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

December 7.

... and moves all the boundary stones that were to remain immovable.

December 9.

... to think things useful and conformable to the human soul.

Tiberius, Augustus (in Tacitus). In general, the passions do not have so much subtlety, do not set themselves so imperceptible a goal, and do not aim at so little.

December 11.

The separation of soul and body, or of soul and senses, is perceptible in repentance, in extreme respect (especially in children). Thus all souls are beautiful then. Thus all docile children have beautiful countenances. Their soul alone is in motion. And add piety.

Fear, and the diversity of religious fears. One looks at their fault, the other at the punishment. And then the expression of the face looking at the master’s whip; ugliness.

But when it is the mind alone that acts, the countenance is less beautiful. Thus the poet who makes verses, the geometer who combines, or the astronomer who calculates. Then the mind is separated from the soul, rather than the soul being separated from the body.

December 12.

Longanimity consists in knowing how to wait a long time without changing one’s aim and without neglecting any means.

December 15.

Age. The mind does not go out; but one must feed this fire with different wood.

For children, in literature, nothing but what is simple.

Simplicity has never corrupted taste. It does not make one love anything bad. What am I saying? it does not even tolerate it. Everything poetically defective is incompatible with it. Thus the clarity of water is destroyed by the admixture of any matter too earthly.

Our taste for food is corrupted by flavors that are too strong, and […]otre literary taste, pure in its beginnings, by all […]xpressions that are too emphatic.

Give them (sic) only authors in whom their soul finds at once perpetual movement and rest—who occupy them without effort—[…]t whom they remember without difficulty.

It is not water, it is not bread, the simplest of foods after milk, that pervert our appetite; it is the compo[…]ées sauces, made for worn palates. Etc.

Yet milk, bread, and water itself are corrupted by […] excessive fermentations.

What is simple in literature can also be corrupted by an […]uteur who is too passionate—see Rousseau the Genevan. Etc.

Ibid. Note.

Rousseau the Genevan.

His bile has beautiful colors— and—he has animating hatreds. Etc.

— Note — Everything that is not beautiful in its simplicity and at first glance, everything that is so only by composition, by labor and industry, should not please children... and one trains them to love it only by substituting for their natural taste a borrowed taste that soon takes from them all personal consciousness. Etc.

I mean here by consciousness etc. now the mind, judgment, imagination, every faculty must retain consciousness of itself, so as not to be depraved, etc.

Thus most talents have nothing true but appearance, and most styles are only false surfaces.

December 18.

The most beautiful books are those made for half-civilized peoples. And the most beautiful of all was made for the coarsest of all peoples.

Epos, ethos, and pathos. Its epos is good, for everything is clearly narrated in it. Its ethos is not very pleasing, for the book reveals a morose and dissatisfied mind. Its pathos is detestable, for in this history (that of A. Rné) everything is gall, anger, acridity.

T153.Moves and immovable preserve the opposed motion. Were to remain reflects the printed imperfect devoient; the initial ellipsis and absent subject remain, and the boundaries are not assigned to a named system.

T319.The opening ellipsis and absent subject remain. Remuë retains the provisional diaeresis reading; the two upper components are compressed into a bridged mark in the enlarged facsimile. Devoient remains the printed imperfect.

T154.The ellipsis and dependent infinitive remain. Useful and conformable retain their distinct predicates without an added account of usefulness.

T320.The opening ellipsis and infinitive remain without a supplied governing clause.

T155.The parenthesis names Tacitus but no specific passage. The three negative degree expressions tant, aussi, and si concern so much subtlety, so imperceptible a goal, and aiming at so little; the judgment is not converted into praise of subtle motives.

T156.Soul, body, and senses remain distinct, and perceptible renders sensible here. The two Thus statements preserve the repeated inference; countenance renders physionomie as the face’s appearance, not a named physiognomic theory. The final instruction adds piety without expanding the list.

T157.The unnamed one and other remain distinct, with singular their for the first. The final face/whip/ugliness sequence stays without an added governing verb; master is left unidentified.

T321.The opening nominal formulation, unnamed l’un/l’autre and final compressed formulation remain. A semicolon follows maître; no verb is supplied for la laideur.

T158.The three professional examples remain a nominal Thus formulation, and combines has no supplied object. Rather than preserves plutôt que; the following French ne is not rendered as a denial that the soul is separated from the body.

T322.The comparative clause retains plutôt que and printed n’est. The intervening Ainsi formulation has no supplied main verb.

T159.The definition preserves prolonged waiting, a steady aim, and neglect of no means. Longanimity keeps the uncommon term instead of reducing the statement to mere delay.

T160.Does not go out preserves the fire image before fire is named. Different wood is not paraphrased as a specific intellectual practice or bodily treatment.

T161.The opening remains nominal. This begins the long source unit that continues onto page 683, rather than a new editorial heading.

T323.Thirteen physical paragraphs form one source block across 682–683, with no asterisk before the standalone Ibid. Nota., Rousseau le genevois. or the subsequent formulations. The two centered lines in paragraph 10 form one body paragraph. The damaged left edge in paragraph 3 certifies only […]otre and […]xpressions; notre and expressions are contextual possibilities, not complete recoveries. In paragraph 4, the opening before t dont is lost. Lui remains singular with the printed sic, while leur, les and ils remain plural. Paragraph 5 retains sausses and explicit compo[…]ées across the line break, where the initial letter of the second-line ending is not certifiable. Paragraph 6 retains the apostrophe after a lost initial, and paragraph 7 has only […]uteur; d’excessives and auteur are contextual possibilities. Partly clipped mouvement, après and several later initial strokes are retained as qualified readings from surviving forms. Paragraph 11 retains emprumpt with m before p. At the left edge before l’aimer, à is retained from its surviving form; the neighboring damaged ink is not assigned additional letters. The incomplete J’entends ici par conscience etc. in paragraph 12 is not expanded into a definition. Lowercase or after etc. and feminine dépravée remain.

T162.Simplicity remains the subject of causes one to love and tolerates, and the referent of incompatible with it. The lowercase it after the question is retained. Clarity, admixture, and earthly matter preserve the water image without identifying a particular literary defect.

T163.Flavors follows American spelling. The French residues […]otre and […]xpressions remain untranslated, with notre, our, and expressions, expressions, possible completions. Pure in its beginnings qualifies literary taste; too emphatic preserves the excess in trop prononcées.

T164.The printed singular lui, marked sic in the source, is followed by plural leur, les, and ils. English singular and plural them have the same written form, so the mismatch cannot be displayed equally clearly; it is recorded here without assigning gender. Sic remains a source intervention, not a new translator annotation. Perpetual applies to both movement and rest. The residue […]t remains French; et, and, is a possible completion.

T165.Pervert renders dénaturent rather than repeating corrupt. The simplest food after milk refers to bread. The residue compo[…]ées remains French, with composées, compounded, a possible completion. Worn palates retains the bodily image, and Etc. remains capitalized.

T166.The gap before excessive fermentations records the lost French opening before the apostrophe in […]’excessives. Probable d’ is not restored in French or represented as a recovered English article. Milk, bread, and water itself remain distinct subjects.

T167.The French […]uteur remains a residue, probably auteur, author. Rousseau the Genevan preserves the source’s identifying epithet without naming a work. The possibility of corruption is not changed into an assertion that every simple work is corrupt.

T168.Ibid. is retained and Note renders Nota. These words remain their own emphasized body paragraph inside Joubert’s unit; they do not become a translator’s note or a separate source annotation.

T169.The epithet takes the conventional English capital. The entire emphasized line remains a body paragraph in the same unit, without an invented date or separate entry title.

T171.The printed Note cue remains part of Joubert’s text. The two Everything clauses, first glance, composition, labor, and industry remain distinct. Consciousness renders conscience here as inward awareness of one’s own judgment, not merely a moral verdict; the following paragraph develops its application to faculties. Borrowed taste preserves the source image and its effect on personal awareness.

T172.The opening definition trails off at etc. and is not completed. Lowercase now follows the source or. Mind, judgment, and imagination are followed by the generalizing every faculty; the requirement remains consciousness of itself, and the final feminine dépravée refers to the faculty, not an identified person. Consciousness is repeated with the source’s two separate emphases.

T173.Appearance is the sole truth allowed to most talents, while most styles are only false surfaces. The paradox and the repeated most remain; no author is named.

T174.Half-civilized renders demi-polis in its cultural sense. The two superlatives and the contrast with coarsest remain. Neither the peoples nor the most beautiful book is named in this entry.

T175.The three rhetorical terms remain: broadly narrative, character, and emotional effect. Their repeated evaluations are not conflated. Gall renders fiel, distinct from the earlier bile; acridity preserves the sharp taste image. The source’s A. Rné remains unexpanded and its accent qualified, without naming a particular history.

T325.Epos and ethos retain their unaccented initial letters. A. Rné remains an unexpanded abbreviation; the raised mark over its final e is degraded and only provisionally transcribed as an acute. The left edge of esprit and cette is partly abraded, with their remaining forms supporting qualified readings.