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← ExitThe Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II

Reading language

1812

YEAR 1812

1812

Sometimes to let the reader complete the symmetry between the words, and only to trace it.

January 3.

The Greeks, the most moderate of all men, and above all the Athenians.

— and from this comes the moderation of their discourse and the excellence of their taste.

January 5.

(Journal de l’Empire of January 5. Article. Y.) “Children too have their little contempts... Morality was entirely in the hands of religion... And this book (Emile)... full of beauties of expression and errors of thought.” They forced “instruction to disguise itself,” (to grimace, to simper, to stammer, to become coaxing and little) “to please childhood.” “Well then, let us yield etc.” The wretch! He had spoken well, but he ends badly.

Should morality be sacred? Divine, or human? Which of the two is worth more? That is the question, an important question indeed, if ever there was one.

January 8.

Diderot. Mad; not that he was mad in the head, but through mad opinions.

In this picture of our life that our memories offer us, everything is shifting and depends on the point of view.

They have the political principles of J.-J. Rousseau and the morality of Voltaire.

January 12.

One must do good through good, and will it in the means and in the end, in the expedients and in the goal. A good that has been done through evil is an altered good, a poisoned good, a good that will produce the evil whose seed has been put into it. It is water that the channels have corrupted.

“O king who... have believed... that truth is worth no more than falsehood... and that it is permitted to deceive men with [promises] and peoples with oaths!” said, more or less, that [impudent] Vergniaud.

January […].

One must mingle earth and heaven, That is to say, earth and […] heaven must be mingled in all human affections and [share] them between them, so that all may go well and men may be happy. […], to establish this balance, the weaknesses of nature and [the] efforts of virtue are needed. Much religion and many earthly [inclinations] are needed. Nature has provided for one; our care must [provide] for the other. One must give the senses bridles, the soul a goad […] wings. If you reverse this order, etc.

In a word, and I cannot say it often enough, nature has done enough for [the] passions, and all institutions must aim only to [guide] and contain them. If one adds a fire to this fire, it will consume [man] or his happiness.

Our moralists are madmen: they all aim to increase [what] one must aim to circumscribe.

... [they] resolve to love what they fear in order to be [protected] by it.

— He was mad; not that he was mad in the head, but he had mad [opinions].

T1.The opening infinitive remains without an added speaker or imperative subject. Sometimes and only retain their different restrictions; complete and trace preserve the two degrees of work on the same symmetry. The source prints masculine le before feminine symétrie; English the cannot reproduce this gender disagreement. The French remains unchanged.

T353.The article before symétrie is printed le, clearly distinguished from la in the second line; the agreement anomaly is retained. The infinitive formulation and restriction remain. The separate ANNÉE 1812 and 1812 headings are both preserved as section headings, not as an individual date.

T2.The nominal formulation, superlative and special emphasis on the Athenians remain. No finite verb or explanation is added.

T354.The two paragraphs remain separate: the first is nominal, while the second begins with a lower-case conjunction after a dash. Abraded right-edge les and de retain recognizable letter shapes and remain qualified.

T3.The dash-led continuation retains its causal link and repeated moderation, with excellence assigned separately to taste. It remains the second paragraph of the same source unit.

T4.The periodical reference, Article. Y., book name, separate quoted spans and ellipses remain. The parenthetic list stays outside the quoted instruction fragment, and etc. is not expanded. Beauties and errors remain plural; the French also uses plural expressions and pensées where English uses the collective expression and thought. The final condemnation and change of tense are Joubert’s. The exact January 5 newspaper passage was not independently located in an accessible witness; no author, title or expanded ending is supplied from the initial. The reference does not establish an original newspaper page as checked.

T355.The period after Article is degraded to small separated traces and remains a qualified punctuation reading. Y. is not expanded. Emile retains its plain initial E. The nested parenthetic comment and all separate quotation boundaries remain in one paragraph. The date repeated within the periodical reference remains in the body. The source’s ellipses, plural expressions/pensées and shifts between past and present remain. Several right-edge endings, including the closing parenthesis after petite, are abraded but retain enough shape for qualified readings.

T5.The three questions and repeated question remain; the final emphasis does not supply Joubert’s answer. The paired divine/human adjectives remain distinct from the initial sacred question.

T6.The name and adjectival opening remain, followed by the restricted denial and contrasting cause. Repeated mad preserves the source’s word family and its evaluative play; the text is not turned into a modern clinical diagnosis.

T357.The nominal opening and non pas...mais par contrast remain; no finite predicate is supplied to Fou.

T7.Picture and point of view retain the visual image, while shifting renders mouvant without forcing a claim that the memories themselves are false. The first-person plural remains.

T358.The raised mark over the final e in vuë is compressed into a bridged shape, supporting a qualified diaeresis reading. Horizontal traces near mouvant and point do not certify additional accents.

T8.The unspecified they remains, and each named writer retains the distinct object assigned in the source. The initials are not expanded in the main text.

T359.The plural subject is not identified. The right-edge de is abraded but recognizable.

T9.Good repeats across the means/end and expedients/goal pairs and through all three descriptions of the resulting good. Will retains vouloir as an act of intention. The future evil keeps the seed image, followed by the distinct water/channel image; neither is replaced by an abstract maxim.

T10.The address, ellipses and distinction between men/promises and peoples/oaths remain. More or less explicitly marks Joubert’s approximation. Bracketed promises and impudent are contextual readings of pro[…]esses and impu[…]nt; their lost French letters remain unsupplied. The apostrophe recalls Vergniaud’s July 3, 1792 speech as reproduced in Aulard’s later history, which includes a Lysander comparison and different wording about oaths. No contemporary speech impression or particular source copy was checked, and no external wording replaces Joubert’s recollection. The judgment impudent belongs to Joubert as contextually read.

T361.The paragraph continues onto page 707. At its left edge only esses and nt survive after preceding-line pro- and impu-; the intervening components remain gaps. Promesses and impudent are contextual possibilities, not recovered wording. The opening O is plain. The ellipses, negative comparison, quoted exclamation and explicitly approximate attribution remain. Sermens retains its printed spelling; no external speech is used to complete the quotation.

T11.The repeated earth/heaven and mingling remain, with their shared possession of the affections. Weaknesses and efforts retain their distinct roles. The one/other relation stays unexpanded. Bridles, goad and wings keep their separate assignments, and the last condition remains unfinished. The article before heaven, connective before to establish, and conjunction before wings remain gaps. Bracketed share, the, inclinations and provide contextually read par[…]gent, […]s, […]nchans and […]ourvoir as partagent, les, penchans and pourvoir, without recovering the lost French letters. The printed éguillon is retained in French and read as goad.

T362.The January day is wholly lost at the damaged left edge; no day is inferred from sequence. Three source paragraphs remain in order. At the left edge, the article before ciel and the connective before the comma after heureux are not recoverable. The divided par[…]gent retains only the surviving components; the first surviving g is partly clipped. Only s remains before efforts and before passions. The beginnings of […]nchans and […]ourvoir are damaged; the retained n and o themselves are partly clipped. Penchans and pourvoir are contextual possibilities, not established complete readings. No conjunction is recovered before des ailes. In the second paragraph, the ending after divided gui- certifies only r. The h ascender before omme is lost, so the missing component remains explicit. Before ’il in the third paragraph, an isolated upright and foot do not certify the preceding full letter. The opening I is clipped but retains a recognizable upright. Éguillon has a visible initial acute and the printed e opening; it is not normalized to aiguillon. Assez and the later assés retain their distinct printed endings. C’est follows the printed comma and capital. The unfinished Si clause and etc. remain.

T12.The first-person repetition and enough remain, with only restricting institutions’ aim. Guide and contain stay distinct. The added fire and consuming action remain images; or between man and happiness is retained. Bracketed the, guide and man contextually read […]s, gui[…]r and […]omme as les, guider and homme, without restoring lost French letters.

T13.The separate final paragraph retains our, all and repeated aim. Increase and circumscribe remain opposed, with no newly named object. Bracketed what marks the contextual relation read in ce […]’il, possibly ce qu’il; the broader English bracket does not restore the missing French letters.

T14.The opening ellipsis leaves the subject’s referent unspecified. Bracketed they supplies only the grammatical subject of the intact finite plural prennent; it does not restore French text. Bracketed protected is a separate contextual reading of […]rotégés as protégés, whose missing initial remains unsupplied. The choice, fear and desired protection remain; no person, institution or religious object is identified.

T15.The dash-led past assertion and its contrast remain. The wording resembles the earlier Diderot formulation, but the explicit he is not replaced by a name and the source’s revised verbal construction is retained. Bracketed opinions reads […]pinions contextually without supplying the missing French initial.