Diotimos Reading Desk

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← ExitThe Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II

Reading language

According to Plato

One errs through superiority and through mediocrity.

September […]9.

“He knows too well all he wants to say...” This is a literary reproach [that] at first seems strange, but makes sense. It censures those young [minds] that never suspect anything beyond their [reach] and see [only] what they attain. A kind of merit and [of] mediocrity incompatible with all progress and with all [modesty].

September 20.

To what extent do masters’ ways and secret moods, revealed in their physiognomy, influence children and form or deform them?

September 21.

Every worker (and God himself) finds something imperfect and resistant to him in the matter he puts to work. This is where labor comes from. Clay is too soft for the sculptor and cannot bear the chisel; marble is too hard and does not obey the hand; bronze is too brittle and needs to be melted.

That God is always occupied.

September 22.

Of the vanity that wishes to please and Of the vanity that wishes to dominate and consists in making oneself valued. (It is better to make oneself welcome.)

Ideas or plans, molds, models, and more rarely seals.

Beings come from ideas, and images from objects.

What they called “species” were a kind of images that were only intelligible and suited to strike the mind as real images strike the eye. In all visible bodies there occur effluences and sheddings of optical images that strike the eye, just as in all odorous substances there occur effluences or a shedding of parts that strike the sense of smell.

The word perfume. How beautiful it is; it pictures and defines the odor or its cause, which is a kind of smoke.

The world came out of God’s mind and idea as a beautiful statue of bronze or marble comes out of the mold or the sculptor’s head.

Indeed, nothing can be beautiful in matter (or in material things, such as words, sounds, etc.) except through the impress of thought or of the soul. Except light, beautiful in itself, or rather through the impress of its immediate principle, which is God — perhaps.

Those sayings with which the inattentive mind is content, through an appearance of clarity and exactness that binds the memory to them, can be very dangerous. Such is the saying of Dicaearchus: “The soul is nothing but the living body’s force put into action.” Do not think of thought; regard the effect more than the principle, and the saying will seem true to you.

Uniformity of opinions, uniformity of life, uniformity of manners, uniformity even of dress, — who will replace all that?

I [am] [at odds] with the treasury because I regard money as manure (as fertilizer) and they regard it as the harvest.

There is in our mind I know not what dry part that needs abstractions as the other needs images (colors, figures, forms, etc.). One must satisfy them both by giving them nourishment, lest they be given over to unruly appetites and devour reason. The human intelligence has its meats and its dry bread.

(The human intelligence has its dry bread and its delights.)

T239.Both through phrases remain conjunctive; the paradox of superiority causing error is not smoothed away.

T240.Too, all, at first and never remain. The source editor’s [que] supplies [only], distinct from new English brackets interpreting reproduction losses: [that], [minds], [reach] and [modesty] interpret qui, esprits, portée and modestie from their damaged forms. [Of] interprets the second de from […]e in genre de mérite et de médiocrité. The repeated of preserves both French de relations; and renders intact et outside the brackets. The final nominal fragment and merit/mediocrity pair remain. Only terminal 9 survives in the September day.

T619.Only terminal 9 is secure in the damaged day. Scait, the quoted printed ellipsis and source-supplied [que] remain literal. The damaged line openings preserve ui, sprits, ortée and e, and the wrapped modestie preserves mo and estie around a lost component. The remaining pieces before these residues do not certify complete q/e/p/d/d. The nominal final formulation, the jamais negative and the ne…[que] restriction remain.

T241.The question and form/deform relation remain. Secret qualifies moods, while the physiognomic manifestation applies to the compound subject. Masters retains maîtres without specifying a modern school role.

T242.The parenthetic God, imperfect/resistant relation and three materials remain. Each too and the three different responses to tools or melting stay distinct. Bronze is a contextual rendering of airain in the sculptural setting; no metallurgical correction is imposed.

T243.The dependent That remains; occupied retains the work/occupation relation without naming an object or supplying a complete theological proposition.

T622.The dependent Que opening remains; no governing clause is supplied.

T244.The two nominal Of formulations and the alternative parenthetic recommendation remain. Valued and welcome preserve se faire valoir and se faire agréer without equating them.

T623.The repeated De retains its second capital. The nominal opening and complete parenthesis remain. The day 22 is intact.

T245.The list remains nominal, with or followed by successive objects and the rarity qualification. Seals preserves the impression-making sense of cachets without specifying an object’s material.

T246.The paired origins remain with the second repeated verb omitted. Beings and objects retain their distinct nouns.

T247.Species retains the quoted technical word without reducing it to biological classification. The Académie’s 1798 entry records a scholastic image or representation sense. The unnamed they, intelligible/real images, both bodily comparisons and changing and/or remain. Sheddings keeps the first plural dépouillemens distinct from the later singular dépouillement. No modern theory of vision or scent replaces Joubert’s formulation.

T248.The metalinguistic opening, pictures/defines and odor-or-cause relation remain. Perfume preserves the French word’s echo, but the smoke association is Joubert’s explanation, not an independently established English etymology.

T249.Both came out/comes out images and the two or alternatives remain. God’s mind and idea are not reduced to a single faculty, nor are mold and head harmonized into one physical process.

T250.The restriction, parenthetic examples and thought/soul alternatives remain. Impress keeps the physical marking relation of impression. The exception, or rather revision and final perhaps retain their uncertainty.

T625.The restrictive ne…que, parenthesis and detached Excepté formulation remain. The printed hyphen before the wrapped être is retained in peut-être, with its line-end position disclosed rather than claiming independent evidence of its lexical function. The final peut-être follows the dash.

T251.Sayings and saying render the metalinguistic mots/mot consistently. The appearance, danger, nothing-but restriction and addressed imperatives remain. The name is a conventional English form; the quotation is not certified against a located ancient witness. Effect remains distinct from principle. Feminine mise en action modifies force, not masculine corps; the English possessive order makes that attachment clear.

T252.All four repeated uniformity formulations, even and singular dress remain. Who renders printed qui rather than supplying an impersonal what; the question names no replacement agent or institution.

T253.The money/manure/fertilizer/harvest comparison remains with its two different agents. Whole English [am] and [at odds] correspond to the source editor’s partial expansions in s[ui]s and b[roui]llé. Their broader brackets do not claim that the complete French words are lost. The treasury and they are not given an expanded institutional identity.

T628.The partial-word source brackets s[ui]s and b[roui]llé are visible and retained exactly; they are not newly supplied transcriptions. The noun trésorerie and plural ils remain without an expanded institutional referent. The first-person comparison, parenthesis and contrasting crop remain.

T254.I know not what dry part retains the first-person uncertainty in je ne scai quelle partie. The two needs, both parts, apprehensive lest and devouring reason remain. English they be given over renders the grammatical relation without repairing the printed French agreement anomaly elles…livrés. Meats keeps the food metaphor beside dry bread: the French period entry includes literal flesh and broader or figurative fare, while Webster’s 1828 Meat also records food in general and spiritual nourishment. No diet is prescribed.

T629.The two paragraphs remain separate, with the second wholly parenthetic. Scai and alimens retain their printed forms. Literal elles…livrés preserves the agreement anomaly; no feminine ending is supplied. The food terms and reordered second formulation remain.

T255.The complete parenthesis remains a separate paragraph. The repeated intelligence and bread are not merged with the preceding formulation; delights remains different from meats.