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← ExitThe Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II

Reading language

1812

“... Whether god or man,” a great saying of Plato!

“Light is the shadow of God.” Brightness is a shadow of light.

May 2.

Wisdom is a science by which we discern the things that are good for the soul and those that are not. It is the science of sciences, for it alone knows their value, their just price, their true use, their dangers, their utilities.

Indeed — every work proves a mind.

May 4.

That: one must place the supreme rule neither in oneself nor around oneself, but above oneself.

May 5.

The dart, to the one who shot it. — The arrow came from Hyperides’ quiver, but it was Aster who sharpened it and launched it.

The dart. If it pleases us, we apply it to ourselves; but it does not enter, it falls (and falls into oblivion). It penetrates us and attaches itself to memory only insofar as it has been launched forcefully, frankly and seriously, borrowed or not.

The dart and the emanations of the soul. The latter exhale and penetrate us as images enter through the eyes and perfumes through the sense of smell.

Others flatter us as flavors do the palate, as round bodies do touch, sometimes as beautiful sounds do our hearing; finally, as projecting parts do bodies.

May 5.

J.-J. Rousseau. Life without actions, all in affections and half-sensual thoughts; idleness with pretensions, voluptuous cowardice, useless and lazy activity that fattens the soul without making it better, that gives conscience a stupid pride and the mind the ridiculous posture of a burgher of Neuf-châtel believing himself a king.

Gesner’s Swiss bailiff in his old ruined tower. Haughtiness upon nullity.

Finally, the emphasis of the most voluptuous rogue, who has made his philosophy for himself and expounds it eloquently. The beggar warming himself in the sun and deliciously despising the human race.

And that other madman. Anti-priest.

May 6.

Fénelon. His dialogue of Justinian and [blank]. “... He had the fever of virtue,” the dying abbé G—l—rd said on this subject. (M. Clauzel.) This fever of goodness that carries delirium into all our ideas and into all our political feelings.

May 7.

(At the age of 58.)

Never any mind without soul.

May 9.

For the soul, the mind is a kind of organ, a kind of eye, of tongue, of hearing and even of brain, a kind of speaking trumpet, of telescope and of compass. And sometimes this organ acts all alone.

Mme Victorine de Chastenay said of me “that I looked like a soul that has happened upon a body, and gets by with it as best it can.” The saying is very pretty, and I cannot deny that it is just.

T103.The leading ellipsis, lower-case god, two alternatives and exclamation remain. No missing clause or particular source is supplied.

S1.Source editor’s annotationSee May 1 of the same year (farther on, note on Plato), page 721.

T104.The first sentence alone is quoted. Brightness distinguishes clarté from repeated light; the second indefinite article remains distinct from the first definite one. Beaunier’s separate note points ahead to May 1 on page 721 and remains source apparatus, with its call after the second light.

T107.This is the source editor’s direction, separate from Joubert’s text. May 1, same year and page 721 remain as printed; no date or page is silently corrected. The parenthetic description is retained without expanding the note it identifies.

T444.The roman apparatus remains one paragraph and points forward to page 721 while specifying May 1 of the same year. The raised er is compressed but identifiable; neither date nor direction is silently corrected.

T105.The first definition and second formulation remain. Science retains the broad body-of-knowledge sense. It resumes wisdom, and alone retains its exclusive force. The ordered list distinguishes value, price, use, dangers and utilities.

T445.The date reads 2 mai. The left-edge initial letters in qui, des and the wrapped table are abraded but identifiable. The singular seule and ordered list of value, price, use, dangers and uses remain.

T106.The opening indeed, dash and indefinite mind remain. Proves retains the compressed claim rather than becoming an expanded assertion about an author or creator.

T108.The dependent opening That and three spatial relations remain. No source of the rule or new authority is named.

T447.The detached Que and colon remain without a supplied governing statement. The three repeated soi locations and negative alternatives remain.

T109.Dart and arrow retain the related images and their different nouns. Origin, sharpening and launching belong to their stated agents. The initial nominal relation and dash remain; no historical incident is supplied.

T448.Four separate paragraphs remain under May 5. The first is an elliptical attribution followed by the named arrow comparison; no larger source is supplied. Emprumpt retains its printed m and p before t. The repeated trait/tombe, partial restriction and three adverbs remain. The following plural Celles-ci and D’autres are not assigned a new named referent. Avant-corps retains its hyphen and remains distinct from corps. The right-edge words remain identifiable despite abrasion.

T110.The initial nominal repetition, conditional pleasure, repeated falls and restrictive only remain. Apply does not become penetrates; the three adverbs and final borrowed-or-not distinction remain separate. The source’s emprumpt spelling is retained in French.

T111.The nominal pair and distinct emanating/penetrating motions remain. The latter resumes the plural emanations; the two sensory comparisons preserve their different routes.

T112.The unspecified Others remains without a newly fixed antecedent. Flatter retains the sensuous range, and round bodies, sounds and projecting parts remain distinct. Projecting parts renders architectural avant-corps, a projection beyond a work’s ordinary surface; the relation to the following bodies is left open.

T113.The fragmentary opening, opposed idleness/activity, physical fattening and civic comparison remain. These are Joubert’s judgments; no modern diagnosis or historical episode is supplied. Neuf-châtel and the abbreviated name retain the printed forms.

T449.Four paragraphs remain under the second printed May 5 date. J.-J., Gesner and Neuf-châtel are retained without expansion or familiar-name normalization; the latter has a visible circumflex over a. The hostile nominal characterizations, bodily fattening image, repeated soul/conscience/mind distinctions, final fragment and Anti-prêtre capital/hyphen remain. The ordinary ridicule/philosophie line divisions do not create paragraph breaks or lost text.

T114.Both nominal formulations remain. The relation upon preserves sur rather than replacing it with a causal explanation; no work title or newly identified person is inserted.

T115.The superlative and the two distinct formulations remain. Made his philosophy for himself makes the dative reflexive in s’est fait sa philosophie explicit. Emphasis retains the historical sense of rhetorical pomp used nearby; the source’s criticism and deliciously are not softened or expanded.

T116.The opening And, other and two fragments remain. The unnamed person is not identified from neighboring entries.

T117.The source-editor blank, abbreviated name, leading ellipsis and parenthetic source cue remain unexpanded. Only blank is italic within the brackets, corresponding to source blanc. Fénelon’s dialogue Solon et Justinien is a strong candidate, confirmed by reading the complete accessible electronic dialogue; Solon is not inserted in Joubert’s blank. The fever-of-virtue remark belongs to the reported dying abbé, with M. Clauzel separately named as a source cue; it is not a sentence from the dialogue. The final fragment and change from virtue to goodness remain.

T450.Only blanc is italic inside source brackets. The name gap is printed by the source, not newly supplied. The quotation begins with an ellipsis and ends before disoit. The abbreviation visibly contains G, lowercase l and rd separated by dashes; no name is expanded. Agonizant retains z. The parenthetic attribution has its period before the closing parenthesis. The final nominal fever formulation remains incomplete as a sentence.

T118.The Roman Latin age cue Ætatis, ann. 58. is translated as its own paragraph, including its parentheses. It is not a new date or an independently computed age; the abbreviated Latin syntax and comma are expressed idiomatically in English.

T451.The Roman age label is a separate printed paragraph under May 7, followed by the separate maxim. Its ligature Æ, abbreviation, comma and internal final period remain. No new date is made from 58, and no verb is supplied to the maxim.

T119.The compact negative maxim remains without a supplied verb. It stays a separate paragraph after the age cue.

T120.The repeated kind, seven bodily or instrumental terms, even and final sometimes remain. Speaking trumpet renders portevoix without introducing an electronic device. Compas could name a measuring or circle-drawing instrument and also the mariner’s compass; the analogy does not fix one model. The last organ is not silently replaced by the soul.

T121.The reported first person and quoted indirect construction remain. The soul’s chance encounter and effort to manage remain; English it does not assign a new sex to the soul. The shift to has happened follows the French shift to a rencontré. The final negative does not become a refusal to agree; ne before soit does not negate the saying’s justness.