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← ExitThe Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II

Reading language

1812

One must have a poetic soul and a geometric mind. Gⁿ is the [reverse] of this. He has the soul of a geometer and the flowery mind of a poet: [at] least he tries to have it. His character is stilted, his heart is […], and his reason through flowers... He has been accustomed to metaphors. [His] nature and his habits are in this respect in [perpetual] contradiction with one another.

[The] stupidities of goodness. Where do they come from? From making goodness [not only] a happiness, but an honor. They [come] from times, places, societies and families where goodness is [in] fashion. They come from the desire to love oneself, never from pure [love] of others.

“Poor animal, etc.” in an infirm and unhappy man [might] be only a feeling; in a healthy and occupied man, it is [only] a boast, pure ostentation or at least a trait of [exaggeration], either sincere or affected.

May […].

“Contemptible genius,” the great Bossuet said of Malebranche.

May […].

Death of the abbé Gallard: he has died, to be mourned!

(The day’s newspaper. Article M. B. May 11.) “Architecture... of all [the] arts the most friendly to order” ... “Accommodates itself neither to extreme greatness [nor] to extreme smallness.” That is because man is its measure. He creates [it] in his image, and everything too great or too small is no [longer] in proportion to him. “For my part (says Mr. Boutard), I find the [column] above fifty feet too high, and below ten [feet] too small.” In height, then, the smallest proportion for [the] column is double our stature, and the greatest tenfold. [That] is well for heights. But the lengths or [widths] of buildings, what is their proportion? where does pleasure end in [an] alignment of either the wings or the façade of a building? “The [gigantic] ill becomes it.” Too much lengthening, doubtless, does also.

Narrow reasoning. One must reason broadly. It is enough that [truth] be in the thought and in the sentence; it is not necessary [that] it be found exactly in every word. All the more because it is [good] for sound reasoning to have grace. Now grace is [incompatible] with overly rigid precision.

May […]2.

Skim the mind, skim it every day. This is easily done in Paris through conversation, and, like skimming a pot, through a kind of boiling that the company of people of wit is sure to produce. To skim the mind is to refine one’s taste.

T122.The reversed pairing, flowery mind, qualified attempt and final contradiction remain. Gⁿ retains the source’s raised abbreviation and is not expanded. [Reverse], [at], [His] and [perpetual] render contextual contraire, au, Sa and perpétuelle from the source’s […]traire, […] moins, […] nature and per[…]uelle; the bracket on at covers the interpreted au while least renders the intact moins. No French letters are restored. The heart predicate remains unrecovered as […]; the phrase “and his reason through flowers...” remains without a supplied verb. Stilted renders compassé, exact and regulated to the point of affectation, retaining the underlying image of measured conduct. The paragraph continues onto page 717 without a new division.

T454.The paragraph continues on 717 without an intervening separator. The abbreviation G has a clearly raised lowercase n and is not expanded. Poëtique and poëte retain their visible upper pairs of dots. At the damaged left edge on 717, only traire and moins are securely readable at the first two openings. No complete word can be established before the comma following son cœur est. The opening before nature and the missing component before uelle in the wrapped final adjective are likewise unrecovered. Contraire, an introductory phrase before moins, a heart predicate, Sa and perpétuelle must not be supplied as printed recoveries. The surviving phrase et sa raison par des fleurs remains without a supplied verb, and the ellipsis is retained. The comparisons and sentence order are unchanged.

T123.The initial nominal judgment, question, repeated come from and final never remain. Happiness and honor retain their separate values. [The], [come], [in] and [love] render contextual Les, viennent, à la and amour from the marked source residues. The broader [not only] renders non […] seulement with contextual pas in the loss, covering the intact negative and only as well; English does not separately reproduce a second French negative. No missing French letters are restored.

T124.The bounded quotation and two contrasted conditions retain their modality and restrictions. [Might] renders contextual pourroit from pour[…]t; [only] renders the lost restrictive component before the surviving ’une, without bracketing the intact later article. [Exaggeration] is a contextual reading of exa[…]ation, not a recovered word; exaltation is another possible completion of those surviving letters. The final sincere/affected alternative is left attached to that last description. No speaker is named.

T456.The wrap after pour- certifies only terminal t on the next line; the beginning before ’une and part of exa[…]ation are materially lost. Pourroit, qu’une and exagération are contextual possibilities, not recovered text. The short raised mark before une is provisionally retained as the apostrophe despite its abrasion. The quotation stops after etc.; the contrasting nominal clauses and final soit/soit alternatives remain.

T125.The quoted nominal judgment and great outside the quotation remain. No source or motive for the reported remark is invented.

T457.The day is lost before mai; the remaining edge marks do not certify a digit. The epithet and attribution remain without identifying a source passage.

T126.The event label and exclamation remain; the italic English translates the two italic Latin words. The exact phrase occurs in Horace, Odes I.24.9, in the lament for Quintilius: flebilis characterizes the dead man as one to be mourned, rather than saying that he died weeping. Joubert applies it to Gallard; the poem’s other names and wording are not inserted. The partly lost May date remains unreconstructed.

T127.The separate quoted spans, periodical initials and date cue, parenthetic attribution and measurements remain. The three dots after the first closing quote and the lower-case where after the question mark follow the French. Creates preserves present crée. Feet renders pieds without a modern conversion. Alignment renders alignement, distinct from the final allongement or lengthening. The contextual [the] before arts, [nor], [it], [longer], [column], [feet], [the] before column, [That], [widths], [an] and [gigantic] correspond respectively to les, ni, la, plus, colonne, pieds, la, Voilà, largeurs, un and gigantesque at the marked source losses; these readings do not restore French print. The later lost article before column is taken as la, but the residue does not independently determine it. The literal one-m accomode is retained in French. No original newspaper issue is claimed as checked.

T459.The date 11 mai belongs to the periodical reference within the opening parenthesis; it is not a new date heading. M. B. and Boutard remain as printed without a bibliographical expansion. The r after M is small and raised. The left edge loses the components before arts, de la petitesse, crée, us, lonne, eds, colonne, ilà, urs, alignement and gantesque. Context suggests les, ni, la, plus, colonne, pieds, la, Voilà, largeurs, un and gigantesque, but these are not recovered French. In the surviving fragments the initial l of lonne, e of eds, i of ilà, u of urs and g of gantesque remain qualified for abrasion. The native crop supports the literal one-m spelling accomode and the three dots after the first closing quotation. Only the surviving […]gantesque is italic. Lowercase où after the question mark, the quoted boundaries and all comparative measurements remain.

T128.The opening nominal phrase, narrow/broad contrast, sufficiency/necessity distinction and exact/every qualifiers remain. Grace is not replaced by mere persuasiveness; overly preserves the degree of precision criticized. [Truth], [that], [good] and [incompatible] render contextual vérité, qu’, bon and incompatible from […]rité, […]’elle, […]on and incom[…]atible. The intact elle remains it outside the bracket. No lost French letter is certified.

T460.The left edge removes the beginnings before rité, ’elle and on and the wrapped component within incom[…]atible. Vérité, qu’elle, bon and incompatible are contextual possibilities only. The apostrophe-like raised mark and the partly clipped first o/a of the surviving residues remain qualified. The nominal Le raisonner étroit, repeated raisonner and literal phraze remain. No missing premise or connective is supplied.

T5.Ecumer retains the image of removing froth as a liquid boils. The English words a pot explain the implied literal comparison. The scan cuts into the inner margin: [se] and [l’] are this transcription’s restorations of clipped line beginnings, not brackets printed by Beaunier. The final s of des at the next line beginning remains readable. The date’s first digit is obscured; […]2 mai. reports that damage, and the structured date remains null. A clearer copy is required before publication.

T129.The earlier sample’s English is retained exactly with its existing paragraph and note identifiers. The new French collation replaces earlier contextual restorations with explicit losses: […] before fait, […]autre and […]es. The retained English interprets these contextually as se, l’autre and des without new body brackets. The words a pot make the literal skimming comparison explicit; no pot is named in the French. The retained earlier note describes the sample’s former transcription, while the current French and this note record the more conservative facsimile collation. The date remains […]2 mai., with no complete day assigned.

T461.Only the day suffix 2 is secure before mai; preceding disconnected marks do not establish another digit. The two capital Ecumer forms have no certified acute. The edge before fait preserves only detached blocks, insufficient to certify the word se or even a whole initial residue letter. The beginnings before autre and es are also lost; se, l’autre and des are contextual possibilities only. The first a/e of the retained residues is qualified for clipping. This unit overlaps a previously retained passage. Its French transcription and damaged date have been reconciled explicitly with that record; the retained English and identifiers remain unchanged.