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← ExitThe Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II

Reading language

According to Plato

The hackney coachman’s remark to Mr. Gaudy: “But, sir, I must indeed constitute myself on my seat and organize my horses.”

Ill-made souls. They exist. Y..., for example, has an upright mind and an ill-made soul.

The man who sees has a hundred times less need of reasoning than a blind man. The latter, at each groping movement of his stick, is obliged to resort to inductions, to conjectures. The other looks and takes the step.

September 11.

The poetry to which Socrates said the gods had instructed him to devote himself in his prison. What was this poetry? One must cultivate it in captivity, in infirmities, in old age. It is this that delights the dying.

September 12.

Of music. The flattest words can serve as a text and sufficient motif for the most excellent music (as for the most exquisite poetry). “I love you well.” The most touching declaration of love in verse and the most moving air may contain only the meaning and substance of these trivial words.

All commonplaces have an eternal interest. They are commonplaces and universal only because they always and everywhere please nature. This is the uniform fabric the human mind needs to [put] to work when it wishes to please. Circumstances throw into it ([put] — mix into it — put is better) their variety.

Commonplaces. We are carried toward them by nature. Everyone pleases there.

September […].

Barbaroï, barbari. This word is a kind of onomatopoeia. Makers [of] bra-bra-bra. It is as if one said baragouïneurs in French.

September […].

One says “gentle to his friends and terrible to his enemies.” He, on the [contrary], is terrible to his friends and gentle to his enemies.

September […].

In literature, N is a young head without hair; Z Z is a young bald [head].

By nature a young imagination is on a level with nothing, but [above] and below everything.

September […]5.

For many years now (he said) the present age has no longer had the [right] to speak ill of the past.

Half of me mocks the other half.

September […]6.

Bound by their light alone. A-M. H.C. (August).

T225.The public-hire coachman, named addressee and direct speech remain. Constitute and organize preserve the conspicuously formal verbs rather than smoothing them into sit and harness. Mr. renders printed M with a raised r; constituë retains its source diaeresis in French.

T226.The detached plural and short assertion remain. Mind and soul retain their different judgments; the initial is not expanded.

T227.The hundredfold comparison and distinct reasoning/inductions/conjectures remain. The latter refers to the blind man and the other to the seeing man. The bodily stick and step image is not made into an independently asserted account of blindness.

T609.The cent fois comparison, paired inductions/conjectures and final physical step remain. Raisonnemens retains its ending.

T228.The initial relative fragment, reported divine instruction, question and three repeated settings remain. The precise ancient passage has not yet been identified; no explanation of music or a named poem is inserted.

T610.Both poësie tokens have distinct raised e-components; the initial nominal/relative sentence remains without a governing verb. Celle là is printed without a hyphen. The singular est before plural les délices and mourans remain literal.

T229.The three opening superlatives and the later touching/moving superlatives remain. Motif retains the musical and prompting sense; air remains the song/melody term. I love you well preserves the plain quoted bien without intensifying it into a newly passionate declaration. The modal and final only restriction remain.

T230.The universal terms, human mind, nature and fabric remain. The first [put] contextually interprets mettre from […]ettre. The later [put] chooses contextual mettent from […]ettent, as one of the alternatives to intact jettent; jettent remains another possible reading of the lost opening. The English supplies an opening parenthesis before this alternative to match the intact closing one, without claiming recovered punctuation. The ensuing mix into it and put is better preserve Joubert’s visible revision rather than deleting it. This paragraph continues onto page 757.

T612.The first paragraph continues at the top of page 757, followed by the second distinct paragraph. The first broken opening preserves ettre; the next opening before ettent is also lost, and the intact closing parenthesis remains without supplying its missing opening. In the final y plaît, no complete preceding component or positive lexical remnant is certified at the damaged margin; retain the visible wording. A contextual s’y reading would be an interpretation, not recovered French, and the presence of additional lost material there remains uncertain.

T231.The separate paragraph and repeated nature remain. We expresses generic on. The final sentence literally renders visible Tout le monde y plaît; there refers contextually to commonplaces. The reproduction does not certify a reflexive s’ or additional lost material before y. The familiar reflexive interpretation everyone delights in them would require an unverified intervention, so the English keeps the nonreflexive wording.

T232.The actual transliterated Greek Barbaroï, Latin barbari and French baragouïneurs remain because their forms and sounds are the subject. The first two mean barbarians, and the last can be freshly glossed jabberers. The bra-bra-bra syllables remain literal, and only baragouïneurs carries the source emphasis. Both French diaereses remain. [Of] contextually interprets de from […]e. No independent etymological proof is claimed; the September day is wholly unreadable.

T613.The damaged day has disconnected upper and lower remnants, insufficient to certify the map’s provisional 2; the whole day remains lost. The broken opening before bra preserves e, without recovering d. Barbaroï and italic baragouïneurs retain their diaereses; the latter has two separate raised components above i in the native image. The transliterated and Latin forms remain literal and unexpanded.

T233.The repeated possessives and complete reversal remain. The quoted maxim and the unnamed he are not assigned a person or event. [Contrary] interprets contraire from con[…]aire; ordinary on the represents intact au. The September day is wholly unreadable.

T234.The distinct without hair and bald formulations remain alongside repeated young head. Both N and Z Z remain literal and unexpanded. Only the second [head] contextually interprets tête from […]te; the September day is wholly lost.

T615.The damaged day has a surviving stem and junction that do not establish a complete 4; the whole day remains lost. The two paragraphs and literal N / Z Z forms remain without identification. The first paragraph preserves te after the damaged opening; the second preserves u before dessus. The detached margin marks beside En and Naturellement do not certify extra words.

T235.The separate paragraph preserves the spatial image and nothing/everything and above/below contrasts. No developmental explanation is inserted. [Above] represents the complete English prepositional relation from damaged contextual au and intact dessus; its broader bracket does not imply that dessus is lost.

T236.The temporal extent, anonymous parenthetic attribution and no longer remain. Present age and past refer to historical times without supplied dates. [Right] interprets droit from […]roit; only terminal 5 survives in the September day. Said renders the imperfect citation attribution without asserting repeated occasions of speaking.

T616.Only terminal 5 is identifiable in the damaged day; preceding material remains lost. Before roit, the first letter retains disconnected right-side components but no complete d. The parenthetic attribution and intact n’a plus remain.

T237.The first-person division and reference to the other half remain unexplained; no psychological diagnosis is supplied.

T617.Mocque retains the printed c. The first-person halves and singular agreement remain.

T238.The opening participial fragment, exclusive light and opaque A-M. H.C. remain. The parenthetic August is a body reference, not a replacement for the September entry date, whose only surviving digit is terminal 6. No personal names are expanded.

T618.Only terminal 6 is secure in the damaged day. A-M. H.C. remains an opaque literal form, with its hyphen and periods; no name is expanded. The parenthetic août remains a body reference, not a replacement for the entry’s September date.