner is to method what hypocrisy is to virtue. But it is a hypocrisy in good faith; and the one who has it is its dupe.

A philosophy without morality, — that thinks only of belief.

June 14.

In this life of Cicero by Middleton there is a fabricated continuity whose falsehood one feels everywhere.

That the idea of God is a light, a light that guides, that gladdens, etc. Prayer is its nourishment.

June 15.

The republic of ants and the monarchy of bees.

A few songs, a few paintings, a few poems suffice for all the pleasures of the mind. And when there are enough of these marvels in a language, those who speak it care little to see or make more of that kind. It is a pleasure that would no longer have received anything new.

June 22.

Rivarol said: “Reason is a compound of the useful and the true, which distinguishes it from pure truth. Reason does not exclude good prejudices, which gives it the right to speak out. Truth excludes them, which condemns it to reserve, to mystery, and often to silence.”

This thought errs in its nominatives. Instead of reason and truth, set wisdom and philosophy in opposition; and say: — Wisdom has the useful and the true as the objects of its study and its love, which distinguishes it from philosophy, which seeks only truth alone. Wisdom does not exclude good prejudices etc. and philosophy excludes them.

June 23.

If one excludes the idea of God, it is impossible to have an accurate idea of virtue.

The great disadvantage of new books is that they keep us from reading the old ones.

That philosophy which is perpetually concerned with what one must believe, and never with what one must do, or what one must be.

Voltaire had the soul of an ape and the mind of an angel.

Beauty touches the senses and the beautiful touches the soul.

T324.Manner remains distinct from method. Hypocrisy in good faith preserves the paradox rather than treating the hypocrisy as consciously deceptive; its possessor is also its dupe. The French spellings are retained separately.

T325.Morality renders morale here; belief renders créance. The nominal relative fragment remains without identifying a philosopher or naming a religion. A later period dictionary records créance as belief or faith, including religious belief; no particular creed is named here.

T673.The nominal relative fragment remains; créance retains its printed spelling.

T326.Life is a biography of Cicero attributed in the text to Middleton. Fabricated continuity and its falsehood retain Joubert’s judgment without identifying a particular edition or certifying the biography’s historical accuracy.

T327.The initial That remains dependent. Light repeats, and guides and gladdens remain separate effects. Its is read most immediately as the light in the continuing image; the French en can also resume the idea of God. No governing theological conclusion is supplied.

T674.The initial Que remains without a supplied governing phrase. The repeated lumière is retained.

T334.The paired political images remain nominal. No claim about a scientifically verified insect constitution is added.

T675.The paired nominal formulation remains without a finite predicate.

T335.A few repeats the stated sufficiency across songs, paintings, and poems. The final conditional perfect remains would have received. Anything new reads de nouveau as new matter received by the pleasure; the unusual formulation is not changed into a fully expressed passive about novelty. De nouveau can also mean again, with the received object left unstated.

T336.The quotation remains attributed to Rivarol, separate from Joubert’s following revision. Good prejudices preserves the favorable adjective rather than replacing prejudice with established truth. Speak out reads parler haut as speaking with assurance; no specific audience or political authority is supplied.

T677.Two physical paragraphs remain; the four italic terms occur in paragraph 2’s initial substitution instruction only. Pêche retains the printed circumflex. Both final-d exclud forms remain beside exclut elsewhere. The repeated de ses études et de son amour is not grammatically regularized, and no comma is supplied before etc.

T337.Nominatives retains the grammatical term for the named subjects of the propositions. The italic substitutions remain limited to reason, truth, wisdom, and philosophy in the opening instruction. Only truth alone preserves the source’s repetition, and study and love remain distinct relations to the useful and the true.

T338.The condition and impossibility are retained as Joubert’s claim. Accurate renders exacte without changing an idea of virtue into the ability to act virtuously.

T339.Old ones retains the comparison with new books without restricting anciens to classical antiquity. The shared us remains.

T340.The nominal relative construction remains unfinished. Must recurs with believe, do, and be, preserving the three fields rather than turning the latter two into a single practical program.

T679.The nominal relative construction remains without a main predicate.

T341.Soul and mind remain distinct, as do ape and angel. Ape renders singe without assigning a zoological species. The judgment is not softened or expanded.

T342.Beauty and the beautiful distinguish the abstract noun beauté from the substantivized beau. Touches repeats for senses and soul.