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← ExitThe Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II

Reading language

YEAR 1808

August 25.

That is because to think of God we have no need of our brain.

August 27.

Every mind given to systems is an enemy of the minds that preceded it. It believes them necessarily less wise, or less enlightened, or less happy than itself.

August 30.

This fool has words in his head and he writes — people even think he writes well...

September 4.

Credulity comes from God, incredulity does not.

September 5.

“Slavery debases man to the point of making itself loved by him” (says Vauvenargues). But one can reply to him that slavery which knows how to make itself loved no longer debases.

September 8.

Ramage: birdsong beneath the leafy boughs.

September 13.

Piety gives wings to the mind; piety is a kind of genius.

September 18.

One must never grow angry in one’s own cause or allow oneself ungenerous impulses.

September 22.

“Light phenomenon” and “airy masterpiece,” used by Abbé Delille of the hummingbird, are a hundred times better than the expression “jewel of nature” used by Mʳ de Buffon. Y. is gravely mistaken in today’s newspaper. (See journal de l’Empire.)

In the sciences there are many things good for life that are not good (I mean that are useless) for the mind. In general, mathematicians and naturalists have little moral sense; scholars have more than they do; poets have much. This is because scholars and poets concern themselves with the mind and heart of man; the others concern themselves only with the machines of nature and of the mind. Mathematics is indeed only a machine without a body that the human mind has invented.

September 24.

Everything one has been able to measure seems small.

September 27.

How many people in literature “have an accurate ear and sing out of tune.”

T371.That is because preserves the explanatory opening without inventing the preceding assertion. Brain remains a bodily term, not mind, and the negation is retained as Joubert’s claim.

T372.The plural systems remains a disposition of the mind rather than a named philosophical school. Mind recurs for earlier thinkers; less repeats through wise, enlightened, and happy. Happy retains heureux, which can also carry a sense of being fortunate or successful.

T373.The person remains unidentified. Words in his head is retained without changing it to ideas or understanding. The dash and final ellipsis preserve the contrast with others’ judgment.

T374.The paired terms retain their shared root. Credulity is not silently replaced with faith, nor incredulity with a named philosophical position.

T375.The quoted assertion and Joubert’s reply remain separate. Itself refers to slavery and him to man in the first sentence; the later reply addresses Vauvenargues. No longer preserves plus, and the historical claim is retained without recasting slavery as a benign metaphor or adding an unstated limitation. Compare Vauvenargues, Réflexions et maximes 22: the checked text uses servitude and abaisse with plural men, where Joubert has slavery, debases, and singular man. Joubert’s wording is retained.

T702.The attribution remains outside the closing guillemet. The ending of scait and the small se at the right edge are degraded; their readings are qualified from surviving forms, without a cedilla. The source’s historical assertion remains unaltered.

T376.Ramage is retained as the French word being defined, followed by an English definition. Ramage and ramée share the branch-related root in the source; leafy boughs renders ramée without identifying a bird species or claiming a complete etymology.

T377.Piety repeats in both clauses. Wings remains the image, and a kind of genius preserves the qualifying espèce de rather than asserting that piety and genius are identical.

T378.Never governs becoming angry in one’s own cause and allowing ungenerous impulses. Impulses renders mouvemens as inward movements here, without supplying a particular quarrel.

T379.The three quoted descriptions remain separate. Light renders léger as lightness, while airy renders aërien; jewel retains the distinct comparison. Abbé and Mʳ remain French forms of address, and Y. remains unidentified. English uses plural are with the two descriptions; the printed singular vaut remains in French. The newspaper reference stays inside the main paragraph. Buffon’s phrase was checked in a later primary extract published in Léon Feugère’s 1865 anthology. An indexed anthology excerpt points to Delille’s Les Trois Règnes, chant VII, for the paired descriptions; its page was not directly verified. The cited newspaper review was not independently located.

T703.The singular vaut remains after the paired quoted formulations. The raised r in Mʳ is preserved; Y. remains unidentified. Delille has double l despite local stroke damage. The raised mark over e in aërien is compressed; independent enlarged-facsimile comparison supports a qualified diaeresis reading with compressed, joined upper marks. The ending of bijou is clipped and qualified from bijou’s surviving letter traces. The journal reference is main text, not apparatus.

T380.The parenthetical correction from not good to useless is retained. Scholars distinguishes érudits from naturalists and poets; the comparative moral-sense claims remain Joubert’s. Machines of nature and of mind lead to the singular machine without a body, which is not replaced by a modern account of mathematics.

T381.Has been able to measure retains the completed possibility rather than saying that everything is measurable. Seems distinguishes appearance from an assertion of actual small size.

T382.The musical comparison remains quoted inside the exclamatory How many construction. Accurate renders juste, while out of tune renders faux. The terminal period is placed inside the English quotation mark under American house style; the French punctuation remains unchanged.