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← ExitThe Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II

Reading language

1812

And decide this point. For if man has two lives, he must be educated for the one and for the other; and if education that has the second in view makes him better for the first, one must admit the second.

“Doumbs creature”, mute creatures, as the English say when speaking of animals. “There is in this expression something charitable and even a doubt that pleases me”, said a woman [of] wit.

It is a great art to put into style uncertainties that [please].

Morality needs heaven as a painting needs air.

December […].

“Mr. Delaharpe’s style (in his academic discourses) is [all] exordium” (said Diderot). The style as well as the method of [most] books is all preface.

“Thomas offers in his writings a shadow (and a sort of) [caricature] of genius”, says Mr. T.

Mr. G-r-t’s mind seeks to resemble the talent whose procedures it [counterfeits] or imitates (Same). All that is true.

Astonishment is an affection that suspends all the others. [Therefore]...

December […].

At least a brute who is only a brute is ordinarily a frank [man]. The worst kind is men who are [at once] false and violent, dissembling and furious. Such is A. His concentrated hatreds, always ready to burst, always boil over a low fire.

Doubt is indeed a state of swaying or a kind of [equilibrium] in which children cannot hold themselves.

Those who are simple by station and by nature have little love for [simplicity] in the arts: it astonishes them too little. Hence kings [and] the great have better literary taste. Minds weary of [luxury] have surer discernment.

December […]0.

Holy Scripture and prayers. It is like music that [gives] us vague dispositions and definite affections; thus [lending] itself to our needs and adapting itself to our particular situation.

[…]undi, December 21.

Life and death, riches and poverty, elevation and [abasement] are in the hands of God.

December 22.

And, a rose, she lived as long as roses live, The space of a morning.

Poetry builds with little matter: with leaves, with grains of sand, with air, with nothings, etc.

December 23.

We are constructed so as to conceive no existing quality except in relation to its kind, a kind that we suppose to preexist it. Thus, when we say that God is just, we suppose that everything in him conforms to a justice that we imagine almost outside him. Always the idea before the thing. Everything we conceive is placed by us in a time and in a place as in a frame: this is another condition of our understanding.

T322.The opening conjunction and imperative, both if conditions and repeated first/second relation remain. The final conclusion remains conditional on the stated improvement, without adding a proof or description of an afterlife.

S1.Source editor’s annotationIn English dumbs.

T323.The anomalous English Doumbs creature remains literal and italic, with the source note call after Doumbs. The following mute creatures translates Joubert’s French gloss. The two quotations and the second quote’s personal me remain. [Of] renders contextual d’ before intact esprit across the page break; wit is the unbracketed counterpart of esprit. No woman is identified, and neither English anomaly is silently repaired.

T325.This is Beaunier’s separate apparatus, not Joubert’s main text. Only dumbs is italic; the period is roman. Its anomalous English form is retained exactly, without correcting or replacing the authorial quotation.

T613.The anomalous English Doumbs creature remains literal and italic, with the raised source call after Doumbs. The first paragraph continues onto page 735, where no complete d’ is recoverable before esprit. The second paragraph begins on page 735 and loses the opening before aisent. Those losses remain without supplying words. The first short quotation and the later quotation retain their distinct boundaries. Plait shows no certified circumflex, and remains plain.

T324.[Please] renders contextual plaisent from […]aisent. The plural uncertainties remains; no resolution is supplied. This second paragraph begins physically on page 735 and stays within the same entry.

T326.The parallel need and the heaven/air comparison remain. No philosophical explanation replaces the spatial image.

T327.[All] and [most] render contextual tout and plupart from […]ut and […]upart. Exordium retains the technical rhetorical introduction. The two parentheses and repeated all remain. No independently located witness or full name is supplied; the day stays wholly lost.

T616.The tiny curved day remnant does not certify 7 or another digit, so the day remains wholly lost. The left-edge losses before ut exorde, upart, cature after car, and it after contre remain explicit. No missing words or initials are supplied from the attributed sayings. Delaharpe and the opaque G-r-t and T. remain unexpanded; each r in Mʳ is raised. All three paragraphs and their differing quotation boundaries remain, with only Idem italic.

T328.[Caricature] renders contextual caricature from car[…]cature. The source’s interrupted parenthetic construction, closing quotation and present says remain. Mr. T. is not expanded.

T329.[Counterfeits] renders contextual contrefait from contre[…]it. Mind and talent remain distinct. Same translates italic Idem and points to the preceding attribution, without expanding the opaque name or adding quotation marks; only Same is italic.

T330.Affection retains the mental or emotional state without narrowing it to affection for a person. [Therefore] renders intact Par with contextual conséquent, using a broader complete English connective. The consequence remains unfinished.

T331.The only restriction, ordinarily and repeated always remain. [Man] renders contextual homme; [at once] renders intact tout à la with contextual fois, a broader English phrase. Violent renders emportés as the loss of temper, not a newly alleged violent act. The low-fire image and unnamed A. remain; no day is supplied.

T618.The surviving day has only a small upper compartment and damaged lower/right strokes, insufficient to certify the mapped 8 over other possibilities; the day remains wholly lost. The h before omme is not recoverable. Before is faux the possible o is only a right-hand remnant, so neither it nor the earlier f is supplied. The initial c of concentrées is degraded but retains its curved opening and lower foot sufficiently for a qualified reading; neighboring marginal fragments do not prove an additional word. The restrictive ne... que, A., and repeated toujours remain.

T332.The bodily swaying/holding image remains. [Equilibrium] renders contextual équilibre from équi[…]bre; no lost letters are certified.

T619.Both source paragraphs remain. The damaged components before bre, before ité, before t les grands, and before xe are not completed. The u-like remnant before xe lacks its connecting base and full left structure; no complete u or l is supplied. The repeated peu/trop peu and the comparative meilleur/plus sûr remain.

T333.[Simplicity], [and] and [luxury] render contextual simplicité, et and luxe. Station preserves the social condition in état without assigning a class. The repeated little and both comparative judgments remain; the claim is Joubert’s, without an added sociological explanation.

T334.The nominal opening, vague/definite contrast and detached participial continuation remain. [Gives] and [lending] render contextual donne and prêtant, the latter without restoring the source’s printed acute to a different accent. Definite affections are distinct states of feeling, not specified recipients of love. Only the last 0 of the day remains.

T335.All three pairs and the image of hands remain. [Abasement] renders contextual abbaissement from abbais[…]ement, preserving the surviving double b in French. The numerical December 21 is known, while the weekday’s opening stays lost. Ecclesiasticus 11:14 offers a limited parallel, not the exact whole list or hands wording.

T336.The two verse lines form one centered paragraph. The singular rose and plural roses, past lived and present live remain. The second line remains a fragment. A period Encyclopédie quotation attributes the stanza to Malherbe; no title, author or daughter’s name is added to Joubert’s verse text.

T622.The day 22 is qualified for abrasion to the first digit, whose surviving upper turn, descending portion and separate lower stroke support 2; no chronological substitution is made. The two centered verse lines remain one paragraph, followed by the separate prose paragraph. No title, author or quotation marks are added. The initial d in des grains is readable despite adjacent marginal artifacts.

T337.The separate prose paragraph, repeated with and plural nothings remain. Matter is not replaced by subject matter, and the leaves are not narrowed to pages or foliage beyond the source.

T338.The restrictive relation, repeated kind, almost outside and nominal Always formulation remain. Kind renders espèce as a general class without supplying a particular philosophical system. The physical frame remains. The single paragraph continues onto page 736 without division.

T623.The day 23 is qualified for the abraded but identifiable upper turn, diagonal and lower foot of the first digit. This single paragraph continues at the top of page 736. The initial letters of existante, the wrapped posons, nous, imaginons and ce are readable; irregular strokes farther left lie in the damaged margin and do not establish additional words. The restrictive ne... que and the nominal Toujours l’idée avant la chose remain.