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← ExitThe Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II

Reading language

YEAR 1811

November 30.

One fears believing too little in all that concerns faith. Thus the extreme usually prevails, and what seems least born of the mind of man is adopted. Hence heresies at first have a more reasonable appearance. But it is not reasoning, it is authority that serves as the rule. Hence Jansenism ought to have prevailed, but it did not prevail.

Sunday, December 1.

Without dogma, morality is only maxims and only sententious sayings. With dogma, it is precept, obligation, necessity.

December 3.

g * n t — His sense is too fine to be good.

December 4.

One acquires bad habits in style as in handwriting. A mind too tense, a finger too drawn back impair ease, grace, beauty.

December 6.

A person stirred by emotion believes more in God than a cold person. In anger, and even in fury, religion makes itself felt more strongly. The state of mania, which is a state of agitation, naturally has many religious moments.

This age is afflicted by the most terrible of the maladies of the mind, disgust for religions.

When one hears it said, “That is beautiful,” “That is just,” and is obliged to decide, one consults oneself; and in the first case one examines whether one is happy in thinking of it; in the second, whether one feels upright in approving it. For we feel our uprightness; and it [is] impossible for us to feel that we keep it when we do not [keep] it.

Conscience is the feeling or the sense of our inner state.

December […].

If no benefit is drawn from the multitude, if it is only a […] gathering, it is harmful. Thus, for example, if the exercises [of] a child in a school with many pupils are absolutely the same [as] those of a child in their father’s house, the room is worth [more] than the school. But if, as in Holland...

“She has loved much.” There is a pardon attached to this fault; and [this] pardon is consecrated.

December […].

Discernment is worth more than precept. For it applies precept [aptly] and divines it. Give children, then, the light that serves to [distinguish] good from evil in all things, without wishing to [teach] them everything that is evil, everything that is good (an immense and [impossible] accounting): they will distinguish it well enough.

— they have put such wisdom, such sense into it! — and what does it matter where that sense [and] that wisdom came to it from, provided they are there?

T135.The extreme renders l’extrémité without selecting a named extreme. Seeming and initial appearance remain distinct from a declaration of truth. Both Hence links and the concluding ought-to-have counterfactual remain, even where the argument’s relation to authority is difficult; no missing argumentative step is supplied.

T136.The repeated only retains the two restrictions. Sententious sayings renders sentences as compact moral judgments or sayings rather than grammatical sentences. The three singular predicates after With remain separately named, without a verb added between them.

T261.The date retains the printed Sunday and raised er in 1er. The repeated que and singular predicate nouns remain.

T137.The opaque spaced abbreviation and its inline asterisk are retained without expansion into a name. Fine and good preserve the opposed evaluations of sense; no particular sense organ is identified.

T262.The opaque spaced abbreviation and its inline asterisk are retained without expansion. The small horizontal trace above t is not certified as a diacritic. The inline mark is distinct in position from the centered unit separators.

T138.Handwriting renders écriture in the setting of the finger’s position. The two physical strains and all three affected qualities remain. Too drawn back keeps the odd posture in retiré rather than substituting a different grip or an inferred medical condition.

T139.The comparative degrees, even and naturally remain. Mania retains Joubert’s historical term and his own definition through agitation; the translation supplies no modern diagnosis. Religious moments remains temporal rather than being made into a lasting religious identity.

T140.The superlative and the singular malady’s identification remain Joubert’s formulation. Religions stays plural, and no modern clinical claim is added.

T141.The two quoted judgments and two kinds of inward examination remain distinct. Upright and uprightness preserve the related droit and droiture terms. The final repeated keeping of uprightness remains a claim about felt retention, not a new claim about infallibility. This paragraph continues onto page 705 without a new pair. The bracketed is and final keep read the damaged […]st and gar[…]ons contextually as est and gardons. The English interventions do not claim recovery of the missing French letters; the earlier intact gardons remains unbracketed in both languages.

T142.Feeling and sense remain alternative nouns. Inner renders the printed intérieur; the English adds no further definition of conscience.

T143.The repeated conditions, restriction only and absolute sameness remain. Multitude and gathering stay distinct, and room retains the small physical setting opposed to school. The unfinished Holland clause is not completed with an inferred practice or institution. The missing word before assemblement remains […]. The bracketed of, as and more are contextual renderings of the damaged […]’un, […]ue and […]ieux, read as d’un, que and mieux without recovering their missing initials. School with many pupils renders nombreuse as a matter of number, not building size.

T265.The damaged left edge preserves no secure day digit. It also loses the word before assemblement and the initial components before ’un, ue and ieux. The visible fragments do not certify the complete words; d’un, que and mieux are contextual possibilities only. The negative and conditional constructions remain, including the unfinished Mais si and final ellipsis. Assemblement retains its printed form.

T144.The quotation remains bounded; the following fault is not given a newly named referent. Pardon repeats, and consecrated preserves the sacred force of consacré. The bracketed this reads damaged […]e contextually as ce, without recovering its initial. The words recall Luke 7:47, where Sacy has parce qu’elle a beaucoup aimé. Joubert isolates the clause and adds his own comment on the fault and pardon; the parallel does not identify his unnamed woman or specify the fault. No particular Bible copy is established.

T145.Precept makes explicit the masculine pronoun’s immediate antecedent, while divines retains the intuitive verb rather than replacing it with a formal deduction. Light and the good/evil distinctions remain. The impossible exhaustive accounting and final sufficient discernment stay opposed, without adding a teaching method. The bracketed aptly, distinguish, teach and impossible are contextual readings of à […]ropos, […]istinguer, ensei[…]ner and im[…]ossible, without recovery of the missing French letters. The intact final distingueront remains unbracketed, and the parenthesis is preserved.

T267.The surviving date remnant does not establish a complete day digit. The left edge removes essential initial strokes before ropos and istinguer and at the wrapped continuations after ensei- and im-. Explicit residues preserve these losses; propos, distinguer, enseigner and impossible are contextual completions only. The period before Car, masculine pronouns, imperative, two repeated tout ce qui clauses, parenthesis and final assés remain. No grammatical subject or antecedent is supplied.

T146.The exclamatory formulation and ensuing question remain. Sense and wisdom recur in reversed order. The makers, object and origin remain unnamed; the proviso concerns the presence of the two qualities. The bracketed and reads damaged […]t contextually as et; no missing French initial is recovered.

T268.The opening lower-case pronoun and dashes remain. The left edge damages the letter before t in the second line; et is a contextual completion, not supplied. The plural verbs and pronoun remain as printed.