Diotimos Reading Desk

Tap the page, move to the top or bottom edge, swipe down, or press Tab to reveal reading controls. Use the arrow keys or swipe sideways to turn pages.

← ExitThe Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II

Reading language

1812

February 22.

Malice mistaken for penetration.

To be a moralist is less an exercise, a function, than a talent, a gift. “There are (says Ancillon) men who have the genius of virtue. “There are also doubtless those who have the genius or instinct for what is necessary to the soul, what harms it and what serves it, what deforms it and what reforms it, what diminishes it and what increases it, what makes it beautiful or ugly, happy or unhappy, worse or better.

The mind is the atmosphere of the soul.

And the sun, and its rays. And if, instead of touching you with their glances, someone touched you with their eyes; and if with the tip of their finger, instead of the tip of their stick; and if with their hand and not with their glove.

One might say that a perpetual moonlight illuminates the face of all the objects in this work. (In Ancillon.)

I, whence, where, for, how; that is all philosophy: existence, origin, place, end and means or duties.

By making it more obscure and, so to speak, blacker, this philosophy, they seem to have made it deeper. It is thus that water which is muddy and flows little...

February 23.

The beautiful is more useful to art, but the sublime is more useful to morals, — and to minds because it raises them.

February 27.

“What produces madness in weak minds produces heroism in strong souls.” And who said this excellent thing? A Geoffroy. O altitudo! (See the day’s feuilleton.)

March 3.

Tender toward weaknesses, but insensible to misfortunes. Whereas those severe men whom you call Jansenists, full of a tender compassion for undeserved misfortunes, enter into all sorrows, share them and succor them. They love order and virtue as you love pleasure and beauty. They are touched by what is just; you are by what pleases you.

March 6.

Fragonard. And there is a fire there that makes itself felt.

March 8.

Manner has nothing inward about it; it is willed and fabricated.

T42.The nominal formulation and direction of mistaken for remain. Penetration retains the intellectual and spatial range rather than being replaced by malice itself.

T389.The first 2 of the February 22 day is abraded on the left, but surviving upper curve, descending diagonal and base support the qualified reading 22. No extra digit is inferred from detached margin marks. The nominal formulation remains.

T43.The paired nouns and long series of opposed effects on the soul remain in their printed order. Genius and instinct stay distinct. The source prints a second opening guillemet after virtue rather than a closing one; English retains the second opening quotation mark and does not silently settle the boundaries of the attributed wording. The cited Ancillon passage has not been independently identified in a primary witness; no title or expanded attribution is supplied.

T390.Etre has plain initial E. The second guillemet after vertu. visibly faces left like an opening mark; the resulting unmatched quotation pattern is retained rather than regularized. The initial letters of un, vertu, ce, de, et and malheureuse near the left edge are abraded but retain recognizable portions. The last e in diminuë has a compressed pair of upper marks supporting a qualified diaeresis. The repeated de ce, comparative structure and series of paired qualities remain.

T44.The two terms and atmospheric image remain without a physical or psychological explanation. Atmosphere renders the intact printed athmosphère; the printed French spelling is retained.

T45.The opening coordination and successive incomplete conditions remain. Glances and actual eyes stay distinct; the finger, stick, hand and glove are not replaced by an abstract account of mediation. Singular generic their supplies no identity. Glove renders the intact printed gand, retained in French rather than normalized to gant.

T392.The terminal word visibly reads gand with a d ascender; it is retained rather than normalized to gant. Left-edge letters in regards, de and avec are abraded but recognizable. The nominal opening, repeated unfinished conditions and final negation remain.

T46.The conditional qualification, perpetual light and face of objects remain. The italic parenthetic In Ancillon. is retained; it identifies no particular book or passage. The parentheses themselves remain roman.

T393.Perpétuël retains the acute over the first e and the compressed pair of upper marks over the later e, qualified as a diaeresis. The initial O and the o of objets are slightly clipped but recognizable. Only In Ancillon. is italic; the parentheses remain roman. No work title or further attribution is supplied.

T47.The initial italic word list retains its compressed forms rather than becoming full questions. The concluding or remains between means and duties; no term is silently corrected to reconcile the lists.

T48.The displaced philosophy, qualification so to speak and apparent depth remain. The closing water comparison keeps both its muddiness and its slight flow, and stays unfinished rather than receiving an inferred conclusion.

T395.The wrapped philosophie retains a recognizable next-line initial l despite the left-edge abrasion; no gap is inferred from ordinary line division. Renduë has compressed upper marks supporting a qualified diaeresis. The last comparison remains unfinished with its ellipsis and no supplied predicate.

T49.The two comparative uses remain distinct. The added minds and the physical raising image retain the dash and explanatory relation; morals keeps the broad historical conduct range.

T396.The repeated comparative plus utile, comma and following dash remain. The February 23 day is clear; small adjacent artifacts do not change the digits.

T50.The quote keeps weak minds and strong souls distinct. The question and indefinite A remain, with no supplied forename. The Latin is retained, literally O depth; the periodical direction is not an assertion that an original newspaper issue has been verified.

T51.The initial adjectival fragment and Whereas remain. Tenderness recurs, with undeserved misfortunes distinguished from weaknesses. Entering, sharing and succoring retain their unusual objects; no new group or events are supplied. The final paired judgments retain different criteria. The irregular printed ce que vous plaît is retained in French; idiomatic English what pleases you cannot reproduce the French relative-pronoun anomaly.

T398.The opening plural adjectival fragment and Tandis que construction remain. Appellez has the printed double l. The final phrase visibly reads ce que vous plaît, with e rather than i in que; its irregular relative construction is retained. The right-edge endings of tendre, les, vertu and the earlier qui are abraded but retain recognizable shapes. Detached marks farther into the margin do not certify additional words. The distinction between weaknesses and undeserved misfortunes, the repeated pronouns and the contrast of juste/plaisir remain.

T52.The name, opening And and there remain, and fire stays an image. No painting is identified.

T53.Manner preserves the art-critical term; inward reads intime without narrowing it to confidential intimacy. Willed and fabricated remain separate participial judgments.