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← ExitThe Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II

Reading language

YEAR 1811

December 13.

A mind without beauty and without goodness, which has trained itself to be false in order to be singular: such is Bacon’s translator (A. Lassale). I shall nevertheless quote a remark of his. “Haud raro (says Bacon) opinio rem et substantiam generat.” The translator first observes that, for this, the chimera must bring some reality into play and into operation, and he adds: “It seems that nature throughout the animal order uses illusions to produce realities and that ideas are the principle of the greatest movements of this class.” A true observation, which tends to bring all the movements of matter back to their true principle, which is mind.

He has also trained himself to be insulting with wit, etc. Besides, — […] mind without goodness and without beauty, but not without verve and force.

Nota Bene, as a model of a brutal translation: sæpius excitata et raro peracta (venus), “the itch not brought to the act.” What a barbarian! — He says the etc. often aroused but rarely pushed as far as etc. And he calls this a lubricious means.

December 14.

— A stocky mind, and one that has something of the gnome.

In eumdem. A sage translated by a madman. This is the translation of Bacon by Ant. de Lassale. He himself boasts of having cut his author’s robe and given him a more military bearing.

It is not philosophy but philosophizing that one must teach these children or almost-children.

... [they] believe that they will not be judged (for they could not think that they would not be condemned) if etc.

T147.The initial judgment is Joubert’s, followed by nevertheless and the concession of a true observation. The mixed Latin quotation remains, with its inserted says Bacon; literally, not infrequently opinion generates a thing and substance. The chimera and some reality remain contrasting terms, with play and operation separately retained. Mind renders esprit in the closing matter/mind contrast. Animal order is a contextual rendering of régime animal. A close parallel occurs in Bacon’s Sermones fideles, De vana gloria (LII), where haud raro appears in the preceding clause and the following clause uses progignit. Joubert’s shortened wording is retained. Lassale’s exact French quotation remains externally unverified; no outside edition replaces Joubert’s words.

T148.With wit renders the local esprit while mind retains the following characterization. Both paired without phrases and the joined not without verve and force remain. The interrupted Besides and nominal ending are not completed with another predicate. The gap before mind retains the missing source word before esprit; no article or other completion is proposed.

T149.Nota Bene remains Joubert’s own opening within his paragraph. The Latin is retained: literally, more often aroused and rarely carried through (sexual love). Its wording and the two following French renderings stay distinct. Itch retains the deliberately coarse prurit in the sexual context; it is not replaced by a smoother approved rendering. Both etc. interruptions remain uncompleted. Lubricious retains the sexual sense and the harsh evaluation belongs to Joubert. The printed le before the first etc. remains the in English, without supplying its noun. Compare Bacon, Historia vitae et mortis, §67, on the heat of the spirits. The Latin parallel has saepe and places Venus before the participles; Joubert’s sæpius, added et and parenthetic venus remain. The exact French of Lassale’s quoted renderings is externally unverified. No assumed continuation is supplied.

T150.Stocky retains the bodily image in trappu, and the gnome comparison remains without a named person or a psychological diagnosis. The fragment receives no finite predicate.

T270.The nominal dash-led fragment and trappu with double p remain.

T151.The Latin opening is retained: against the same person. The sage/madman judgment is Joubert’s. The translator’s boast keeps the author’s robe and changed bearing as concrete images; the shortened personal name is not expanded.

T152.The contrast between the noun and the activity remains, with the obligation directed toward teaching. Children or almost-children retains the unresolved age formulation rather than supplying a definite age.

T272.The nominalized philosopher and presqu’enfans remain as printed. The intact d at the line-wrapped ending of apprendre is slightly abraded but recognizable.

T153.The opening ellipsis leaves the subject’s referent unspecified. Bracketed they supplies only the grammatical subject needed to make the French finite plural croyent clear in English; it does not recover an omitted French word. The clause-ending if etc. remains incomplete. The future judgment, conditional possibility of thinking, and conditional condemnation retain their distinct forms and all three negatives. No circumstance or group is supplied.