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← ExitThe Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II

Reading language

YEAR 1813

March […]ᵉʳ.

Someone has said: “The number of just thoughts is bounded by the very [nature] of things.” And the number of pleasing fictions is [bounded] too by the nature of our mind.

March […].

Few books can please throughout life. There are some one grows disgusted with, [in] time and with wisdom or good sense, as with passions.

Beautiful works do not intoxicate, but they enchant.

March […]0.

By the nature of our taste, by the qualities necessary in a subject, [true] or invented, to please the imagination and interest the heart, [finally] by the given condition and the immutability of [human] nature, there are few epic subjects, few tragic subjects, few comic ones. And through our combinations to create new ones, we often [attempt] the impossible.

For an epic poem to succeed, half the poet’s ideas and fable must be in the readers’ heads. The poet must, finally, be dealing with a public curious to learn what he himself is eager to relate. It is thus that author and readers at the same time have an epic head: a conjunction or conjuncture that is truly indispensable.

Note. That half an epic poem must be in the poet’s head and the other half in the readers’ heads.

March 17.

Silence. — Delights of silence. — Thoughts must be born of the soul and words of silence. — An attentive silence.

March 19.

Only the good, the wise and the saints are happy; but the saints more than all the others. To such a degree is human nature made for holiness!

March 22.

Eternal damnation. But he wants at least for you to be afraid of it, and if you do not fear it you resist his will, and consequently order.

What I call “phosphorus.” Colored sounds.

March 23.

Voltaire. That eternal John-who-weeps-and-John-who-laughs. He was always the one or the other. A man incapable of being grave.

March 25.

Almost everything we call an abuse was a remedy, in political institutions.

March 26.

A Jansenist, or a Molinist, or a Methodist and a pious man are two men and two characters.

March 27.

Prodigality (of words and thoughts) announces a foolish mind. It is not abundance, but excellence that is wealth. Economy (in literature) announces the great writer. Without good order and without sobriety, no wisdom. Without wisdom, no greatness.

T40.The unnamed attribution, number/bounded/nature repetition and transition from things to mind remain. Just preserves correctness or fittingness without limiting the thoughts to legal justice. [Nature] and the second [bounded] interpret nature and borné from […]ature and […]orné; the first bounded is intact. The English period is placed inside the closing quotation in American style; the French quotation and its external period remain literal. The day digit is unrecovered, despite the qualified surviving raised er.

T444.The main day digit is not certifiable. The two small raised letter shapes support a qualified superscript er, without supplying 1. In the French source, the quotation closes before its following period. The damaged opening of nature and missing b before orné remain explicit; the surviving initial o contour is itself abraded. The two nombre formulations remain parallel.

T41.Few, throughout life, the wisdom/good-sense alternative and comparison with passions remain. The disgust is not softened to simple boredom. [In] contextually renders avec from […]vec within the temporal phrase; English with before wisdom expresses the continuing prepositional relation without another source loss. The source’s le bons sens is retained in French, while good sense uses ordinary English grammar.

T445.The day is wholly lost. The initial a of avec is not certifiable; vec remains with a worn but identifiable v. The print reads le bons sens, retaining its anomalous final s. Ennyvrent visibly has y and double n and is not normalized to enivrent. The second paragraph stays separate. Disconnected material outside its ordinary left margin does not establish an additional word before Les.

T42.The two distinct effects and their opposition remain in their own paragraph; no moral explanation is supplied. Intoxicate renders the qualified literal ennyvrent without normalizing the French spelling.

T43.All three initial grounds, true/invented, repeated few and often remain. Subject is not reduced to plot alone; combination stays distinct from free invention. [True], [finally], [human] and [attempt] interpret vrai, enfin, humaine and tentons from […]rai, […]nfin, […]umaine and […]entons. Only terminal 0 survives in the March day; no earlier digit is supplied.

T446.The surviving tall closed oval supports qualified terminal 0, but preceding date fragments do not certify another digit. The damaged openings before rai, nfin, umaine and entons do not establish vrai, enfin, humaine or tentons as recovered words. The initial c of comiques retains an identifiable open body despite intersecting artifacts and is qualified; those outside-margin traces do not certify an extra word. The repeated par/peu sequence, plural subjects and final impossible remain.

T44.The half relation, repeated head and two forms conjunction/conjuncture remain. Fable keeps the constructed narrative sense without narrowing it to an animal tale. Only an epic head is italic, corresponding to la tête épique; the English indefinite article is an idiomatic adjustment. The one paragraph continues onto page 742. No source gap is invented at an ordinary page or line wrap.

T45.The separate Note. and dependent That formulation remain. Its differently stated division is not silently reconciled with the preceding paragraph. Only Note., including its period, is italic to match Nota.; the rest remains roman.

T46.The repeated silence, dashes, birth image and nominal opening/ending remain. No practice or circumstance is supplied.

T448.The three dashes and nominal outer formulations remain. The final t of right-edge naissent retains identifiable strokes with abrasion qualification; no additional verb is supplied for the parallel paroles clause.

T47.The only restriction, comparative saints and final exclamation remain. No stronger claim about every individual experience is added. To such a degree preserves the force of the concluding Tant without the awkwardness of a literal So much.

T449.The restrictive opening, comparative saints clause and exclamatory Tant remain. The worn right-edge les and pour retain identifiable glyphs and are qualified without an inserted word.

T48.The nominal opening, connective But, at least, two fear formulations and consequent order remain. The unnamed he is not replaced by a newly supplied name or doctrine.

T450.The opening fragment and lower-case il remain, without supplying a named antecedent. The du moins qualification and both en/la relations are retained. The line-wrap in conséquent is joined, and the right-edge peur/compositional ending is recognizable despite abrasion.

T49.Both fragments and the quotation remain. Colored follows American spelling; the unexplained analogy is not given a modern sensory diagnosis. The period is inside the closing English quotation in American style; French punctuation remains unchanged.

T451.In the French source, the closing quotation precedes the period. Le is inside the quoted phrase, and both formulations remain fragments. The phrase is roman; no new emphasis is inferred from its quotation.

T50.The compounded epithet is freshly translated with its repeated John and linked contrast; no particular literary source is asserted. The fragments, always and incapacity for gravity remain.

T452.The complete hyphenated Jean-qui-pleure-et-Jean-qui-rit form remains a single chain, with the two capital names. The two nominal judgments and the intervening finite sentence retain their order. The right-edge toujours is worn but identifiable.

T51.Almost, present call/past was and the final institutional qualification remain. No particular institution or historical event is added.

T52.The three alternatives and the deliberately counted two men/two characters remain. They are not recast as four men or a claim that no adherent can be pious. No doctrinal definitions are inserted into the text.

T53.The prodigality/economy and abundance/excellence distinctions, two parentheses, repeated announces and three without formulations remain. Foolish renders the qualified literal fol; the French retains abbondance with double b. No French spelling is silently regularized.