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← ExitThe Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II

Reading language

1812

December […]1.

Suicide, or the homicide of oneself. To have a more just [horror] of it let us place it in the situation where it would be most excusable: [suppose] it committed in the tomb by the man who [would awake] there alive.

Of the friendship one has for an old man. One loves him as a [passing] thing. He is a ripe fruit one expects to see fall. It is more or less [so] with a sickly person. One would readily apply to him the [saying] of Epictetus: — I saw what was fragile break.

Paternal power, royal power. Of military power [whose] observation and influence have been prolonged.

The Indies. A subject eminently suited to furnishing a beautiful history and that carries its poetry with it. It concerns lands, men and mores unknown. It is truth one wants there; fiction would spoil [everything].

T348.The opening formulation and hypothetical argument remain in Joubert’s voice. [Horror], [suppose] and [would awake] render contextual horreur, supposons and réveilleroit, with the last bracket covering the whole English conditional verb. Just retains the claim about the fittingness of the judgment. Only the terminal 1 of the December day remains.

T349.The nominal opening, passing thing and ripe-fruit images remain. [Passing], [so] and [saying] render contextual passagère, ainsi and mot. More or less preserves à peu près; sickly person renders valétudinaire without adding a diagnosis. The attributed saying remains after its dash without new quotation marks; no exact Epictetus passage has been identified.

T634.The missing p before assagère, a before insi, and damaged initial before ot remain explicit. The initial a of the surviving assagère is abraded but identifiable from both its upper and lower compartments. The attribution has plain E in Epictète. After the colon the dash has thin parallel reproduction traces; its diplomatic dash reading remains qualified. No quotation marks or identity are added.

T350.The nominal opening, repeated power and unfinished Of formulation remain. [Whose] renders contextual dont from […]ont. Observation keeps the source term’s possible senses of observing, attending to or complying with that power unresolved; the fragment supplies no context deciding among them. No institution, duration or historical example is added.

T635.The damaged initial before ont retains a vertical stem but no complete d bowl, so it is not supplied. The nominal sequence and feminine plural prolongées remain.

T351.The nominal opening, dependent subject formulation, carried poetry and truth/fiction contrast remain. Mores retains the social and moral range of mœurs. [Everything] renders contextual tout from […]out. Indies is not narrowed to a modern country, and the source’s claim of unfamiliarity is not presented as a newly established fact. This unit remains before the 1813 heading.