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← ExitThe Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II

Reading language

According to Plato

November 9.

If “unbelief is a kind of effort,” as Abbé Galliani said very well, it follows that unbelief (in practice) has a distorted taste.

Dogmatic unbelief is indeed a state of irritation and exaltation, a state of perpetual war against ourselves (our education, our habits, our first opinions), against others (our fathers, our brothers, our neighbors, our former teachers), against the public order that we believe to be a disorder, against the present age that we believe less enlightened than it ought to be, against the past age whose ignorance and simplicity we despise. The future and the human race in its future eternity: those are the two idols and the only idols of systematic unbelief.

If systematic and acquired unbelief is a state of irritation and war, irreligion through ignorance or lack of instruction is a state of roughness and inner barbarism. The mind that no religious belief, no faith has bent and softened remains wild and incapable of a certain cultivation and a certain sowing.

November 11.

In all things, follow the rule, or, better still, the reason for the rule, if you know it.

The multitude of ideas prevents good feelings: it makes one deliberate too much.

November 15.

Voltaire. He makes taste frivolous and inevitably gives his readers’ minds the manners and character of his own: those grand airs of levity, that mocking tone for which he is praised.

November 17.

The gentle mind. One must have a gentle mind. The mind is fire. When fire is gentle, it attracts; if it is too ardent, one flees it. Then it burns, it wounds, it makes itself feared.

November 20.

A man of little authority said very well, concerning Roman agriculture: “wealth and industry do not coexist for long.” Luxury did indeed destroy it.

November 24.

To bring what one teaches within reach of sense or imagination.

From all that Malebranche says about the power and the enchantments of style follows a consequence he does not perceive. It is that what serves our errors also serves our knowledge, and that what leads us astray can also lead us to the goal.

The only or almost only difference today between good people and their opposites is that the former dream of decency, which the latter do not dream of. Their conduct is otherwise much the same. The former know what is decent, the latter do not know it; strictly speaking, none practices it.

November 25.

R. neither knows nor does what is decent. M. knows it but does not do it. The first has within him the ideas of the good man, but neither of them lives his life.

(In Malebranche.) Those who are strong through artifice (as to the body).

Faith is a sacred mirror.

T347.The quotation is limited to the effort formulation. The printed parenthesis around en exercice is complete, so both English parentheses are retained. Galliani keeps the printed double l without silently normalizing the name. Said renders the citation imperfect without asserting repeated occasions. The conditional and taste judgment remain.

T691.All three paragraphs remain separate and the day 9 is intact. Galliani retains the printed double l. Both systhématique occurrences visibly include h after t; neither is normalized. Native intérieure has a short t, not an f, before the accented e. The quotation and en exercice parentheses remain bounded exactly. All five contre relations, the two parenthetic lists, unhyphenated nous mêmes, the two/only-idols repetition and final paired culture/ensemencement remain. The first parenthetic citation’s disoit remains imperfect, without inferring repeated occasions.

T348.All five against relations, both parenthetic lists, repeated state and the two/only idols remain. Irritation and exaltation retain their historical affective meanings without a modern diagnosis. The future eternity image is not rationalized. The French retains systhématique with th; it is not normalized.

T349.The conditional contrast between acquired unbelief and uninstructed irreligion remains. Both no formulations, bent/softened and the repeated a certain stay distinct. Cultivation and sowing preserve the agricultural image without identifying a seed or particular religion. Inner renders the native intérieure, distinct from an unconfirmed inférieure reading; the French retains its t.

T350.The imperative, self-refinement and final if remain. Know it contextually refers to the reason for the rule, without turning knowledge of the rule alone into the condition.

T692.The day 11 is intact. The singular imperative, repeated règle, better-still alternative and final conditional limitation remain. Scais is literal.

T351.The singular multitude governs the causal claim; good feelings and too much retain their restrictions. No substituted explanation of indecision is added.

T352.The detached name, inevitably, both mind possessors and the two concluding traits remain. Grand airs of levity preserves the unusual conjunction of grandeur and lightness. Plural readers’ minds is ordinary distributive English for singular l’esprit de ses lecteurs, without multiplying the singular source phrase.

T694.The day 15 is intact. The present predicates, inevitability, plural readers but singular spirit, and plural manners versus singular character remain. The subsequent ces/ce formulations and final praise attribution are not supplied with an external biographical account.

T353.The repeated gentle/mind/fire sequence, the degree limit too ardent and all three consequences remain. The full continuation on page 766 is one paragraph; the fire image is not reduced to an abstract temperament.

T354.The speaker’s limited authority and praised saying remain. Industry retains industrious activity in the agricultural context, not a modern factory sector. It provisionally leaves the feminine antecedent open among wealth, industry and agriculture; no particular speaker is identified. The final destroyed relation renders the intact past détruisit, distinct from the present in the quotation. Said renders the citation imperfect without asserting repeated occasions. French authorité retains its h.

T696.The day 20 is intact. Authorité retains its printed h. The unnamed speaker, imperfect attribution, lowercase quotation opening and final past détruisit remain. The feminine la is not expanded to settle its antecedent in French.

T355.The initial infinitive and alternative remain. Within reach renders faire tomber sous contextually; sense preserves the singular faculty rather than supplying a list of senses.

T356.Power and enchantments remain distinct, and both also formulations preserve the two-sided claim. Enchantments renders prestiges with its possible deceptive force; the can in the second clause is not made a certainty. No exact Malebranche locus is supplied.

T357.Only/almost only and much the same retain their limits. Decency/decent keeps the repeated honnêteté/honnête family; the sentence distinguishes dreaming, knowing and practicing without resolving the criticism.

T358.Both initials remain opaque. The first literally preserves Le premier despite its tension with the preceding sentences; it is not silently replaced with the second. The last life belongs contextually to the good man, rather than an invented biographical comparison.

T700.The day 25 is intact. Both initials remain unexpanded. Le premier is literally printed despite the apparent contextual difficulty after the preceding two judgments; it is not silently changed to second or assigned a repaired referent. The repeated knowledge/action negatives and final none-of-them relation remain.

T359.Both parentheses and the nominal fragment remain. Artifice retains an artificial means without specifying a mechanism or implying fraud.

T701.Both parentheses and the nominal-relative formulation remain. In is retained as an unexpanded reference cue, and the whole paragraph is roman.

T360.The brief metaphor remains without an added object of reflection. Faith interprets the literal foye; its y and final e are visible in the facsimile and retained in French.

T702.Foye visibly retains y and final e; it is not normalized to foi. The simple mirror image remains.