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← ExitThe Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II

Reading language

YEAR 1809

June […]3.

And whatever they may say, the world is made more to amuse and to […]créer our eyes than to occupy our mind. — “The spectacle of […] universe,” they say again. And who sees it, the Universe? Well and good that the learned man... But ignorance...

July […]ᵉʳ.

That is because, in fact, reason brings man back to instinct.

“To seek truth.” Yes, if it is only a matter of knowing: but if it […]agit of living? Then wisdom is worth more.

My discoveries (and everyone has their own) have brought me back to pré[…]ugés.

— and the pain of the soul: to expiate the pleasures of the body.

This style (Voltaire’s) flatters men and events. Buffon’s (and Mʳ de Sᵗ Pierre’s) flatters matter and the world.

Voltaire. He excels at praising and at mocking. But he says nothing simply: no, nothing: not even a single thing.

July 5.

Of those who have a visible soul.

July 4.

A. M. l’A. Gˡˡʳᵈ. That is in bad taste. Perhaps. But if it is nourishing, if it is wholesome, if it were necessary; in short, if there is a bad taste that does not spread... It is literary bad taste that spreads and, by that very fact, goes unfelt or makes itself loved; it is that which is dangerous and which a wise man of letters must discredit.

July 5.

This Marcus Antoninus wants things to be judged only by their matter and their form; but they must also be judged by the feeling they arouse in us—as with the bath.

This much-vaunted analysis, if it forgets a quantity, serves only to deceive us more imperturbably.

The same cold judgment that makes us say: “The State is old and i[…] must perish” would also be apt to make us say: “My father is aged and he must die.” It is a cold judgment that is not permitted.

Thursday, July 6.

That, for perfect imitation, an actor must not only counterfeit the character, but also counterfeit themself; that is, disguise their own nature.

July 7.

Diderot was using the Stoic analysis so much recommended by Marcus Aurelius when he wrote the abominable passage about the fr-tt-m-nt of two inst-st-ns. He was truly reducing the thing to its matter and its form.

T72.The relative emphasis of amuse and occupy remains, and the French residue […]créer is not silently completed as récréer, delight or refresh. The gap before the fully legible universe remains separately marked. The repeated question retains capital Universe. Well and good renders the concessive à la bonne heure construction without completing the thought about the learned man; ignorance remains an abstraction rather than becoming an ignorant person.

T256.The damaged day is provisionally read with final 3 only. The line opening before créer is lost; récréer is a likely completion. The opening before univers is likewise lost, plausibly l’. The partly surviving la before bonne heure is a qualified reading. Univers is capitalized in the question but lowercase inside the quotation. A is unaccented; scavant retains its spelling. Both final ellipses remain.

T73.The explanatory opening and return remain. Man retains the generic singular, and instinct is not paraphrased as irrationality.

T257.Only the raised ordinal letters er survive in the day heading; the numeral is lost and is not supplied from the ordinal or chronology.

T74.The quoted infinitive, question, and answer remain separate. The French residue […]agit remains visible in English, with s’agit, is a matter, the likely completion explained here rather than supplied as recovered. Worth more preserves the comparative judgment of wisdom. American punctuation places the first period inside the quotation.

T258.In the French source, the period follows the first closing guillemet. At the second-line opening only agit is secure, with a damaged preceding mark that cannot certify all of s’; s’agit is a likely contextual completion. The printed question remains separate from Alors.

T75.The parenthesis includes everyone’s discoveries without substituting received opinions for personal discovery. The French pré[…]ugés remains a damaged word residue: préjugés, prejudices or preconceptions, is the likely completion, but its missing j is not certified. The first-person return is preserved.

T259.The line break loses the opening of the second part of pré- / ugés; préjugés is a likely completion, but the j is not certified. The remaining part of u is itself abraded and qualified.

T76.The opening lowercase and, colon, and infinitive remain. Expiate preserves the religious or moral force of expier without adding an agent, doctrine, or governing verb.

T260.The opening lowercase et, colon and infinitive formulation remain without a supplied finite governing clause.

T77.Flatters recurs for men and events, then matter and the world. The second possessive stands for style. The raised abbreviation letters in Mʳ and Sᵗ remain; no forename, specific book, or expanded form of address is inserted.

T78.Praising and mocking remain distinct capacities. The repeated nothing and the final single thing preserve the emphatic narrowing, including both colons. This remains the second physical paragraph of the same unit.

T79.Visible preserves the apparent paradox without identifying a particular outward sign. The initial Of and the July 5 before July 4 sequence remain.

T262.The nominal relative construction remains. July 5 precedes July 4 in the printed sequence.

T80.The opening abbreviations and raised letters remain unexpanded. Bad taste retains the ambiguity between palate and literary judgment; nourishing and wholesome preserve the food comparison. The shift from is to were follows the source tense. Spreads recurs for se communique, and the conditional sequence ends without completion. Goes unfelt and makes itself loved remain alternative effects; discredit preserves décrier.

T81.Marcus Antoninus preserves the source’s alternate naming of the figure elsewhere called Marcus Aurelius. Matter and form remain distinct from the feeling aroused in us. As with the bath takes the singular bath as the example without reconstructing a quotation or a particular description of bathing. Marcus Aurelius’s Meditations VIII.24 provides a close parallel for the bath example, analyzing it into its physical constituents. This identifies a parallel passage, not Joubert’s particular translation or a complete statement of Marcus’s method.

T82.Quantity retains the source’s term rather than substituting a generic factor. The analysis itself is said to forget; more imperturbably keeps the disturbing comparative instead of replacing it with an unqualified error.

T83.Cold judgment renders the printed sens froid, which is not silently changed in French to sang-froid, composure. The French pronoun residue i[…] remains in the first quotation; probable il, it, is not certified as recovered. The state’s perishing and the father’s dying retain their different verbs and parallel claims of necessity. American punctuation places the second quotation’s period inside its closing mark.

T265.Sens froid is printed, not sang-froid. The first quoted pronoun loses its ending after i at the right edge; il is possible but not certified. The ending of âgé is clipped and qualified from its surviving initial forms. Etat has no initial accent. In the French source, the final quotation’s period is outside the guillemet.

T84.The dependent That and repeated counterfeit retain the unusual assertion about an actor and themself, explained by Joubert as disguising their own nature. French changes from contrefasse to contre-fasse; English repeats its ordinary spelling instead of fabricating a new internal division. The character is not assigned a particular role or play. Singular they preserves the unspecified general performer without assigning an identity.

T85.The printed fr-tt-m-nt and inst-st-ns remain French abbreviated forms inside the English, with their hyphens unexpanded. Abominable preserves Joubert’s evaluation. Matter and form recur as in the preceding analysis; no exact Diderot work or reconstructed quotation is inserted into the main text. Related passages occur in Diderot’s Addition aux Pensées philosophiques, LVII, and Supplément au Voyage de Bougainville; both explicitly invoke Marcus Aurelius. Meditations VI.13 provides a parallel for the bodily analysis. These parallels do not establish Joubert’s particular copy or require expansion of his abbreviated words.