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← ExitThe Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II

Reading language

According to Plato

October 11 (at night.)

Few ideas and many apprehensions; many emotions and [few] feelings. Or, if you prefer, few fixed ideas and [many] wandering ideas, very lively feelings and no [constant] feelings. Disbelief in duties, confidence in novelties; [some] decisive minds, floating opinions; assertion in the midst of [doubt]; confidence in oneself and distrust of others; ignorance […] presumption. Such are the evils of the age.

October […].

Held in check by lost habits, and guided by the ascendancy [of] a morality they no longer possessed.

That: one must have borne the day. And: Of the yoke.

Of those who love the beautiful and Of those who love their pleasure. Very different [dispositions], and the source of a host of [differences] in the way cultivated minds judge works of Art.

October […]2.

A good nature can absolutely do without an excellent [education]; but...

October […]5.

“God will punish (say the people of the East) the one who sees and the one who is [seen].” A beautiful and frightening recommendation of modesty!

They found their pleasures in their family, their instruction in [the] temples, their amusements in their libraries, and their [relaxation] at their neighbors’ homes.

The happiness born of good order — mute harmony.

One must place one’s honor in one’s duties and one’s duties in one’s work.

October 16.

Homer painted human life. Every village has its Nestor, its Agamemnon, its Ulysses. Every parish has its Achilles, its Diomedes, its Ajax. Every age has its Priam, its Andromache and its Hector.

October 17.

Without the ascendancy of religion, this infinity of free men could not have subsisted in peace. Men must be either slaves to duty or slaves to force.

October 19.

Good maxims, firmly imprinted on the memory, prevent imbecility. Why.

T285.The initial contrasts and explicit reformulation remain; apprehensions is open to fears or an uncertain grasp. The French retains single-p apréhensions. [Few], [many], [constant], [some] and [doubt] contextually interpret peu, beaucoup, constans, des and doute from the damaged portions. The suspected loss before la présomption is not filled: its presence and extent are uncertain, so neither and nor another connector is claimed recovered. The nocturnal circumstance belongs to the printed date, not this prose.

T652.The day 11 is intact beside nonlexical margin strokes, and its nocturnal circumstance remains in the date. Apréhensions visibly has only one p. The clipped openings retain u, up after beau, nstans, s before esprits and ute. The preceding fragments do not certify complete lost letters. Before la présomption, the displaced line opening leaves a blank damaged slot, so the marker is only a suspected loss whose presence and extent are uncertain; no et or other word is recovered. The semicolon sequence and present conclusion remain.

T286.The initial participles, lost habits and no-longer morality preserve the apparent paradox. Ascendancy retains the governing influence without inventing an institution or a historical transition. [Of] contextually interprets d’ before intact une; the French retains perduës.

T653.The day has only an incomplete narrow stem, insufficient to certify 1. Native perduës has two distinct upper components over e. The participial opening and intact n’avoient plus remain. Before une the upper remnant does not certify d or an apostrophe; the loss remains unfilled.

T287.The two fragments remain, with day and yoke corresponding to jour and joug rather than merging their similar forms. Borne avoids the English victory idiom carried the day. No missing connection is supplied.

T288.The two Of fragments and their different objects remain. The second nominal formulation is not given an invented finite verb; differences is not reduced to disagreement. [Dispositions] and [differences] interpret dispositions and diversités from the broken wraps. The French retains literal de Art; ordinary English of Art does not silently correct its spelling.

T655.The second De and final Art retain capitals. Wrapped losses preserve Dis/ositions and diver/tés; the incomplete stroke before t does not certify i. Literal de Art remains without an added apostrophe or contracted article.

T289.Can, absolutely and the good/excellent distinction remain. The unfinished but stays unresolved rather than becoming an unconditional conclusion. [Education] interprets éducation from édu[…]ation.

T290.The future and active/passive pair remain within the quotation. People of the East retains the broad source attribution Orientaux without identifying a culture or religion. The two evaluative adjectives and exclamation remain Joubert’s. [Seen] interprets vu from […]u.

T657.Only terminal 5 is secure in the damaged day. The final damaged quoted word preserves u, without supplying v. The future punishment, present attribution, repeated celui qui and exclamation remain.

T291.The unnamed they and all four activities remain in their original locations. Homes is ordinary English completion of chez, not a claimed missing noun. [The] and [relaxation] interpret les and délassemens from […]es and délas[…]emens. The printed comma after trouvoient is omitted in English between verb and object, without alteration of the French.

T292.The nominal formulation, birth image and dash remain. Mute preserves the absence of sounded harmony without supplying a theory.

T659.The nominal-relative formulation and dash remain. Muëtte has two distinct upper components over e. The raised circumflex-like contour of naît is compact and remains qualified.

T293.The facsimile reads honneur, honor, distinct from bonheur in the preceding entry. The two place-in relations and repeated duties remain. Work contextually renders emploi without assigning a specific position or vocation.

T660.Native honneur has h and the double n; it is distinct from bonheur in the preceding entry and supersedes the provisional map incipit. The later son has a degraded but identifiable initial s; margin noise does not justify an added word. The repeated devoirs and two dans relations remain.

T294.All three community/time levels and all nine repeated possessors remain. Conventional English name forms preserve the named comparisons without inventing modern counterparts or character summaries.

T295.The counterfactual past, infinity and free/slaves opposition remain. Both forms of servitude and the either/or are preserved; no historical event is supplied. The one paragraph continues onto page 762.

T662.The date 17 is intact. The single paragraph continues onto page 762 at the ordinary au-/roient wrap, without a text loss. The negative conditional perfect, comma after soient and two ou les esclaves formulations remain.

T296.The imprint and final Why with its printed period remain. The Académie’s 1798 noun entry defines imbécillité as weakness of mind, a broad sense suited to the memory context. Webster’s 1828 English entry also includes mental weakness. Imbecility retains that historical breadth without a particular modern diagnosis. The printed October 19 precedes October 18 and is not reordered.

T663.Pourquoi ends with a printed period, not a question mark. The date 19 precedes the later 18 in source order.