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

August 12.

Young people. Neither fathers nor masters should appear to meddle in their animality. Refer this dirty and important matter to the confessor, who alone can treat it without defilement for the pupil or himself, because God intervenes and is between them both.

August 13.

One can fall into contradiction through error; it is beautiful to fall into it through truth; and then, as B. might have said, one must throw oneself into it headlong.

August 17.

... like a bird chained by the foot.

August 22.

Criticism troubles taste; it poisons flavors.

— and this subject that one must treat without touching it.

August 28.

All the seeds, the whole of nature broods over them.

[Modesty.] It weaves a fabric for us and adds it to our structure; it clothes our existence in it and makes of us a sphere apart.

September 2.

Contentment comes from balance, balance from proportions, these from fullness without deficiency or excess.

September […].

There are verses that by their character seem to belong to the [mineral] kingdom: they have ductility and brilliance (such are those of Ch. and [of] Mr. C.) Others to the vegetable kingdom, and they have sap. [Still] others belong to the animal or animate, and they [have] life. The [most] beautiful are those that have soul, and Fontanes’s are [full] of it. They belong to the three kingdoms, but still [more] to the muse.

September […].

Taste increases memory. There is the memory of taste. One [remembers] what has pleased. There is also the memory of imagination. One remembers what has charmed. Literary colors, sounds, flavors (and [I] would almost say smells) fix memories as well [as] other colors, other sounds, other flavors and other [smells].

September […].

This, however, is different. For in painting there is [something] for the eyes. But in books there is nothing except for [the] mind. Now the colors in a painting can amuse the eyes [without] the mind being distracted by them.

When, then, you wish to know a thing, listen carefully to what all men are constrained to call it; for what they are forced [to] say of it in order to be understood and to understand one another will show you the opinion heaven wants one to have of it. One must judge all things as [heaven] wishes of us.

Useful glimmers that lead toward lodging, are worth more than brilliant [lights] that lead us away from the path.

— See the travels, the tales, etc.

— The century of lights; of lights... let us wish for the century of virtues.

T226.The initial subject label, appearance qualification, paired dirty/important and exclusive alone remain. Animality retains Joubert’s broad term; no additional practice, specific age or contemporary advice is supplied.

T535.August 12, the address-like opening, repeated ni que / pour, imperative and the exact modal scope remain. The source’s historical religious voice is preserved.

T227.The error/truth contrast, falling/throwing image and counterfactual attribution remain. B. is not expanded or treated as a verified quotation source.

T228.The initial ellipsis, simile and single chained foot remain; no missing subject is supplied.

T537.August 17 and the opening ellipsis remain. The raised mark over i in enchainé is dot-like; no circumflex is certified, so the plain printed form remains qualified. The comparison is not completed by a supplied subject.

T229.The taste/flavor relation and poisoning metaphor remain. Taste is not narrowed to only aesthetic judgment or only a physical sense. Literal French enpoisonne remains unchanged.

T538.Two paragraphs remain under August 22. The first contains the literal enpoisonne with n before p; no m is silently substituted. The second begins with dash plus et and remains a fragment.

T230.The initial dash/conjunction and dependent subject retain the treat/touch paradox. It remains its own paragraph under the same entry, without identifying the subject.

T231.The fronted object and both universal terms remain. Broods over retains the incubation image without changing seeds into eggs.

T232.The source-editor [Modesty.] retains its internal period and remains in the paragraph. Modesty includes reserve rather than exclusively sexual chastity; the historical lexical range does not exhaust the metaphor. Weaving, clothing, structure and the separate sphere form one continuous image. Weaves a fabric renders ourdit une trame without forcing a new technical identification of warp or weft.

T540.The supplied source label [Pudeur.] retains the period inside its brackets. The weaving image, feminine pronouns and semicolon remain; the label is not converted into a separate heading.

T233.The chain of three relations and both excluded extremes remain. These resumes proportions; no new psychological cause is added.

T234.The three kingdoms and ductility/brilliance/sap/life/soul sequence remain. [Have] mirrors the source-editor supplied [ont]; the other brackets are the present translation’s contextual readings of minéral, de, enfin, plus, pleins and the final plus. Still renders the third enumerating enfin. Ch. and Mr. C. are not expanded, and no extra full stop follows the closing parenthesis. The final they is not reassigned to a newly delimited group. The September day remains wholly lost.

T235.The repeated memory and remembering, pleased/charmed distinction, parenthetic hesitation and repeated other remain. [Remembers], [I], [as] and final [smells] render contextual souvient, je, que and odeurs at the damaged openings. The second source gap is taken as reflexive se before intact souvient; English remembers has no separate reflexive word, so that whole verb is not bracketed as lost. The four sensory figures remain distinct. The September day stays incomplete.

T543.The September day is wholly lost. The beginnings of […]ouvient, […]ue and […]deurs are damaged; the detached remnants before the second souvient and dirois do not certify whole words. Souvient / se / je / que / odeurs are contextual possibilities only. The final intact d in deurs has its ascender and bowl; the preceding o is not recovered. The parenthesis, first-person dirois, repeated mémoire and the parallel list remain. The selected surviving initial o/u/d components are qualified for edge abrasion, without restoration of missing adjacent letters.

T236.The corrective opening, eyes/mind contrast and restrictive book claim remain. [Something] is broader than the source’s damaged chose, since it also includes intact quelque; [the] and [without] interpret the lost article before esprit and interrupted sans. Painting follows the color/eyes context; no particular artwork is identified. The September day remains unfilled.

T237.The second-person address, repeated constraint, two forms of understanding and heaven’s stated role remain. Understand one another renders s’entendre without asserting universal agreement on every property. [To] renders the lost d in the contextual d’en dire construction; of it renders the intact en. Final [heaven] interprets interrupted ciel. The contextual articles Les before men and le before the first ciel have no separate English counterparts after all or before bare heaven; those intact nouns are not bracketed as lost.

T238.The comparative judgment and lodging/path contrast retain the travel image. The first direction has no expressed us, unlike the later nous; English keeps this difference. The source comma after gîte remains despite its separation of the subject from the predicate. [Lights] interprets the damaged lumières and stays distinct from glimmers. No destination is named.

T546.The three paragraphs remain one undated unit. The first has a damaged opening before umières; lumières is not silently completed. The first v of vertus is abraded but its angled form is identifiable. The comma after gîte, two initial dashes, repeated des lumières, semicolon and three-dot ellipsis remain. Gîte retains its circumflex; the imperative and first-person plural exhortation are not expanded.

T239.The dash and compressed direction remain a separate paragraph. No specific travel book, tale or prior passage is identified from the general nouns.

T240.The repeated plural lights carries forward the preceding image and retains Joubert’s wording of the Enlightenment formula. Century renders siècle without assigning a new date; the ellipsis, collective wish and plural virtues remain.