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← ExitThe Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II

Reading language

1812

Thursday, November 5.

(Departure from Villeneuve. Overnight at Melun.) At Melun. G[ué]n[eau]: what is broad does not touch him.

Frankness. Old frankness. Frank style is eminently French.

November 6.

(Arrival in Paris.) Fontanes: he believes and opines through images (explain how). He conceives, he opines and he concludes, through images. One can conceive and explain oneself through them, but not judge and conclude.

November 15.

Heaven has given us illnesses as a great means of being wise; and we do not know how to draw this fruit from them, either by experiencing them or by foreseeing them (and who has none to foresee?) They recall us to heaven.

— who, instead of bringing order there, bring only change; who, to appear active, know only how to sow trouble and only how to spread distrust to appear prudent.

— the scandals of marriage to the disorders of celibacy.

November 19.

The ode is, of all the kinds of poetry, the most purely poetic. The didactic partakes of the philosopher, the epic of the historian; the ... partakes of the orator; the dramatic unites all the kinds in itself. The lyric poet is only a poet.

November 24.

Fontanes — inhabits his soul but little.

Thus speaks ignorance indoctrinated by prejudice.

November 26.

“The physician (said Bâglivi) practices (often) medicine with his temperament.” And the moralist often fashions morality with his character, the theologian religion according to his temper.

November […].

... and, since in all my remarks my affections must [come] before my thoughts and I am still more governed by love [of] justice than by love of truth, — which is a great inconvenience for the [composure] necessary to explanations...

(Note. Marvejols.)

November […]9.

Reasoning is against it, but experience is absolutely [for] it, which happens often, and then experience must decide and [prevail].

December […].

Religion. Only one age is suited to receiving its seeds. They do not germinate in soil ravaged or dried and hardened by [the] passions. This is a psychological truth, or one founded on the nature of the soul.

T291.The two travel circumstances and repeated place remain within the paragraph. The two source-editor bracketed name components and the acute are retained exactly as G[ué]n[eau], without further expansion or inferred date. Broad remains unqualified rather than being narrowed to a political disposition.

T588.Two paragraphs remain under the legible Jeudi 5 novembre. The travel circumstances stay inside paragraph 1; the repeated Melun is not merged into a heading. The source name’s two distinct bracketed components and acute in ué are retained, without expansion beyond G[ué]n[eau]. The second paragraph’s two nominal formulations and repeated franc/franchise/français sequence remain. No body emphasis is printed.

T292.The two nominal fragments and repeated frank root remain. Old does not force an ancient-Greek reference or reconcile this remark with other judgments about frank style.

T293.The arrival cue, self-directed parenthesis, repeated images and opines, and final modal restriction remain. Conceiving/explaining and judging/concluding stay distinct; the comma before the repeated through images follows the visible source.

T589.November 6 and the opening Paris circumstance remain distinct. The explanatory parenthesis, repeated il/par les images, comma after conclut and final contrast remain. The edge-damaged contours in expliquer and On are identifiable with qualification.

T294.The fruit metaphor, two ways of receiving it and parenthetic question remain. The final repeated heaven resolves lui to its stated antecedent without separately introducing God. Joubert’s claim is not expanded into a medical explanation or advice.

T590.November 15 is clear. Scavons has no certified cedilla; the parenthetic question, repeated soit and feminine Elles / masculine lui remain. Minor right-edge abrasion in éprouvant leaves the identifiable ending.

T295.The opening relative has no supplied antecedent. Bringing/sowing/spreading and both purposes remain. Only first restricts bringing to change, then repeats before sow and spread to preserve the source’s repeated restrictive que. The two purpose clauses retain their positions.

T296.The fragment retains its missing governing verb. Celibacy can mean the unmarried condition here; no religious vow or preferred alternative is supplied.

T592.The dash and verbless relation remain; no verb of preference or comparison is supplied.

T297.All named kinds and their personified counterparts remain. The omitted kind before the orator is not filled. The final only retains its restriction rather than diminishing the lyric poet’s skill.

T593.November 19 is clear. Poësie / poëtique / poëte retain their diaereses. The printed three-dot ellipsis after le does not name a missing genre; it is not filled from context. The restricted final predicate and all semicolons remain.

T298.The dash and inhabiting image remain. But little leaves the extent or frequency open rather than making an absolute claim of absence.

T594.November 24, the dash between named subject and predicate and the degree peu remain.

T299.The personification and indoctrination remain. Prejudice renders prévention, not preventive action; the speaker or occasion is not identified.

T595.The feminine agreement and passive endoctrinée phrase remain. No doctrinal identity is added.

T300.The two parentheses, repeated often and three practitioners remain. Fashions renders fait as the production of a moral account in this analogy, not an assertion that the moralist lives virtuously; the theologian’s missing verb remains unsupplied. Temper distinguishes humeur from tempérament and character. The quotation’s exact witness is not identified. The source’s accent in Bâglivi remains qualified, without normalizing the name.

T596.November 26 is clear. The raised mark over a is flattened and stepped in the native reproduction, with nearby horizontal artifacts; Bâglivi retains a qualified circumflex reading without certifying the precise accent contour or substituting a normalized name. The quote includes its final period and both parentheses. The outside souvent is unparenthesized, and the last clause remains elliptical. Tempérament has a single medial m.

T301.The opening unfinished connective, first-person priority, still more and two loves remain. No absent main clause is supplied. [Come], [of] and [composure] render contextual passent, de and sens-froid from pas[…]nt, […]e and sens-[…]oid. Composure renders the whole damaged compound through its contextual meaning, without repairing any lost French letters. The day remains wholly unfilled.

T597.The damaged opening day preserves only disconnected blocks, not a certifiable 8 or another complete digit; no day is supplied. At the left edge the incomplete components after pas, before e la justice, and before oid remain explicit losses. The printed wrap hyphen after sens is retained without completing the damaged compound. The opening and closing ellipses remain. The separately indented closing parenthesis is a second paragraph, with Nota. italic and Marvejols. roman; it is not made into a date.

T302.The parenthetic note cue and place remain their own paragraph in the same entry. Only Note., including its period, is italic to match Nota.; the surrounding parentheses and Marvejols remain roman. No event, person or new date is supplied.

T303.Against/for, absolutely, often and must retain their scopes. English it supplies the complement required by the two prepositions without identifying the disputed matter. [For] and [prevail] render contextual pour and emporter. The latter bracket covers the complete English verb for the damaged French component, not just its lost p. Only the terminal 9 of the November day remains.

T304.The one-age restriction and seed/soil metaphor remain. No numerical age or modern psychological authority is supplied; the final reformulation defines Joubert’s own use of psychological. [The] renders contextual les before passions. The missing opening of ne is not separately bracketed in English: the intact point already supplies the negative expressed by not. The December day remains wholly unfilled.