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

December […].

For languages are like all other things, and when it has become easier to use them, it is also easier to [misuse] them. The first writers, restrained by their inexperience.

What these words mean: too reasonable to be a good [man].

December […]4.

These beautiful words of Chateaubriand: “This moderation... without which all is falsehood.”

November 25.

“The wicked man (Mr. de Bonald said to us) is active, because he is agitated.” How many activities are indeed only agitation!

October […]7.

Seductions of speech: the seductions of style (through pathos, as in Mr. de Chateaubriand). The magic of style is something else; it comes from a happy arrangement of words and [thoughts]. There is (at least for the ear) a certain magic of style in Cicero.

The seductions suppose a certain affectation of what we have called “sensibility”; but a skillful affectation. The ancient Greeks had neither seductions nor magic, except perhaps Euripides, but without departing from simplicity. Virgil had none of it, although he put so much art into being natural and touching.

December […]8.

To say many things in few words, was the art of later writers. To say only beautiful things was the merit of the writers of the earliest times.

December 9.

Mores — that consist in regarding certain affections and certain actions as one of the conditions of honor and life.

December 10.

Fortunately, when he lacks reasons he lacks words.

December 11.

The very description of a battle, of a combat must be a lesson in morals. One should speak of it in any detail only to show the power that composure, precautions, foresight, etc. have over fortune; or that fortune sometimes has over all the rest; so that the bold may be prudent, and the fortunate modest. Tacitus offers a model of this kind in his account of the conduct of Paetus in Armenia. (See Annals, book xv, § 6 and following.)

December 17.

It is as if they said: “I am evil and I must do harm.” Their aim is to carry out their office, as they say, and not to do good, even when good is at issue and good is their first duty, since it is for good alone that their office is established.

December 18.

Gustave-Dugazon. It is as if one said Caesar Harlequin, Achilles Pierrot, Hector Petitjean, Alexander Scaramouche, etc. Laughable coupling of names.

Malvina, Clara, Paméla, Estelle, Emile, etc. detestable innovations! (Buffon, Gracchus, etc.)

Give your children patron saints through their [given names], as in former times, and not sonorous and useless nicknames.

It was not ridiculous for a miller to be called Louis, Gregory, Edward, because these great princes were great saints, and all men can and should aspire to great virtues, but not to great fortunes, great exploits, great talents and great reputations.

Priestly families (or associated with the priesthood by the virtues that distinguish them). The priesthood and the military. To the priesthood, justice. To the military, commerce. Literature is common to both.

To the priestly order belongs what is eminently civil, laws, public administration, education; to the military, commerce and all that is industry; indeed, man makes war on calamities.

T305.The causal opening, easier repeated and final participial fragment remain. First writers is not silently recast as every novice writer; the language/history context remains open. [Misuse] renders contextual abuser from abu[…]er. No December day is supplied.

T600.The narrow remnant of the day does not securely establish 1, so no complete day digit is supplied. The wrapped q in lorsqu’il is abraded but retains its bowl and descender sufficiently for a qualified reading. The damaged opening after abu does not certify s, and the residue remains. The final nominal fragment is not completed.

T306.The opening dependent formulation and the unexpected too reasonable remain. No explanatory definition of goodness or reason is inserted. [Man] renders contextual homme from […]omme; the adjective good corresponds to intact de bien and stays outside the bracket.

T601.The damaged initial before omme retains no complete h ascender, so the loss remains. The colon and nominal construction remain without added quotation marks.

T307.The nominal introduction, internal ellipsis and universal all remain. No missing quotation text or independent source is supplied. A later indexed quotation lead was found but direct access failed; no direct comparison or source-copy identification is claimed.

T308.The reported past speech, addressees us and active/agitated/activities/agitation sequence remain. Only retains the critical restriction; no claim of independently verified verbatim reporting is made. The printed November 25 remains after December entries; the source order is not rearranged.

T603.November 25 is printed after the preceding December dates; no chronology is repaired. Mʳ retains the raised r. The parenthesis and the period inside the quotation remain, followed by the separate exclamation with restrictive ne... que.

T309.The opening Latin phrase is translated as Seductions of speech, consistently with the earlier passage, followed by Joubert’s own gloss. Only that opening English phrase is italic; its colon stays outside. Pathos renders le pathétique as an appeal to feeling. [Thoughts] renders contextual pensées from pen[…]ées without certifying the lost s or degraded surviving accent. Magic remains distinct from seduction, with the ear qualification intact; no Ciceronian passage is identified.

T310.The repeated affectation, quoted sensibility, double exclusion and qualified exception remain. Both seductions and the second paragraph’s magic are italic, matching the source, while affectation remains roman. This intact affectation stays distinct from the earlier affective technical term. The final none of it leaves the French en relation open without inventing a single referent; the source reading Grecs remains qualified for a damaged glyph.

T311.The repeated infinitive, art/merit distinction and many/only beautiful opposition remain. Later and earliest are relative formulations, not newly assigned historical dates. The source comma before the first was is retained.

T605.The terminal December day 8 has two visible compartments; no preceding digit is recovered. The comma before fut and the restrictive second sentence remain. The wrapped t in postérieurs and the initial p in premiers are abraded but readable; no complete word is inferred from an absent initial.

T312.Mores retains the habitual moral and social standards of mœurs. The dash, relative formulation, repeated certain and singular one of the conditions remain; no particular community or code is identified.

T606.The dash and relative fragment remain. The plural affections/actions lead to the singular une des conditions as printed. The right-edge cer- continuation is readable.

T313.The repeated lacks and unnamed he remain. No speaker or disputed topic is supplied.

T314.The repeated combat formulation, only restriction, two powers of fortune and paired purposes remain. Composure interprets literal sens-froid consistently with earlier passages. Paetus is the conventional English form of Pétus. The cited sequence concerns his Armenian campaign and retreat; the moral conclusions are Joubert’s formulation, not a quotation independently matched word for word.

T608.The right edge abrades the x of heureux, but its surviving diagonal components support a qualified reading. Sens-froid is the printed compound; no n is inserted from a conventional spelling. The two semicolons, restrictive ne... que, Pétus spelling, lower-case Roman xv, section sign, and parenthetic reference remain.

T315.The unnamed they, hypothetical reported speech and subsequent present say remain. Only the first their office is italic, matching leur charge rather than the whole verbal phrase. Office remains distinct from duty, and the repeated good and final alone keep their scope. No institution is identified.

T316.The nominal beginning and ending, hypothetical comparison and full series remain. Caesar, Harlequin, Achilles and Alexander use conventional English forms; the other names remain as printed. No performer or biographical circumstance is identified beyond the source.

T610.All four separately indented paragraphs remain. The wrapped accouplement has a merged but u-like final glyph before the break; its literal reading is qualified. After pr in the third paragraph, the marginal fragments do not establish the complete accented letter before next-line noms, so pr[…]noms remains. The printed names and accents, including plain Emile and Edouard, are retained. S’appeller has double l; the nominal exclamations and repeated negative comparison remain.

T317.The whole list, lower-case exclamation and separate parenthesis remain. Source accents and lack of an accent in Emile are retained; no additional literary characters or naming histories are supplied.

T318.[Given names] renders contextual prénoms from pr[…]noms, with the complete English phrase bracketed. Saints makes explicit the patronage indicated by the following paragraph’s great saints; it is not presented as a missing source word. The contrast with sonorous and useless nicknames remains.

T319.The miller, the repeated great, can and should, and the final four exclusions remain. Gregory and Edward use conventional English forms of Grégoire and Edouard; no specific kings are assigned beyond Joubert’s wording.

T320.The nominal series and parenthesis remain. Military renders milice in its broad period sense, without imposing a particular civilian militia. To both makes explicit the relation of commune to the two named groups; no additional institution is supplied.

T611.Both paragraphs remain, including the series of nominal formulations and the repeated commerce. A is plain at the opening of A la milice. Loix and the singular industrie remain. The two semicolons and the elliptical au militaire are not expanded.

T321.The two semicolons, elliptical second allocation and repeated commerce remain. Public administration renders police in its period range of civic order, regulation and the authority maintaining them. The complete official 1798 electronic entry was directly checked; no dictionary-page image was inspected. Industry retains the broad field of practical activity, and the war on calamities remains an image rather than a new policy prescription.