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← ExitThe Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II

Reading language

1812

April 22.

There are lower truths that serve life and its usages; middle truths that exercise the mind and give it some satisfaction (and unfortunately satisfaction with itself); finally, sublime truths, higher truths, that illuminate the soul, nourish it and make it happy. The first must always be linked to the last, that is to say, the lower to the higher through the middle.

April 23.

Nothing is so clear as banter, nothing so nimble and so merry as libertinage of mind. The banter of the Comte de Grammont and Hamilton is less clear and less elegant, however, than Voltaire’s; but it is more exquisite, more agreeable, more perfect. Molière is less amusing than he, but comic in quite another way. Voltaire has the grace of the monkey, Rivarolle that of the cat. This Rivarolle is softer, he scratches less, his cunning is deeper, his play gives a gentler pleasure. There is always in Voltaire, at the end of a skillful hand, an ugly face. (Ex abrupto.)

April 24.

For towers can be built there, so that (I speak seriously) every empty place may be [filled] with great towers. (Heard in dreams.)

The father and the grandfather: the king and the law. The grandfather and the father: the law and the king.

April 25.

One must be a pebble in the torrent, keep one’s veins and roll without being dissolved (or dissolute).

April […].

(In Plato.) Fathers, images of God; old men, images of [fathers]. And among old men the wisest are the most similar [to the] gods, if only through a greater participation in duration.

April […]0.

All our voluptuous pleasures come to us from some weakness. All [come about] through some outflow. All cause us some [loss]. All are only a movement and a moment that is followed [by] some moments. “They are always in a state of [formation]” (Plato said) “and never in a true state of existence” [properly] so called. Time too, according to the same. But what difference does [that] make? The pleasures of the mind come from our strength, from our [magnanimity].

March […]0.

When one paints something inward, one paints something recessed. [Now] a recess, however illuminated it may be, can never [offer] the uniform and vivid brightness of a surface.

The opinion that “literal terms were originally metaphorical [expressions].” And indeed vivid brightness, above.

To write well one must mix overly vivid metaphors with extinguished [metaphors]; and likewise marked symmetries with effaced [symmetries].

May 1.

Novelty, daughter of time that brings developments; and the other novelty, daughter of movement, daughter of men, of passions, of whims, that confuses everything, disarranges everything, and allows nothing to last and to be completed, that destroys all antiquity. She is the mother of disorder, destructions and misfortune.

Distinction between soul and body. Is all philosophy, as they have said, and even more than they have thought. All metaphysics consists in assigning their differences, all morality in following them.

T91.The three levels, repeated truths, parenthetic reservation and ordered effects on the soul remain. The higher, lower and middle terms keep their relations, and the middle retains its mediating role. Make it happy renders the ordinary French formulation font son bonheur without changing its object.

T92.The comparative chains, repeated clear, and monkey/cat images remain. Libertinage is retained for the freedom or license of mind described here, without narrowing it to sexual conduct. The pronoun after Molière remains tied to the immediate comparison. The hand and face stay strange. Ex abrupto. is retained in italics within roman parentheses, literally abruptly or without preparation. Both printed Rivarolle spellings remain in the English rather than being silently normalized; softer renders moëlleux in the feline comparison. In quite another way takes autrement as a difference of manner; this comparative context also permits the intensive reading far more comic. The later 1835 dictionary illustrates an intensive use with tout, which is absent here, and does not uniquely settle Joubert’s meaning.

T431.Both occurrences read Rivarolle, with double l and final e; Grammont has double m. Moëlleux has two compressed upper components over e and is retained with that diaeresis qualification. No familiar-name or spelling normalization is made. The changing comparative degrees, lui, the monkey/cat images and final hand/face contrast remain. Ex abrupto. alone is italic inside the parenthesis; the final period precedes the closing parenthesis.

T93.The complete Latin paragraph, including both parentheses, is freshly translated. The source clearly prints repeltus rather than the regular repletus. [Filled] is an explicit contextual emendation reading repletus; its brackets mark neither a lost source word nor brackets printed by the source editor. The Latin itself remains repeltus. Every empty place also permits the whole empty space; no particular place is named. The first clause’s possibility and the ensuing so-that clause remain. Heard in dreams renders the impersonal parenthetic label without identifying a dreamer or inventing an entry date. A bounded search found no secure external source for this paragraph; shared towers imagery does not make it a biblical quotation.

T432.The native letters clearly read repeltus, with e before l, not repletus; the anomalous sequence is retained. The entire passage is roman, including both parentheses. The ligature æ in ædificari and plural audita remain; no grammatical or external-source correction is supplied.

T94.Both lists reverse in the second sentence; their parallel order is retained without an added allegorical explanation.

T95.The pebble, torrent, veins and rolling remain. Dissolved and dissolute preserve the related forms and distinct physical and moral meanings of dissous and dissolu. The parenthetic negation remains within the scope of without.

T434.The unarticled caillou, rolling image and dissous/dissolu parenthetic distinction remain.

T96.The two parallel images, superlatives and restricted explanation remain. [Fathers] and [to the] render contextual pères and aux from […]ères and […]ux; the first fathers is intact. Duration retains the abstract temporal term. A related passage in Plato’s Laws XI compares aged parents and ancestors with living sacred images, but Joubert’s precise fathers/elders formulation and ensuing claim about duration were not independently located. The French losses, singular God and later plural gods remain.

T435.The opening day has only an isolated curved/vertical remnant and does not establish a complete digit. No April day is supplied. The initials before ères and ux are lost; pères and aux are contextual completions only. The attribution, nominal analogies, singular capital Dieu and later plural lowercase dieux remain.

T97.The four initial All formulations and repeated some remain. Voluptuous pleasures distinguishes voluptés from the later pleasures of the mind. Movement/moment/moments, the separate quotations and fragment about time remain unreconciled. [Come about] renders the contextual pronominal s’opèrent from […]opèrent as the pleasures’ occurrence; the broader English brackets cover the intact verb as well as the interpreted reflexive element. [Loss], [by], [formation], [properly], [that] and [magnanimity] render contextual déperdition, de, formation, proprement, cela and magnanimité from the respective marked source residues. No French letters are restored. Compare Plato’s Philebus 53c and the ensuing argument about pleasure as generation rather than being, introduced by Socrates as an account advanced by others. Timaeus 37d–38c is a related time/eternity parallel, not proof that Joubert’s fragment assigns time exactly the same status as pleasure. His wording remains.

T436.Only terminal 0 survives in the April day. The opening before opèrent, the wrapped components in déper[…]ition and forma[…]on, and the beginnings before e, roprement, ela and agnanimité are not complete. S’opèrent, déperdition, formation, de, proprement, cela and magnanimité are contextual possibilities only. The thin traces before opèrent do not certify a separate apostrophe. All four Toutes and the changing mouvement/moment/momens remain. The two separately quoted stretches, intervening attribution, nominal Le temps aussi and final shift to pleasures of the mind remain.

T98.The painting, recess and surface keep the physical image and concessive claim. Brightness renders clarté and is repeated in the next entry’s backward reference. [Now] and [offer] render contextual Or and offrir from […]r and […]ffrir; no missing letter is supplied in French.

T437.Only terminal 0 is secure in the March day; the preceding isolated remnant does not certify another digit. The initial before r and the component before ffrir are lost; Or and offrir are contextual readings only. Quelque éclairé and the negative comparison are retained.

T99.The initial dependent formulation and final backward reference remain. Literal terms renders termes propres as opposed to figurative expressions; it does not refer to proper names. [Expressions] renders contextual expressions from […]xpressions. The italic vivid brightness repeats the preceding entry’s wording.

T438.Only a broken upper remnant survives before xpressions, so expressions is not restored. The opening remains nominal. Vive clarté alone is italic and explicitly refers backward; the quotation ends before the following sentence.

T100.The degree too, mixture and second parallel pair remain. Extinguished and effaced preserve the physical images. The second [metaphors] and second [symmetries] render méta[…]hores and symmé[…]ries; the preceding intact occurrences remain unbracketed. Both printed symmétries forms retain their double m in French.

T439.The wrapped openings lose a complete p in métaphores and a complete t in symmétries. The surviving right-side fragments do not certify those full letters. Both intact and damaged symmétries retain the printed double m, and the parallel blending formulation remains.

T101.The two kinds of novelty, repeated daughter, entire negative sequence and maternal image remain. The relative clause after time follows the printed placement without settling every possible antecedent. Antiquity retains the broad contrast with novelty, and the first nominal formulation remains without a supplied governing verb.

T440.The initial letters in nouveauté, fantaisies, durer and désordre are abraded but retain identifiable arches, ascenders or cross-strokes. The initial capital La and final Elle remain. The first nominal formulation, semicolon, repeated fille and different functions of time/movement are not joined with a supplied verb. The raised er of the May 1 date is compressed but identifiable.

T102.The opening fragment and unexpressed subject of Is remain. The unidentified they is not assigned to a school or author. Metaphysics and morality have separate actions, with the differences retained as the latter’s object.

T441.The period before Est leaves the following finite verb without an expressed subject. The abraded initials in ils, the wrapped sique and suivre remain qualified identifiable readings; detached margin marks do not establish new letters or words. The unnamed plural speakers and the distinction between assigning and following remain.