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← ExitThe Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II

Reading language

YEAR 1813

May […]6.

By one’s peers. Since the establishment of the parlements, everyone in most cases was judged by the same judges. Outside the administration of justice, the judges were no one’s superiors, [properly] speaking. One was judged by one’s peers; but by peers more learned than oneself.

May […]7.

More serious, but not more important. The thoughts have more weight for it, but the work has no more value. (Le Misantrope and Scapin.)

May […]9.

Obstinate, headstrong. — The headstrong person thinks strongly everything he thinks. The obstinate person holds strongly to his opinions, weak or strong.

All truths must be double, and the virtues too. And feelings too, if they are to be virtues. Physics and morality; severity and indulgence.

May 17.

Better things for the pious. (Virg.) To do everything to the liking of good people.

May 18.

Let [service] be reasonable, (they say). But one must seek and find the reason for belief and not that for the doctrine. — The latter would be infinite; the other is shorter and sufficient.

There are things of which we can have no idea and of which we have a feeling. As of our freedom, etc. When it is a question of those things, it is not our mind but our heart that must be consulted.

Neither in metaphysics, nor in logic, nor in morality must one place in the head what ought to be in the heart or in the conscience. Make love of parents a feeling and a precept, but never a thesis, a mere demonstration.

Society. He said wittily: — When people have come to understand one another, they no longer know what to say to one another.” But people are tempted to part and to flee from one another when they do not understand one another.

“Salutary truths!”

Of uniforms. And: that uniforms are needed to maintain distinctions and equality. Hence the necessity of sumptuary laws in all times and in all regimes and in all institutions.

May 20.

They believe themselves enlightened because they are decided, taking conviction for truth and strong conception for intelligence.

T66.The initial fragment, repeated judges and peers, institutional limit and final qualification remain. Parlements retains the historical French institutional term rather than identifying modern parliamentary legislatures. This translates Joubert’s retrospective claim; no independent legal history is asserted. [Properly] renders contextual proprement from propre[…]ent; speaking corresponds to intact dits and remains outside the bracket.

T468.Only qualified terminal 6 is retained from the damaged day. In wrapped propre-/ment, the first arch/stem of m is materially incomplete, so only ent is certified after the break. Dans, hors and final pairs retain recognizable abraded initials; external margin artifacts are not treated as added words. Three detached thin marks between le and monde do not establish a continuous lexical hyphen; plain le monde is retained with that qualification. The negative person relation, paired juges/pairs and comparative scavans remain.

T67.The opening comparative fragment and distinct weight/value judgments remain. The abbreviated work references are retained without supplying full titles or a comparison not stated in the text. The source’s literal Misantrope lacks h; both references remain roman, and the French title is not silently respelled.

T469.The day retains a clear terminal 7 with earlier loss. Misantrope visibly lacks h and remains in its roman parenthesis, with no title expansion. The initial d of de and S of Scapin remain identifiable despite margin abrasion; no extra word is certified. The two degree contrasts and en pronouns remain.

T68.Obstinate and headstrong distinguish the paired character terms. Strongly repeats for thinking and holding; the final weak/strong alternative concerns the opinions, not an added judgment about their truth.

T470.The day retains qualified terminal 9, with no preceding digit supplied. The two terms, repeated fortement and weak/strong alternatives remain. The dash is distinct from thin reproduction traces above it; no extra punctuation is inferred.

T69.The single paragraph crosses onto page 744. Double and the repeated too remain unexplained; the final two pairs remain nominal with their semicolon. No systematic doctrine is supplied.

T471.The single paragraph continues onto 744. Both aussi formulations and the final two nominal pairings remain, including the semicolon. No italic emphasis occurs in this unit. The worn final t of Et on 743 is recognizable, without an extra source word.

T70.Better things for the pious. translates only Meliora piis., including its period and italic scope. Virg. remains the abbreviated source attribution, in roman type. The words occur within Georgics III.513, a longer parenthetic wish in an animal-plague passage; the omitted gods and hostile wish are not supplied. To do everything preserves the separate French infinitival fragment.

T472.The Latin phrase, including its period, is italic; the parenthetic Virg. is roman and remains unexpanded. The French is an infinitival fragment.

T71.[Service] explicitly interprets the anomalous literal aobrequium as obsequium; this is an English emendation, not recovery of missing French print. The Vulgate Romans 12:1 has rationabile obsequium vestrum; Joubert’s sit remains and the Bible’s vestrum is not added. The whole opening through its comma is italic, matching the Latin; the unnamed speakers remain roman. Belief and doctrine stay distinct. The source’s masculine Ce dernier/l’autre forms are not silently repaired or assigned a new noun in English.

T473.The qualified literal aobrequium retains the native a-o-b-r sequence; the first a has a right foot and a separate o follows. No expected Latin spelling is substituted. The entire Latin phrase through its comma is italic, while the parenthesis is roman. The masculine Ce dernier and l’autre remain without grammatical repair.

T72.The absolute inability to have an idea and the affirmative feeling remain distinct. The example is a fragment; the heart/mind contrast is not expanded into a theory of knowledge.

T73.The three disciplines and locations, ought and never, and the two kinds of formulation remain. Love of parents preserves the genitive without deciding the direction of affection.

T74.The source’s opening colon/dash and unmatched closing quotation are retained without adding an opening quote. The unnamed he, past said and repeated mutual understanding remain; the last sentence remains outside the reported speech.

T476.The opening colon and dash and the closing guillemet after dire. remain; no matching opening guillemet is supplied. The unidentified Il, imperfect disoit and literal scait remain.

T75.The quoted nominal exclamation remains. Salutary retains the beneficial or saving range without adding a particular doctrine.

T477.The quoted exclamatory nominal fragment stands alone, without a supplied verb or terminal period outside the quotation.

T76.The opening fragments and repeated all remain, with distinctions and equality in the same claim. Uniforms retains the concrete term; no present-day policy or regulation is supplied.

T478.The nominal opening, Et followed by a colon and lower-case qu’il, and the repeated dans formulations remain. The printed loix remains.

T77.The causal claim and two substitutions remain. Decided is not silently changed into correct; no group is identified.

T479.The literal croyent and the two pour relations remain. No referent is supplied for Ils.