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← ExitThe Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II

Reading language

1812

October […]9.

I used to say it, I say it again: — J.-J. Rousseau gave words entrails and breasts (“which ought not to have any”; said Molé).

October 12.

All manners, in order to have no manner. What is called a manner is like a tone: whoever has only one tone is monotonous; whoever is monotonous is tedious. Teach youth, then, all the forms of discourse; let them be trained to use them with ease.

The same tone bores, but not the same voice. Likewise, the same manner, but not the same hand. Likewise, the same color, but not the same brush. There is a unity and a uniformity that please. Virgil is Virgil everywhere. So with Raphael, Greuze, Fénelon, Bossuet, Lafontaine, Racine. The voice sounds human: one finds them again and recognizes them with delight, always the same in different works. A work by an author has never failed to displease when he has a character of his own and one does not recognize him in it. He has acted and worked, his soul absent. It is a work of his brush or his pen and not of him. The master is missing from it. It is art or craft alone; these are lines and colors, it is ink, it is paper, it is the appearance of a book. It is a tasteless and cold dish.

But sometimes the soul sleeps: “good Homer dozes.” But provided one feels it there, glimpses it ever so little, divines it there, one is content. It pleases when drowsing, idle or distracted. Faults, in short, give pleasure if the soul has contributed to them. But nothing is beautiful without it.

October 14.

... is only the tip of a blade of grass that pierces the air. And yet, the force of the spirit of life, when the grass pierces living rock.

The world is a drop of air.

Eternity. We touch it behind and ahead of ourselves.

Living cord (the serpent) digests the ox.

A falling stone is animated by a kind of passion. It crushes not through its weight, but through the attraction that animates it and that is something almost spiritual.

They attributed human industry to the hand that is its instrument.

October 15.

“... Illness, pain, the corpse (says Labruyère) disgust us (we who are so curious) with the knowledge of another world” (through death). And indeed, if death made us beautiful...

“Eve of the birth of the world” (says Labruyère). Eternity preceded time by only an instant and, at that instant, we touch it behind ourselves.

October 16.

Algebraic words, or words of abbreviation (abbreviation of meaning). Nature is one of these words; a force, a faculty are too.

Between the combinatory mind and true imagination there is, [as to] their effects, all the difference that Labruyère points out between a [teachable] mind and a weak mind, of which he says: “The teachable and the weak [are] susceptible to impressions. The one receives good ones and the other [bad]; the first is persuaded and faithful, the other... stubborn and” [obstinate]).

T263.The repeated speaking, past-to-present shift, anatomical metaphor and nested reported objection remain. The semicolon follows the closing quotation, while the parenthesis closes after Molé. Literal mammelles remains in French. Molé and J.-J. are not further identified or expanded, and no independently verified witness is claimed for the remark. The October day stays incomplete.

T564.Only the terminal 9 of the October day is legible; its preceding day component remains lost. Native text prints mammelles with two medial m and two l, without normalization. Molé has its acute. The opening two tenses, dash, unexpanded J.-J. and quoted relative clause remain. The semicolon follows the closing guillemet; the parenthesis closes after Molé.

T264.The all/no contrast, repeated manner/tone and linked monotonous/tedious judgments remain. The colon introduces the linked explanation. The final instructions concern youth collectively, with English them for the source’s grammatically singular la; no particular youths are identified. The paragraph continues onto 730 without division. Literal affin remains in French.

T265.The repeated same contrasts tone/voice, manner/hand and color/brush without treating unity and uniformity as synonyms. The double negative retains the claim that an unrecognizable work displeases. The affirmative Latin is translated without importing Virgil’s omitted nec; the primary encounter at Aeneid I.328 is a qualified parallel. The absolute soul absent, missing master, materials and cold dish remain. Only the affirmative Latin’s English counterpart is italic, with the following colon outside it.

T266.The two opening But clauses, three perceptions and sleep image remain. Good Homer dozes translates only the Latin excerpt; the broader Horace passage’s indignation and quandoque are not imported. The soul’s participation and presence condition the final pleasure and beauty claims; faults and nothing remain their grammatical subjects. The passage does not assert that every fault is beautiful. Only the three-word Latin excerpt’s English counterpart is italic, without its quotation marks.

T267.The missing opening subject and the nominal second exclamation-like formulation remain without a supplied predicate or exclamation mark. Pierces repeats, and living rock keeps the source’s adjective rather than replacing it solely by geological bedrock.

T566.October 14, the initial ellipsis and restriction remain. The second sentence stays nominal/elliptical; no main verb is supplied. The right-edge wrapped cependant and final vif are qualified for abrasion.

T268.The concise drop metaphor remains without an explanation or altered substance.

T269.The nominal opening and the two directions remain. Touch is not reduced to imagining or remembering.

T568.The nominal opening and paired directions remain.

T270.The opening article-less image and parenthetic identification remain, with serpent and ox unaltered. No animal species or scientific explanation is added.

T271.The two animated formulations, weight/attraction contrast and qualification almost remain. This is Joubert’s speculative analogy, not a revised physical law; no explanatory doctrine is added. The opening English article is a grammatical addition to the source’s article-less Pierre, without claiming a source loss.

T570.The opening has no article. The feminine agreement and weight/attraction contrast remain. Quasi spirituel has no hyphen. The wrapped quelque retains an identifiable right-edge l despite abrasion.

T272.The unnamed they and industry/instrument distinction remain. Industry retains the historical sense of ingenuity or productive skill, rather than necessarily a modern industrial sector. No particular philosopher is identified.

T571.The unassigned plural subject and industry/hand/instrument relation remain. No philosophical source is supplied in the French.

T273.The leading quoted omission, two internal parentheses, closing quotation before through death, and unfinished conditional remain. The wording is Joubert’s attributed report. A later La Bruyère witness is currently only an indexed lead; no direct witness collation or exact quotation identity is claimed.

T572.October 15 and the quotation’s initial ellipsis remain; the source prints ...La without an intervening word. The quote closes after monde, before the final parenthetic par la mort. Both internal parentheses and the unfinished si formulation remain. Labruyère is one word with its grave. Horizontal artifacts above monde do not certify an added circumflex.

T274.The reported phrase, only an instant and repeated spatial touch remain. The quotation’s source is unlocated; no cosmological timeline is supplied.

T573.The quotation contains only the nominal phrase. The restriction n’a...que, repeated instant and rearward direction remain. Minor right-edge abrasion in n’a leaves its identifiable letters.

T275.The nominal formulation, repeated abbreviation and three terms remain. Algebraic keeps the analogy rather than replacing it by abstract. Only Nature, force and faculty are italic, matching the source’s three nouns; articles and punctuation remain roman. French singular le before plural sont remains unchanged, while English are too expresses the two subjects without repeating a French grammatical form.

T276.The single paragraph continues onto page 731. [As to] renders intact quant with contextual aux from […]x; their is an English connective clarification rather than a recovered possessive. [Teachable], [are], [bad] and [obstinate] render contextual docilité, sont, mauvaises and obstiné; no lost French letters are certified. Teachable preserves receptivity without equating it with weakness. The quotation closes after and, before [obstinate], and the unmatched final parenthesis remains. The later uncorrected electronic La Bruyère transcription is a qualified parallel with a different ending, which is not substituted.