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← ExitThe Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II

Reading language

YEAR 1811

January 1.

God. A. M. D. G.

“The souls of beasts,” says Marsile Ficin, “practice the arts.” Indeed, the spider lays the warp, the swallow does masonry, the silkworm spins.

January 3.

Thus when our soul wishes to think, a panorama forms: this place is called phantasy.

January 7.

(At Aix.) Rerum solatia, they say, vitæ solatia. (Vid. Marsil. Ficinum.)

January 10.

“Sensibility,” they say; and one ought to say “tenderness.” For style to be good, there must always be some tendress[…] in it as well as some charm. Corneille has some of the one and of the autr[…] in his strength. Racine is full of it. Virgil and Fénelon distinguish themselves by a continual tenderness, and by a tenderness that is not amorous.

January 11.

“Rule of morals.” Even the laws are not the rule of morals, nor customs, nor opinions; nor the future, nor even the present time. The past might more readily be so, because it has been tested.

January 15.

(At Aix.) Softness of this hard age.

The obelisk upon the fountain. The fall and the height: these two impressions complete each other.

Depraved tastes and upright feelings. This is hard to believe, but examples are cited.

January 16.

(At Brignoles.) To proportion one’s gifts to one’s heart or generosity is permitted, one’s income to one’s fortune is commanded.

— governed in a thousand things by the impressions of an old fear and of dangers that no longer exist.

They spoke of judgment and reason and we speak of imagination and taste.

January 24.

Whatever we may do: we shall never have as our share and our own anything but the penetration with which heaven has endowed us. All the rest is only a deceptive appearance, a lie that hides our nullity. But through the heart and through actions we can become better every day than we were born.

T1.God and the spaced initials retain their separate nominal form. The initials are not expanded or supplied with a grammatical relation to the preceding word.

T2.Beasts renders brutes as nonhuman animals, illustrated by the three creatures that follow. Lays the warp, does masonry, and spins preserve the distinct crafts. The two quoted stretches retain the intervening attribution; the following sentence remains outside the quotation. The source’s French form Marsile Ficin is retained, without assigning a particular work or replacing Joubert’s wording.

T155.The two quoted stretches surround the attribution without supplied commas. Marsile Ficin remains as printed. The letters at the right edge of arts and En are degraded but support the qualified complete readings; the following stray ink does not certify an extra character. Soye retains y.

T3.The impersonal formation, panorama, and place remain. Phantasy renders phantaisie as the faculty or field of images rather than assigning a modern fictional genre. The printed spelling phantaisie remains unchanged.

T4.The two Latin phrases remain in the text: literally, “consolations of things” and “consolations of life.” Their genitive relation is left broad. The pronoun They has no named antecedent; the abbreviated Latin direction is retained, with Vid. meaning See. No particular work or independently collated passage is supplied.

T5.Sensibility and tenderness remain the contrasting quoted terms. The conditional ought and following present must remain distinct. The broken tendress[…] and autr[…] retain their French residues; tendresse and autre are contextual completions only. Racine’s it retains the broad French en rather than supplying a newly narrowed antecedent. The two final tenderness phrases and the nonamorous qualification remain; continual renders the printed continuë without altering the French diaeresis.

T158.The quoted terms and the conditional faudroit remain, followed by the present faut. The right-edge endings after tendress and autr are not certifiable; tendresse and autre are contextual completions only. The small remaining strokes of faut and distinguent support those qualified full readings. Continuë retains the printed diaeresis on its terminal e. The two repeated tendresse phrases and the negative non amoureuse remain; no external passage is substituted.

T6.Only the initial nominal statement is quoted. The repeated rule, negations, and even remain. Might more readily keeps the conditional and comparative plutôt; tested renders éprouvé without declaring the past infallible.

T159.The quotation contains only the opening nominal statement and its period. Loix and both même forms remain as printed. The repeated ni clauses, conditional pourroit and comparative plutôt remain. Several terminal letters at the right edge are abraded but support the qualified complete readings; no additional word is supplied there.

T7.The place parenthesis and nominal contrast remain without an added predicate or an explanation that resolves the paradox.

T160.Two physical paragraphs remain under the same date. The first nominal fragment and the second paragraph’s obelisk fragment are not supplied with predicates. The final x of deux is partly degraded but retains enough crossing structure for the qualified reading.

T8.The obelisk remains a nominal fragment; the fall and the height retain the paired impressions and their reciprocal completion. No particular monument is named and no missing verb is supplied.

T9.The opening remains nominal. Depraved and upright retain the opposing moral directions of tastes and feelings; the examples are reported rather than supplied or vouched for.

T161.The nominal opening and the adverse judgment followed by reported examples remain. Sentimens retains its printed ending.

T10.The source reads revenus, income, not dépenses, expenses. The second clause shares To proportion with the first. Permitted and commanded retain the difference in force; fortune remains wealth or means without a newly inferred financial rule.

T162.Revenus is the visible word; no substitution of dépenses is made. The second clause shares the opening infinitive without repeating it. The place parenthesis retains plain capital A.

T11.The dash and dependent participial beginning remain without an added subject. Impressions preserves the continuing effects of an old fear and dangers that no longer exist; a thousand remains the source’s emphatic number.

T163.The opening dash, lower-case masculine plural participle and absent subject or finite governing verb remain.

T12.The imperfect spoke and present speak remain distinct, with the two pairs of terms and the intervening and. The people and periods are not newly identified.

T164.The two repeated et connections and the shift from imperfect parloient to present parlons remain; the people are not named.

T13.Penetration retains pénétration as intellectual insight, with the paired share and own. Nullity preserves the harsh nullité without converting the judgment into a clinical or biographical claim. The final contrast locates possible daily improvement in heart and actions, while the comparative than preserves the expletive French ne without adding a negation.

T165.The two restrictions, repeated par and comparative ne remain distinct. Doués retains its masculine plural ending. The initial M of Mais is abraded but its surviving shape supports the qualified complete reading.