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 1809

March 25.

All those who lack religion are deprived of a virtue, and even if they possessed all the others, they could not be perfect.

March 29.

That Homer spoke in his poems the language of the world (that is, of his contemporaries) and everyone understood him; whereas in our books we speak the language of books, which not everyone understands.

March 31.

The ancient critics used to say: Plus offendit nimium quam parum. We have almost reversed this maxim by praising every abundance. One must be capable of too much and never guilty of it.

A work is perfectly finished only when it can no longer admit of more or less.

April 2.

One is no architect for having made a long wall; and one has not made a work for having made a large book.

April 3.

Christianity. Is beautiful in man rather than in the world.

April […].

Frankness is lost through silence, through tact, through the […]iscrétion that friends exercise toward one another.

One must not only cultivate one’s friends, but cultivate one’s […]mitiés within oneself. One must preserve them with care, tend them, water them.

April […]3.

Architecture of thoughts, architecture of sentences, architecture of as[…]ertions. In short, in the art of writing, everything concerning arrangement […]oit present an architecture.

In bringing up a child, one must think of their old age. (Or: In bringing up […] childhood, one must think of old age.)

April […]5.

There is a degree of ill health that makes one happy.

The examiners. Supervisors and supervision. The inspectors sur[…]eilleront the supervisors.

T28.The concessive even if preserves eussent-ils, and could not remains conditional. The claim is that lack of religion prevents perfection even in possession of all the other virtues; the slightly clipped conjunction remains qualified in the French record.

T29.Initial That preserves the dependent Que construction. Everyone understood him and not everyone understands preserve the opposed scopes. The parenthesis belongs to Joubert and limits the world here to Homer’s contemporaries; books recurs as printed.

T219.The initial Que construction remains without a supplied governing clause. C’est à dire stays unhyphenated; poëmes retains its diaeresis. The right-margin endings lieu and le are partly clipped and retained as qualified readings.

S1.Source editor’s annotationChênedollé, private journal, fragment communicated by Mlle de Lamare:“March 30, 1809. Le Brun, Fontanes was saying to Joubert, is only a poet of words. Well! that is no small thing, the latter replied.” (Quoted by Ste Beuve, Cha. et son groupe, volume II, page 283.)

T30.The Latin means: Excess gives more offense than deficiency. Cicero’s Orator 73 provides a close parallel with magis in place of Joubert’s Plus, in a discussion of knowing the proper limit; the source Latin is not corrected. The final maxim is Joubert’s following sentence, with the capable/guilty contrast preserved. The March 31 heading and the March 30, 1809 conversation in Beaunier’s annotation remain distinct.

T34.This is Beaunier’s source annotation, not an additional notebook entry. The latter refers to Joubert, who answers Fontanes. The printed abbreviations Mlle, Ste, and Cha. remain unexpanded. The quoted date and the two physical paragraphs are retained. Sainte-Beuve’s cited page has not been independently collated; the attribution is reported on Beaunier’s authority.

T220.The raised source call 1 follows mars before the date period. The main date 31 mars and the apparatus quotation’s 30 mars 1809 are retained separately; no reconciliation is imposed. The right edge of louanges is clipped, with sufficient surviving letters for a qualified reading.

T221.Two physical apparatus paragraphs remain. Poète has a grave accent in the enlarged facsimile. Mlle and Ste are baseline abbreviations; Cha. retains the printed abbreviation. The closing citation has no additional period after its parenthesis. The quotation’s date is not substituted for the different main heading date.

T31.Admit of more or less retains the source’s abstract comparison rather than specifying a particular material to add or remove. Perfectly finished remains the governing condition.

T32.Made recurs for fait across the analogy. A work remains distinct from a large book, whose size is left unspecified; the first clause concerns being an architect, the second having produced a work.

T33.The detached label and following Is remain without an added subject pronoun. Man retains the generic singular in the opposition between the individual and the world. Rather than renders plutôt que without changing the assertion into a categorical denial of beauty in the world.

T222.The finite Est follows the detached label without an added pronoun; plutôt retains its circumflex.

T35.Tact renders ménagemens as the care taken not to offend or hurt. The damaged […]iscrétion remains a French word residue in the English; likely discretion is not certified as recovered print. The repeated through and the claim about friends remain.

T223.The day is lost before avril. At the next-line opening, only iscrétion is securely visible; discrétion is a likely completion, not fully recovered print.

T36.Cultivate recurs for the friends and what one cultivates within oneself. The word residue […]mitiés remains French; amitiés, friendships, is a likely completion explained here rather than silently restored in the text. Preserve with care, tend, and water retain the successive acts of cultivation.

T37.Architecture recurs four times. Sentences renders phrazes. The damaged as[…]ertions and […]oit remain French residues; assertions and doit, must, are possible completions, not fully recovered readings. Arrangement renders disposition without specifying a building or a rhetorical outline. The damaged day is not completed.

T225.Only final 3 is secure in the damaged day. Phrazes has z. The line-broken as- / ertions loses the next-line opening; assertions is a likely completion, not completely legible. The final-line initial before oit is lost; doit is a possible completion.

T38.Their refers to the child without specifying gender. The parenthetical Or preserves Joubert’s alternative formulation, including the change from the child’s own old age to old age in general. The gap before the fully legible enfance, childhood, remains; the missing opening is not supplied as l’.

T226.The alternative formulation remains parenthetical. The opening before enfance is cut off; l’enfance is a likely reconstruction, not supplied as fully read text. A damaged stray mark at the far left of the first line is not identifiable as a word or numbered label.

T39.A degree retains the measured, paradoxical relation to happiness. The sentence does not say that all illness is beneficial, and no medical condition is named.

T227.Only final 5 is secure in the date; the damaged preceding traces are not expanded.

T40.Examiners, supervisors, and inspectors remain separate designations; supervision retains the repeated root. The French verb residue sur[…]eilleront remains untranslated in the English. Surveilleront, will supervise or watch over, is the probable completion, not fully recovered text.

T228.The line-broken sur- / eilleront loses the next-line opening before e; surveilleront is a likely completion, not fully recovered. Surveillans retains its printed ending.