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

October […].

One must distrust simple ideas in what is by its nature [complicated]; and complicated ideas in what is simple in itself. [One] ought no more to analyze what is simple, that is to say, [decompose] it, than one ought to complicate it. Both operations [distort] it, annihilate it; these are two abuses in [contrary] direction and sense.

October […].

Imagination, mirror and painter.

October […].

“We are what we are before God”. Imit. Chr. [Cited] in the letters to Mme de Maintenon that I read yesterday.) And [all] things are only what they are before God. (Vid. Cod. p[…].)

October […]1.

How could these works be beautiful? God is not in them. Now no [work] is beautiful unless God is in it, either hidden or manifest.

When I had the strength for it, I did not have the patience. I have the [patience] today and no longer have the power.

October […]2.

God shines upon us. We are enlightened because he shines upon us [and] we are straight because he touches us. God enlightens us [as] light, he straightens us as rule. This rule, not [discerned] but felt, serves as a point of comparison for our judgments in [everything] that must be assessed by a way other than that of the senses.

The mind serves as an instrument, serves as an organ, serves as an envelope and, in some way, a [body] for the celestial intelligences. For men there are body, mind and soul. Pride, they say, ruined the [angels]: that is because they were subject to the mind’s wanderings. The mind of those who withstood the test lost as a reward the freedom [to] go astray. They no longer had this fatal power. Happy curtailment.

They have at least for a body a little space cut out, which [gives] them a figure.

The mind is in them, as in us, a little intelligible space where images, ideas, judgments, etc. can form and lodge and move and combine.

October 26.

Gentleness that follows strength. A gentleness in which its past strength is still felt. It smells of its former strength.

November 3.

An honorable man always dies young, that is to say, too soon.

What is madness in the mad? A dream of a few years. And imbecility? a half-sleep, a relaxation, the numbness and drowsiness of a man awake for a long time.

November 4.

That the child must live with the world before living with society; and that he love his parents before loving his masters and companions.

— and destroy my memory by my presence.

T277.The two cautions, no-more-than comparison, decomposition gloss and two destructive results remain. [Complicated], [One], [decompose], [distort] and [contrary] render contextual compliqué, on, décomposer, dénaturent and contraires. Their complete English counterparts are bracketed without certifying the damaged French components. Direction and sense retain the paired terms without imposing a mathematical theory. The October day is wholly unfilled.

T576.The October day is wholly lost. The left margin interrupts […]mpliqué, the subject before ne doit, the wrapped décom[…]ser / déna[…]rent and […]ntraires. Compliqué / on / décomposer / dénaturent / contraires are contextual possibilities only; the surviving m/s/r/n contours are qualified for clipping. The source’s comparative negation and repeated operation remain.

T278.The nominal formulation and two distinct roles remain, with no explanatory predicate added.

T577.The nominal formulation remains. The October day’s thin surviving stem does not securely identify the map’s provisional 1, so the day remains wholly unfilled.

T279.The repeated before God, extension from we to all things, yesterday and abbreviated references remain. [Cited] and [all] render contextual Citée and toutes. No opening parenthesis is supplied before Cited, while the source’s closing parenthesis after yesterday remains. The first period follows the closing quotation. Only Imit. Chr. is italic. The Imitation III.50 §8 parallel was read in the bounded electronic Latin; it is not a verbatim source for Joubert’s plural French. The final […] denotes an unreadable raised glyph group immediately after baseline p, with no initial S supplied. No letter, exact day, source copy or expansion of that reference is identified.

T578.The October day survives only as a filled narrow remnant, insufficient to certify the map’s provisional 0; no day digit is restored. The quotation’s period follows its closing guillemet. Only Imit. Chr. is italic; the abbreviated references are not expanded. The left edge damages the opening before itée and before utes. Citée / toutes are contextual possibilities only; an opening parenthesis before the former is not recovered, while the closing parenthesis after hier remains. The surviving i/t/u contours are qualified for clipping. Hier stays a relative reading circumstance, not an independently inferred date. In the final reference, baseline p is clear and the following raised glyph group is fused into a dark block. The […] immediately after p denotes that unreadable raised group, whose letters and language are not certified. There is no positive evidence requiring an initial S before p, so none is supplied. The baseline period and closing parenthesis remain.

T280.The question, stated absence and two alternatives remain. Unless preserves the conditional negative; no particular works or artists are named. [Work] renders contextual ouvrage from […]uvrage; the damaged initial letter is not certified. Only the final 1 of the October day remains.

T281.The first-person temporal reversal and distinction among strength, patience and power remain. The task implied by en stays unnamed. The second [patience] renders contextual patience from […]atience, keeping its distinction from the intact first occurrence.

T580.The damaged initial p of the second patience is not certified; its remaining a is qualified for edge clipping. The past/present contrast, repeated en and pas/plus remain.

T282.The repeated shining, touching and straightening retain the dual physical and intellectual images. Rule stays distinct from light, and felt stays distinct from discerned. The last comparison concerns judgment beyond the senses without an added method or doctrine. [And], [as], [discerned] and [everything] render contextual et, comme, discernée and tout, with broader complete English counterparts where necessary. The intact French spelling distinction par ce que / parce que is not imposed on the identical English because. Only the final 2 of the October day remains.

T283.The repeated serves, four roles, three human constituents and reported pride claim remain. The loss is expressly a reward, with the paradoxical final nominal approval intact. The unexpressed reporters are not identified; the three terms body/mind/soul are not collapsed. [Body], [angels] and [to] render contextual corps, anges and de. The missing article l before intact esprit has no separate English counterpart in the list body, mind and soul; mind stays outside brackets.

T284.The at least qualification, body and cut-out space remain, without inventing a geometric shape or physical material. [Gives] renders contextual donne from […]onne; the lost initial d is not certified.

T285.The them/us comparison, four coordinated activities and three mental contents remain. The repeated and preserves the deliberate sequence rather than collapsing the faculties into one.

T286.The nominal opening and repeated gentleness/strength remain. The entire last English sentence, including its period, is italic and translates Robur pristinum redolet through its olfactory image. No particular classical author is identified. Still felt renders se ressent without replacing the quality by simple weakness.

T583.October 26 is legible and remains distinct from the earlier partial dates. The two nominal formulations and repeated force remain. The entire final Latin phrase is italic, including its period; no words are supplied to complete a different quotation.

T287.Honorable renders the moral and social value of honnête, not simply factual truthfulness. Always, young and the corrective too soon retain the paradox.

T288.The questions, nominal answers, duration and successive sleep terms remain. The historical terms are Joubert’s speculative language; no modern diagnosis or cause is added.

T585.The two questions, nominal answers, lower-case un after the second question and unhyphenated demi sommeil remain. Fols and the doubled l in imbécillité are literal. No diagnosis is supplied.

T289.The opening dependent That and second subjunctive formulation remain. World and society are distinct, and no specific schooling arrangement or age is supplied.

T586.November 4 and both dependent que formulations remain. The before/before parallel, monde/société distinction and literal parens remain. The right-edge la/ses contours are qualified for abrasion.

T290.The dash, conjunction and infinitive stay unfinished. My memory retains the source’s ambiguous possessive, which can concern recollection or the memory of the speaker; no missing context is supplied.

T587.The dash, conjunction and infinitive fragment remain without a supplied verb or addressee.