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← ExitThe Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II

Reading language

YEAR 1809

April […]4.

— [they] seek greatness in masses or in the grouping of the objects […]résentés, that is, in extent. Then admiration comes from the […]eux or from the imagination and not from the soul.

April […]4.

1. God, who can do everything by a simple act of his will, has […]ependant wished to make use of intermediary Agents so that men […]uissent conceive his operations in a manner conformable to the truth.

2. It would indeed be an angelic feeling, and quite worthy of such spirits, that would move us to help in the moment of danger the very person we were certain must perish. And besides, it is not only Eudore who is at issue here but Christianity as a whole.

3. There are a thousand occasions when heaven does not wish us to be stopped by faith or by self-evidence. Thus a son would weep for his father even if it were revealed to him that his father is a saint. One will tell me that then it is for himself that he would be weeping. But one also helps oneself by movements useless for helping others. One frees oneself from the torments of the powers’ inaction during the movements of the heart. Thus I must rejoice that my father is happy, but I may grieve that my father is absent. Faith must hold our bad inclinations captive, but must not suppress our praiseworthy movements, etc.

April 24.

Of thoughts that come from the soul and those that do not come from it.

May 3.

We always lose the friendship of those who lose our esteem.

May 7.

The goal is not always set in place to be reached, but to serve as a point of aim or direction. Thus the precept of love for one’s enemies.

And that these pleasures are a game, the wise man must neither say nor think. He must not say it, for fear of corrupting others; and he must not think it, for fear of corrupting himself.

The philosophers wished to substitute their books for the Bible, as the Jacobins wished to substitute their own authority for the king’s. Thus the same spirit of revolution has guided men in literature and in the state.

What is his goal? (Nicole’s). To discredit pride. Has he attained it? — Yes. — Therefore. —

May 8.

Sometimes reality makes one believe a lie, and then one may conceal reality. There is a great difference between reality and truth. Reality is the fact. Truth lies in the correct opinion one has of the nature and spirit of the fact, of its moral character, of its essence.

Of idols or images. If one does not make any for them, they make some for themselves.

May 13.

Of one who believes only themself. Or: that those who believe only themselves...

May 17.

God proved, the soul is proved. Without God, no moral truth.

T41.The French has a finite plural verb without an expressed subject; English supplies [they] to prevent an imperative reading, without identifying the referent. The dash remains. Masses, grouping, and extent preserve the spatial account of greatness. The French residues […]résentés and […]eux remain untranslated: presented and eyes are possible readings, but a longer lost opening before résentés is not excluded. Admiration, imagination, and soul are not conflated.

T229.Only final 4 survives securely in the date. The opening finite plural cherchent has no expressed subject. At the next-line margin only résentés is secure; présentés is a possible completion, and a longer lost opening is not excluded. The following line begins with damaged eux, plausibly yeux. C’est à dire remains unhyphenated; étenduë retains its diaeresis.

S1.Source editor’s annotationThis piece is found on a separate, dated sheet. In the notebook there is only a sketch of it.

S2.Source editor’s annotationThis paragraph, identical in the notebook.

T42.The numbered paragraph keeps the capital Agents and distinguishes divine ability from divine choice. The French residues […]ependant and […]uissent remain in English: cependant, nevertheless, and puissent, may, are contextual possibilities, not recovered print. The purpose clause and manner conformable to truth remain without completing the damaged words.

T45.Beaunier’s annotation distinguishes two witnesses: the dated separate sheet and the notebook sketch. It does not establish a recovered day in the damaged date heading. The annotation remains attached to the date, separate from the three numbered main paragraphs.

T46.The source apparatus is a nominal statement without an added finite verb. It compares the first numbered paragraph with the notebook.

T230.Three numbered physical paragraphs remain within one dated unit. Only final 4 is secure in the damaged day. Raised calls 1–4 remain separately owned: the date, vérité in paragraph 1, entier in paragraph 2, and l’évidence in paragraph 3. Paragraph 1 loses complete opening portions before ependant and uissent: cependant and puissent are contextual possibilities, not recovered as fact. Agens keeps its capital. In paragraphs 2–3, the left-margin words esprits, même, ne, entier, arrêtés, son, dira, soi, se, the line-broken mouvemens and mauvaises, puis and etc. are partly clipped or crossed by damage; the retained complete readings are qualified from their surviving letter traces. Celui là, lui même and soi même remain unhyphenated. Foy in the first sentence and foi near the end retain their different spellings. Christianisme keeps its capital.

T232.The nominal apparatus sentence is retained without an added verb.

S3.Source editor’s annotationIn the notebook, this paragraph is headed: “The Angels.” Then: “... angelic in men, which would move them to help the very person of whom... whole.”

T43.The conditional feeling and action remain; must perish expresses the assured fate in devroit périr rather than an obligation imposed on the sufferer. The second sentence widens the issue from Eudore to Christianity as a whole. Chateaubriand’s Examen des Martyrs has a related defense of angels consoling Eudore despite divine determination; the checked 1861 transcription is a later contextual witness, not an established 1809 source copy or a license to restore gaps.

T47.The Angels belongs to Beaunier’s report of the notebook version, not a heading inserted over the main paragraph. The excerpt’s two ellipses and isolated final whole remain. Them follows the variant les and differs from us in the main version; the damaged excerpt is not expanded from the latter.

S4.Source editor’s annotationNotebook: “...that faith and even self-evidence stop us.” That is all, for the notebook.

T44.English repeats his father to clarify the antecedent of the source’s he is a saint. The following himself refers to the grieving son. The paragraph distinguishes helping others from helping oneself, and the inactivity of one’s powers from movements of the heart. Rejoicing in the father happy and grieving for the father absent become parallel English that clauses. Hold captive preserves captiver; the repeated movements and closing etc. remain. No consolatory conclusion is added. Self-evidence renders évidence as truth immediately apparent to the mind, in the sense recorded by the Académie in 1798; it does not name a particular philosophical system.

T48.The final source comparison preserves its opening ellipsis and stops where Beaunier stops. English cannot visibly reproduce the French singular arrête after the coordinated subject faith and self-evidence. Even qualifies self-evidence here; the source’s manner of abridging the notebook is not expanded into the full main paragraph. Self-evidence renders évidence as truth immediately apparent to the mind, in the sense recorded by the Académie in 1798; it does not name a particular philosophical system.

S1.Source editor’s annotationNotebook.

T49.The initial Of preserves the introductory Des construction. The final it refers to the soul. Beaunier’s brief annotation remains at the date heading.

T62.The single word is Beaunier’s source annotation. It remains a separate apparatus paragraph attached to the printed date, not a title or a new notebook entry.

T235.The source call 1 follows avril before the date period. The introductory Des construction remains without an added governing clause.

T50.Lose recurs, and the opposed possessives remain: their friendship is lost when they lose our esteem. Always preserves the categorical formulation.

T51.Point of aim and direction preserve the practical image of a goal serving even when it is not reached. The final example remains nominal. One’s makes explicit the relation in love of enemies without identifying a particular addressee or supplying a biblical citation.

T236.The ending of servir and the right-edge des are slightly clipped; the complete readings are qualified from surviving letters. The Ainsi formulation remains nominal.

T52.The opening And and fronted that clause remain. Say and think recur with their respective risks: corrupting others and corrupting oneself. The pleasures remain unspecified; a game is not paraphrased as harmless play.

T53.The parallel substitution preserves both wishes and the claim of a shared revolutionary spirit. Jacobins takes the conventional English capital, while the French jacobins remains as printed. The state is not expanded into a particular institution, and no book by an unnamed philosopher is identified.

T54.The parenthesis identifies whose goal is in question; its following period remains. Discredit renders décrier without changing the goal into eradicating pride. The answer remains Yes; the detached Therefore and final dash leave the inference unfinished. No conclusion is inferred.

T55.English repeats reality for the French pronoun la, whose feminine gender distinguishes it from the masculine mensonge, lie. Fact, nature, spirit, moral character, and essence remain the distinct terms of the argument. May preserves permission or possibility rather than an obligation to conceal; the paragraph’s paradox is not resolved for the reader.

T56.The introductory Of remains nominal. The plural them and they are not assigned to a named group. The first clause concerns making images for others, the second their making images for themselves.

T241.The initial nominal formulation and the unnamed plural referents remain.

T57.Believes only concerns whose word or judgment is credited, rather than modern confidence in oneself. Singular themself leaves the person unspecified. The second formulation begins that, preserving que without adding a parallel Of, and stops at the source ellipsis.

T58.The compressed opening treats God as proved and then says the soul is proved; English repeats proved for the source’s resumptive l’est. The second statement remains nominal, with no added argument for either assertion.

T243.The second nominal formulation is not given an additional verb.