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← ExitThe Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II

Reading language

YEAR 1811

February 20.

Those manuscripts and those captive paintings.

February 23.

That weakness which preserves.

February 27.

There was in the soul and in the body of those ancients a sensibility and tendernesses that we no longer possess. Juster ideas have made us severer judges than the Greeks were toward heroes.

March 2.

Inspectors. — It is easy to glide and painful to go deep.

March 5.

Song must produce enchantment. Thus not every modulated noise is song, and not all the voices that perform beautiful airs sing. To sing and to enchant requires a disposition of soul and throat that is uncommon even among great singers.

One needs virtues that make one loved and faults that make one feared. Probably it is the faults that you lack.

Today there are no longer irreconcilable enmities because there are no longer disinterested feelings. This is a good born of an evil.

March 6.

A work must not only be good, but be made by a good author.

March 9.

“Lord Chesterfield said that in 1725 the world had gone mad.” (the R. de P.). The madness broke out around 1760 etc.; and this whole half-century down to 1789 was an uninterrupted period of ever-increasing delirium.

And I speak only of the delirium of the wisest.

March 10.

The head becomes stronger than the stomach and draws everything to itself. The spirits abound there and are lacking for digestion.

Contrarieties and contrasts. Contrasts enhance one another, contrarieties harm one another. In contrasts there is an establishment, and in contrarieties a rupture, of equilibrium. Contrasts temper and lead to repose, contrarieties to disturbance. Contrasts arise from different kinds of one and the same nature, and contrarieties from the opposed kinds of two different natures. Yet contrarieties may be only contrasts when they are the excess of two natures opposed to one another. Thus the sight of cold snow while suffering from heat. Equilibrium is established by the excess of the one and of the other.

March 20.

The airs must also be such that the beauty of the voice can show itself in them. And so it is with all other works, in which it is good to see not only the beauty that should be their own, but also the excellence of the hand that made them. Among the works of God, the most beautiful are not only those that seem best suited to fulfill their function, but those that seem most divine.

The completion of any work taken in itself causes satisfaction. But it is always the idea of the maker that causes admiration. The trace of labor, the imprint of art, if all the rest is finished, are therefore one charm more. Talent must therefore treat all its subjects and arrange all its works so as to be able to show itself in them without affectation. Simul denique eluceant opus et artifex.

March 21.

A certain whirlwind of mind then seizes him (Voltaire). He makes such a peal of words heard that one no longer knows where one is or what he is saying; but yet this noise and this movement amuse.

Some attention is needed to distinguish these little phenomena clearly; but when one has practiced taking notice of them, one perceives them very easily.

The caper, the gambol, the sluice discharge (?) or the peal, as I have said, periodic and almost involuntary rushes, are characteristics by which one never takes long to recognize that lively mind, livelier than was called for.

T30.The repeated demonstrative and nominal form remain. The final adjective retains the captivity image without identifying a collection or owner; the French plural ending does not independently settle how widely that image extends across the two nouns.

T178.The nominal fragment is not supplied with a predicate or a named collection.

T31.The demonstrative relative phrase remains a fragment, and no object is supplied for preserves. The paradox is left intact.

T179.The nominal relative formulation remains without a supplied main clause. Thin marks above conserve resemble the surrounding reproduction artifacts rather than an added source accent.

T32.Sensibility remains singular and tendernesses plural. Juster retains the comparative justes, and severer the comparative sévères. The final comparative ne does not add a negation; the ancient Greeks’ relation to heroes remains the stated comparison.

T180.The repeated dans, singular sensibilité and plural tendresses remain. The temporal negation and comparative ne stay distinct. Étaient retains its printed modern-looking ending alongside avoit. Small marks before Il are extraneous, not added source punctuation.

T33.The inspectors remain unnamed. Glide and go deep retain the opposed spatial images of glisser and approfondir; the objects of either action remain unstated. Painful preserves pénible rather than reducing the second difficulty to duration alone.

T181.The opening noun and dash remain; the second coordinated adjective shares the first clause’s finite construction without repetition.

T34.The English keeps song/sing and enchantment/enchant paired; French additionally links chant, chanter, and enchanter through a shared root. The two negatives mean not every and not all, rather than denying song to every modulated sound or performed air. Soul and throat retain the two domains of the single disposition, and even keeps the restriction among great singers.

T35.The two causatives concern being loved and feared. The final probable judgment and direct you remain, without naming an addressee or explaining away the irony.

T36.Both no longer clauses retain the temporal claim. Disinterested concerns feelings free of self-interest. A good and an evil retain the moral nouns and the image of birth without reconciling the paradox.

T37.Both instances of good remain, and the second requirement concerns the author. No narrower moral or technical meaning of good is imposed.

S1.Source editor’s annotationThe King of Prussia.

T38.The quotation ends before its separate abbreviated attribution. Lord renders Milord; the source abbreviation R. de P. remains unexpanded in the body, with Beaunier’s identification in the separate apparatus. The three printed years, around, etc., and half-century remain without correcting the duration. Delirium translates the historical figure here, not a diagnosis. No independently checked original quotation or source copy is asserted.

T44.This is Beaunier’s separate identification of R. de P., not part of Joubert’s quoted Chesterfield statement. The printed capital in King is retained. No additional regnal name or particular work is supplied.

T186.Two physical paragraphs remain under the same date. The quotation ends before the abbreviated attribution; source call 1 follows its closing parenthesis before the period. The initial l of le is distorted at the foot and retained as a qualified lowercase reading; a capital L cannot be securely excluded from that damaged part. The three year numbers, jusques and the modern-looking a été remain.

T187.One roman apparatus paragraph identifies the abbreviated attribution; it remains separate from the main quotation. Roi retains its printed capital.

T39.The opening And connects this second physical paragraph to the preceding account. Only confines the claim to the wisest; no group is supplied.

T40.Spirits retains esprits in its bodily context, with their abundance in the head and lack for digestion. The passage is not converted into a modern physiological explanation. The source’s abbondent and estomach remain unchanged in French.

T188.Two physical paragraphs remain. Estomach retains h, abbondent double b, Ceppendant double p and différens its printed ending; the later différentes remains distinct. Vuë has a compressed diaeresis. The snow example is a nominal formulation without a supplied predicate, and the terminal masculine l’un and l’autre are not regularized from the preceding feminine nouns. Some left-edge strokes are abraded but remain sufficient for the qualified complete readings.

T41.Contrarieties retains the repeated technical contrast with contrasts rather than merging both into differences. The establishment and rupture concern equilibrium; the second lead is shared rather than repeated. Kinds renders genres in the paired classifications. The snow example remains nominal, and the final excess of the one and of the other preserves the unexpanded source wording and its relation to equilibrium.

T42.The beauty of the work and the excellence of its maker’s hand remain distinct. The second not only construction distinguishes fitness for function from an appearance of divinity. No stronger claim than seem is substituted.

T189.Two physical paragraphs remain; the second continues at the top of page 698. The first paragraph retains voye and the contrast between les plus propres and le plus divins. Thin horizontal traces after soi do not certify an added hyphen or punctuation mark. The Latin concluding sentence alone is italic, including its period, and is not completed or attributed from another text.

T43.Completion renders complément in relation to the finished work; satisfaction and admiration remain different responses. Trace and imprint preserve the signs of making, and talent remains the subject that treats, arranges and shows itself. The concluding Latin is retained and italicized as printed: literally, Let work and maker, then, shine forth together. No external author or source copy is assigned.

T45.The unnamed him is identified in the parenthesis. Whirlwind, peal, noise and movement preserve the succession of images. The listener’s two disorientations remain distinct; no particular Voltaire work is supplied.

T190.Three physical paragraphs remain. Scait has no certified cedilla, and longtemps is unhyphenated. The printed question mark in parentheses follows éclusée; it is not a new editorial question. The third paragraph’s uneven nominal list, comme j’ai dit and comparative ne remain.

T46.Attention and practice retain their different roles; clearly and very easily remain distinct. The phenomena are not given a new technical classification.

T47.Sluice discharge renders éclusée, the water released between opening and reclosing a sluice, as defined in the Académie dictionary of 1762. The printed question mark remains. Caper, gambol and peal preserve the other images; the periodic rushes and the comparative excess are not generalized into mere liveliness.