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← ExitThe Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II

Reading language

1812

January […]5.

That Cato, who wished to kill Sulla as a child, and killed himself [when] old.

There is not enough wisdom or enough virtue in those of our [judgments] or our feelings in which there is not enough patience.

February […].

Cicero did not do badly. Cato did better; he saved to the end the [dignity] of the Roman nature. He has left a good example, and [moreover], a misfortune (in a life and in the world) is worth more than an evil.

February […].

Some always do what pleases them most, and others always what they find best. And it is this balance between reason and appetite and will that constitutes reason, and reason that constitutes freedom.

There are many illnesses that give strength to the soul.

February 10.

Bartolozzi, the Raphael of engraving.

February 12, Ash Wednesday.

The face. After the face, the action. Between the two, the poses. But before everything, the idea.

And those paintings in which there is not a single face, or at least a [single] pose, that one can notice and remember.

February 13.

To set oneself to imitate in great men their qualities, [not] their fortune, which cannot be imitated.

The mediocre execution of a happy idea, or rather of an exquisite [idea].

Botanists and historians. The former say, “What a beautiful plant!” and the latter, “What a great man!” when a plant or a [man] supplies them with much matter for their descriptions.

Whatever the state of men and affairs, “to live and [rejoice]”; for living without rejoicing does not seem to them a life.

February 16.

Cicero’s thousand letters, all written after his [fortieth] year.

T16.The demonstrative and relative fragment remain without a new governing assertion. The two ages refer contextually to Cato, and wished is distinct from the accomplished second act. Sulla is the conventional English form of Sylla; no additional biographical detail is supplied. Bracketed when is a contextual rendering of […]tant, possibly étant, without restoring its missing French initial. The earlier intact étant enfant remains unbracketed.

T365.Only the terminal 5 of the January day is secure; no leading digit is restored. The initial component before tant vieux is lost. Étant is a contextual possibility only; the earlier intact étant enfant remains. The nominal opening and two relative clauses remain without a supplied main verb.

T17.The repeated enough and two or relations remain. The negative condition concerns those judgments or feelings that lack patience, without converting the statement into an assertion that patience alone suffices. Bracketed judgments reads […]ugemens contextually as jugemens, without restoring the missing initial.

T18.The limited initial praise and ensuing comparison remain. Saved preserves sauva. The source residue […]ignité is read contextually as dignité, rendered [dignity]. Bracketed moreover renders au sur[…]lus contextually as au surplus. Neither intervention restores missing French letters. Misfortune and evil remain distinct, with both settings in the parenthesis retained. Has left retains the source’s shift from the earlier narrative past to a laissé.

T367.The February day is lost; no digit is inferred. At the left edge the remnant before ignité does not establish its whole initial letter. The divided sur[…]lus likewise retains a gap before lus; dignité and surplus are contextual possibilities only. The initial m of the last mal is partly damaged but its surviving arches support the reading. The parenthesis and following comma, the comparative mieux and the distinction between malheur and mal remain.

T19.The two groups retain always and their different criteria. Reason repeats on both sides of the defining relation rather than being repaired into a different faculty. The sequence appetite and will remains joined without a newly supplied hierarchy.

T368.The February day retains only degraded traces, insufficient to certify a digit. The initial L, the j in the divided toujours and the s in the divided raison are partly clipped but retain recognizable letter features. Constituë occurs twice with a raised diaeresis-like mark over the final e. The upper components are compressed or joined in this reproduction; both spellings remain qualified rather than normalized. The repeated reason and the coordination between reason, appetite and will remain exactly as printed.

T20.Many remains a qualified quantity, and the source’s soul/strength relation stays distinct from physical recovery or a new universal claim.

T21.The nominal comparison is preserved without a supplied verb or expanded biography. Raphael is the conventional English form of Raphaël.

T370.Bartolozzi and the diaeresis in Raphaël retain the visible printed forms. The nominal comparison remains without a supplied verb.

T22.All four nominal formulations remain with their ordering words and repeated face. Poses renders attitudes in the visual-art setting; the sequence is not rewritten as a completed theory.

T371.The Ash Wednesday circumstance remains in the printed February 12 date. The second source paragraph opens page 708 without an intervening separator and remains a separate paragraph of this unit. On page 708 the right edge preserves seul and a damaged terminal ascender, but the ending after that component is lost. Seule is a contextual completion only. The incomplete opening Et ces tableaux and the negative relative clause remain without a supplied conclusion.

T23.The second paragraph begins physically on page 708 and stays with the February 12 unit. Its initial And, relative fragment, not a single and at least remain. Notice and remember remain distinct. Bracketed single renders the qualified incomplete seul[…] before attitude, possibly seule; the missing ending is not supplied in French.

T24.The infinitive remains without a new subject. Qualities and fortune stay distinct; fortune keeps the broad course-of-life or circumstances sense rather than being restricted to wealth. The final impossibility concerns fortune. Bracketed not reads no[…] contextually as non without restoring its missing ending.

T372.The right edge preserves no and disconnected traces of the next glyph; non is a contextual possibility, not a recovered full word. The infinitive construction and feminine agreement in imitée remain.

T25.The nominal formulation and the explicit revision remain. Happy keeps heureuse as a fortunate or successful conception rather than supplying an emotion felt by the idea. Mediocre, happy and exquisite retain their separate evaluative degrees. The second idea is bracketed for the damaged idé[…], possibly idée; the first intact idea remains unbracketed.

T373.The second occurrence loses its ending after idé at the damaged right edge; idée is a contextual completion only. The acute-like upper mark over the surviving e is compressed but supports the qualified é. The nominal formulation and correction heureuse/ou plutôt/exquise remain.

T26.The opening pair, two exclamations and stated occasion remain. Beautiful and great retain their different objects; plentiful descriptive matter is not silently recast as the subjects’ intrinsic merit. Only the final man is bracketed for damaged homm[…]; the quoted intact man remains unbracketed. Its missing French ending is not restored.

T27.The concessive opening and quoted infinitives remain, without a new main imperative. Rejoicing repeats, and seems to them preserves the limited perspective without identifying the people. The source loses the ending of the first reflexive s[…] before intact réjouir. English rejoice expresses the whole reflexive construction without a separate pronoun; the broader bracket on [rejoice] marks that contextual reading. The later intact se réjouir remains unbracketed.

T375.The first reflexive word loses its ending after s at the right edge; se is a contextual completion, while the later se réjouir is intact. The quoted infinitive fragment and the following negative clause remain.

T28.The nominal formulation, number and all remain Joubert’s statement, with no independent corpus count or life chronology inserted. The source’s printed date and order remain even where neighboring date labels run backward. Bracketed fortieth contextually reads quarantièm[…] without recovering its ending.

T376.The damaged right edge does not certify the ending after quarantièm; the final m is partly abraded but retains its arches. Quarantième is a contextual completion only. The nominal formulation and source quantity remain. The February 16 date precedes February 15 in the printed order.