Diotimos Reading Desk

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← ExitThe Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II

Reading language

According to Plato

(June 10. Observations.)

Nothing is more tedious than the refutation of an error that is not ours and in which we have no part in any way, either through ourselves or through our friends.

July 1.

Tone and taste. Their differences and — Of purism: in what its weakness and its excess consist. What offends taste must always be excluded, but not always what does not conform to the tone: tone is only a fashion, but taste belongs to nature.

To reject an expression that offends neither sound, nor sense, nor good taste nor clarity is a ridiculous purism, a pusillanimity.

July 3.

It is a truth that “not all truths are good to tell” or even to know.

The only universally useful truths are those everyone knows. Those one teaches to no one, but it is good to recall them often, to everyone and to oneself.

Everything that is not abstraction and maxim is a fact and not a truth. When one applies this beautiful word to material things one obscures its clarity.

Time is in the soul (and numbers are there too). Thus Plato places the first instant and the first movement there. (See the Florentines on Diotima’s discourse.)

July 4.

They needed a hundred times more ingenuity to imagine such a physics than we need to learn, to know and even to discover the true one.

There is indeed often more ingenuity and penetration in an error than in a discovery.

July 5.

One must receive with good grace the deformities that age brings and that invade you.

In love, the qualities of the blood.

May […]8.

I. In that case, sumptuary laws are needed in a republic [to] maintain equality, and they are needed in a monarchy to [maintain] distinctions or, what is the same thing, equality among [all] the citizens of the same class and distinctions among the different [classes].

II. Everything in sumptuary laws must in all things tend to [inspire] greatness in the soul of the great, and modesty in the small. [One] must therefore prescribe pomp to the great and forbid luxury to everyone.

July […].

Nothing will enter heaven that is not beautiful. (Nothing but what is beautiful [and] heavenly will ever enter heaven.)

I. One must accept with good grace the deformities that heaven [sends] or that time brings.

II. Nothing can enter heaven but what is beautiful and heavenly or like heaven itself.

Friday, July 9.

I do not like these trees that are always [green]. As they have nothing to fear, they interest me little. As they lose nothing, they [seem] insensible to me.. In short, there is something cold in their greenery, something black in their shade. Their very foliage is pointed [and] has something hard about it; moreover it is pointed and prickly.

T126.The universal comparison and the two exclusions remain. Neither enemies nor a long refutation is imported from the related earlier entry. Observations and the reversed June 10 date remain in the source’s parenthetic date/circumstance metadata, not as an invented title.

T528.The parenthetic date includes Observations. and retains both internal periods. It remains after the June 20 entries without chronological rearrangement. The restrictive/negative relations and both ni phrases remain. This is the final unit under the Greek heading.

S1.Source editor’s annotationNotebook.

T127.The unfinished initial connection, always/not always distinction and fashion/nature contrast remain. Purism retains the literary term; the transition back to the main notebook is marked by the source editor’s separate note on the July 1 date, not in the main text.

T164.Beaunier’s separate apparatus explains the notebook resumption; it is not a new entry.

T529.Both paragraphs remain separate. The detached Leurs différences et followed by a dash and capital Du, the two colons, repeated goût/ton and explicit mais non toujours remain. The printed Rejetter has two t. The source call follows juillet before the date period, marking the return to the notebook outside the Greek heading.

T530.The roman one-word apparatus paragraph reads Carnet. Its printed call is on the July 1 date after juillet and before the baseline period, not inside either main paragraph.

T128.All four exclusions and the double verdict remain in a separate paragraph; neither timidity nor the literary judgment is softened.

T129.The opening truth and quoted partial negative remain. The quotation closes before the extension to knowing; no proverbial source is independently claimed.

T531.The two paragraphs remain separate. The quotation closes after dire, before ni même à scavoir. The partial negation in the quotation, subsequent restrictive clause and repeated et à remain. Scavoir, scait and hyphenated Celles-là retain the printed spellings.

T130.The universal restriction, distinction between teaching and recalling, often and both recipients remain. The source’s deliberate repetition is not compressed into a maxim about novelty.

T131.The conjunction and and fact/truth distinction remain, as do the beautiful-word and clarity images. No alternative definition of truth replaces the printed claim.

T132.The location and repeated first remain. Florentines stays plural and unnamed; Diotima is a conventional English name form. No specific commentary or source edition is invented.

T133.The hundredfold comparison, unnamed they/we and three distinct infinitives remain. Ingenuity renders esprit as inventive capacity in this context, not merely joking wit. Such a physics remains unnamed.

T534.The two paragraphs, imperfect/present contrast, cent fois comparison and repeated pour remain. The printed scavoir remains. The date 4 is legible despite unrelated blotting above its line.

T134.The separate paragraph retains often, the paired capacities and comparative claim. Penetration retains intellectual acuity and the physical metaphor without adding an explanation.

T135.The obligation, good-grace idiom and bodily invasion image remain. The change from generic obligation to you is preserved; no consolation or medical explanation is added.

T136.The nominal fragment and plural qualities remain. No physiological theory or meaning of blood is supplied.

T536.The nominal fragment remains without a supplied assertion or comparison.

T137.The Roman label, repeated necessity and equality/distinctions relation remain. [To], [maintain], [all] and [classes] contextually render pour, maintenir, tous and classes from […]our, main[…]enir, […]ous and clas[…]es. The first distinctions interprets qualified literal dictinctions without rewriting the French; the later distinctions is clear. The damaged May date remains out of sequence without inferring its leading digit.

T138.The Roman label, everything/all, great/greatness and small contrast remain. Prescribe is positive, distinct from forbid. Pomp preserves the display in faste while luxury renders luxe; the complete period dictionary evidence is in the bounded primary preflight. [Inspire] and [One] render contextual inspirer and Il from […]nspirer and […]l. The singular soul retains âme; English the great remains plural in reference.

T139.The future and the reformulated negative remain, including ever and the parenthesis. The second sentence is not discarded as repetition. [And] contextually renders et from […]t.

T538.The day is wholly lost; no numeral is inferred from neighboring dates. The parenthesis and its final period remain. Only the final t survives as a complete letter at its damaged line opening.

T140.The first Roman label and alternative sources of deformity remain. Heaven and time are not reduced to the age formulation of the preceding page. [Sends] contextually renders envoye from […]nvoye.

T141.The second Roman label and can, only restriction and final or remain. This differs from the earlier future statement and stays in its separate paragraph. The damaged contextual de before semblable has no separate English counterpart: like expresses intact semblable. No empty bracket or restored French preposition is added.

T142.The supplied source bracket around green, repeated As, nothing and pointed remain. Insensible preserves the trees’ possible unfeeling character; the personification and cold/black imagery are not replaced by botanical explanation. [Seem] and [and] render contextual paroissent and et from […]aroissent and […]t. The doubled point after insensibles is retained after the corresponding English clause. Friday July 9 is kept as printed; no calendar-derived date replaces it.