Diotimos Reading Desk

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← ExitThe Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II

Reading language

According to Plato

December 13.

Every kind of mind that excludes from our character obligingness, indulgence and condescension, ease in living and conversing with others, in making them content with us and with themselves, is a bad kind of mind. Or, in two words, every sort of mind that prevents one from being lovable and loving is a bad kind of mind.

Millevoye and his soft energy.

Of peoples who have overturned geography (like winds, tempests or torrents).

Aged eyes need spectacles; overly delicate eyes like to see nothing except through a prism. Unfortunately, our organs are too refined. Soon no sound will have enough sweetness for us unless care is taken to temper it with some mute.

December 20.

It has been very well said: “It is not in the poem” (the subject is simple, artless and popular poems) “it is not in the poem that poetry is then lacking; it is in our imagination, or rather in our heart.” (Mr. Charles Nodier, the day’s newspaper.) And indeed one can find poetry nowhere when one carries none within oneself.

December 22.

In our capacity as men, we are all in this life in a state of half animality, and consequently of barbarism or coarseness.

The beautiful is always serious. The beautiful always has some calm, but not always some serenity.

Sorrow and its balances. The tranquility of life can sometimes balance, like a counterweight, the desolation of the moment.

— that happy imbecility which carries us toward sublime things.

December 24.

I can do well only slowly and with extreme fatigue.

Our moments of light are all moments of happiness. When it is clear in our mind, it is fair there.

The man withered by misfortune must be so through long misfortune. Such is Oedipus, etc. Niobe must retain the trace and, so to speak, the beauty of her past prosperity.

Nicole’s Essays. The morality of the Gospel is perhaps refined there a little too far by subtle reasonings.

T404.The repeated kind of mind, three dispositions, two contentment objects and explicit in two words remain. Condescension retains a period willingness to accommodate others, rather than being silently limited to modern patronizing behavior. Lovable/loving keeps the passive/active relation of aimable/aimant. French exclud retains its printed final d.

T739.The complete day 13 is legible. Native comparison confirms literal exclud, with a final d, and contens; eux mêmes has no hyphen. Ou, en deux mots is roman. The final comma before est and the aimable/aimant distinction remain.

T405.The nominal fragment and apparent tension between softness and energy remain. The name is not expanded or tied to a particular poem.

T740.Millevoye is retained as printed, without an expanded identity or a supplied predicate.

T406.The Of fragment, completed action and three natural-force comparisons remain. No particular people, conquest or map is supplied.

T741.The nominal/relative fragment and the three-part parenthetic comparison remain. The native final letter of géographie has a degraded but e-like crossbar; no spelling normalization is made.

T407.The two kinds of eyes, prism, unfortunately, future soon and unless remain. Sweetness and mute retain the sensory and musical language; no modern diagnosis or named instrument is supplied.

T742.The comma joins the two opening formulations; the restrictive n’aiment…qu’à and final si on n’a soin remain, with no pas supplied. The future n’aura and distinct optical/auditory images are intact.

T408.The two separated quotation spans, repeated cleft and or rather revision remain. Artless renders naïfs contextually without making the poems foolish; popular is not reduced to commercial success. The exact newspaper issue is unlocated and the parenthesis remains outside the quotation. French poëme and poëmes retain their visible diaereses. Mr. renders the raised-r honorific in ordinary English typography.

T409.All, in this life, consequently and the final alternative remain. Half animality retains Joubert’s formulation without a modern biological classification.

T410.Both the beautiful formulations and all three always scopes remain. Calm and serenity are kept distinct rather than treated as redundant synonyms.

T745.These are two separate source paragraphs within one asterisk block. The repeated Le beau and the partial negative non toujours remain. The second paragraph begins with the nominal La douleur et ses équilibres. The tiny detached horizontal mark above la after contrepoids resembles reproduction artifacts and does not certify an accent; plain la remains qualified.

T411.The nominal opening and balance/counterweight image remain. Can and sometimes qualify the claim; life and the moment keep their different durations. French plain la after contrepoids remains qualified: the detached mark above it does not establish an accent.

T412.The opening dash and relative fragment remain. Imbecility retains the historical mental-weakness sense supported by the complete Académie 1798 noun entry and Webster 1828 control read for the earlier passage; the unrelated reproductive sense is not applied. Happy does not become a diagnostic judgment.

T746.The leading dash and lowercase cette introduce a nominal/relative fragment, with no supplied subject or predicate. Imbécillité retains its printed spelling.

T413.The first-person restriction, slowness and extreme fatigue remain. No particular activity is inserted after do well.

T747.The complete day 24 is intact and governs two separate source paragraphs. The restrictive ne…que and repeated avec remain. Both momens forms are literal. Native comparison supports the final d of Quand, despite its narrow bowl; the repeated weather formulation remains.

T414.Both moments and all remain. Clear/fair preserves the second sentence’s weather language, with fair carrying favorable weather as well as beauty; the first light is not turned into an identified revelation. The French retains literal momens and native Quand with final d.

T415.The repeated misfortune, duration long, both must formulations and so to speak remain. Withered keeps the visible injury image. The two figures are not tied to an unverified artwork or particular ancient passage. Such is gives ordinary English grammatical support to the French nominal Tel Œdipe.

T416.The introductory fragment and perhaps/a little/too qualifications remain. Reasonings is plural and subtle does not become an assertion of dishonesty. No particular essay or edition is assigned. The French retains its qualified final period after subtils without certifying the detached marks to its right.

T749.Essais de Nicole. is a detached roman formulation. Evangile has no certified accent on its initial capital E. The degree peut-être un peu trop and printed raisonnemens remain. The final mark after subtils is read as a qualified baseline period with an irregular lower contour; detached vertical artifacts to its right do not certify further punctuation. This is the last entry before the separate ANNÉE 1814 heading, which belongs to the following batch.