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← ExitThe Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II

Reading language

YEAR 1814

There is truth in narration when it conforms to facts, in our words when they conform to our thoughts or our feelings, and finally in our opinions when they are like the nature of things or our own.

To make them reasonable, but not to make them reasoners. And the first thing one must teach them is that it is reasonable for them to obey and unreasonable for them to dispute. Education without this would be spent in arguments; and all would be lost if all masters were not skilled quibblers.

March 10.

— gives vices mobility, prevents them from being constant, or at least from approving themselves.

By the majority of the voices of good people. The opinion of the wise. The able must yield. It is for them to execute and for the wise to decide.

Plato spoke to an extremely ingenious people and had to speak as he did.

March 11.

We judge ourselves according to the judgments of men instead of judging ourselves according to the judgment of heaven. Truth! One must be able to say: this is true on earth and this is true in heaven.

March 12.

Of fear — and — That fear is necessary. Fear of man is necessary for children; fear of God is necessary for men, for women, for children, for the old, for the learned. Without fear, the heart has too little strength, the heart is dissolute.

March 13.

Of taste: One can have tact early, and taste very late. “And (I said) that is what happened to me.”

March 15.

Of deference toward age, merit and dignity: it is a part of duty. Toward equals, outsiders, people one does not know, it is a part of politeness or true civility.

The tree does not live without bark, and religion has its own; all virtues have theirs.

Note. That love and hatred, favor and disfavor, can enter into laws made for those not yet born. Our memories and our systems can carry us toward preferences and acts of vengeance whose effects the laws themselves can feel.

Bern, Fribourg, and Valais. Every government etc... And of conquest: that it is lost or must be lost through continued nonoccupation and prolonged nonpossession. Each people must impose on conquered countries the government it judges best for itself; if monarchist, monarchy; if democratic, liberty — unless the conquered people prefers another and another is evidently preferable for it.

T101.The shared truth formulation and all three when clauses remain. Conformity in the first two branches is distinct from likeness in the last. Our own refers to our nature; neither alternative is collapsed into a single standard.

T102.The repeated reason root and infinitive instruction remain. Reasoners has an argumentative sense here, made explicit by dispute and quibblers; it is not a denial that pupils should possess reason. Both conditional consequences and all masters remain. The unnamed them is not assigned a particular school.

T418.The initial two infinitive formulations remain without an added subject or finite verb. The repeated reasoning terms, obedience/dispute contrast and both final conditionals remain. The negation in the si clause is intact. No current educational prescription is inserted into this transcription.

T103.The leading dash and absent subject remain. Both effects, the or-at-least qualification and reflexive self-approval remain; no new agent is supplied.

T104.The first two fragments and distinction between execution and decision remain. Voices retains the possible voting relation without inventing a constitutional procedure; the able and the wise are not assigned institutions.

T420.Plain initial A and the two nominal opening sentences remain. The finite obligation and repeated à relations distinguish execution from decision without an invented institution or voting rule.

T105.The continuing past address, extreme ingenuity and modal necessity remain. The exact source of the judgment is not invented; people is not replaced by a named modern audience.

T421.The past imperfect predicates and the final passé simple remain, with extrêmement. The line’s initial comme is intact despite isolated earlier margin traces. No specific Platonic dialogue is identified.

T422.The single paragraph continues from 779 onto 780, after the second nous. Both reflexive judgments and plural jugemens versus singular jugement remain. The exclamation is followed by lower-case il, then a colon and two complete repeated truth clauses. The date 11 is complete and is not inherited by the following 12 March unit.

S1.Source editor’s annotationNotebook.

T107.The Of/That fragments, repeated necessity, five groups and two heart formulations remain. Fear renders crainte without replacing it with a less disturbing emotion. Dissolute retains the ethical and loosening sense. The source annotation Notebook belongs to the date label, not the entry’s text.

T118.Beaunier’s source description belongs to the annotation called from the March 12 date heading. It is not an additional Joubert entry or an invented title. The call follows the month word, before the date’s period; its one-word apparatus remains roman.

T423.The initial De and Que formulations remain linked by two dashes around et. The five aux relations in the divine-fear list and the repeated crainte/cœur retain their order; no referent is reduced to a single named authority. Scavans is printed without a cedilla, and enfans without t. The date call 1 is after mars and before the date’s period. The apparatus is the single roman word Carnet., and supplies no fuller notebook identity.

T424.The one-word roman apparatus note is called from the date, after mars before the period. No notebook number or inferred date is added.

T108.The early/very-late contrast, quoted first-person claim and parenthetic attribution remain. Said renders the citation imperfect without asserting repeated occasions. The experienced contrast is Joubert’s, not a newly supplied biographical event. Native inspection supports a qualified colon after Du goût, with a period-plus-artifact alternative; the English colon follows that qualified reading and preserves the subsequent capital One.

T425.After Du goût, a lower baseline point and an upper compact horizontal component support a qualified colon reading; the upper mark’s reproduction-artifact alternative remains unresolved. The source’s following capital On is intact. Independent native comparison agrees with the qualified colon and its artifact alternative. The early/very-late contrast and comma remain. The first-person parenthetic reporting clause stays inside the quotation, with the final period before its closing guillemet. No English tense choice is read back into disois-je.

T109.The three grounds and three recipients remain distinct, with the duty/politeness-or-civility contrast. Outsiders contextually renders étrangers without naming a nation; people one does not know renders inconnus separately.

T110.The physical tree image, full negative and two possessive extensions remain. Bark is not replaced with ritual or another proposed meaning. Virtues interprets the source’s qualified literal vertux; its crossed/angular final x is retained in French, not normalized to s.

T111.The Note and dependent That opening remain. Both paired passions, both sources and all three possibilities remain. The personified laws feel the effects; no current legal advice or identified legislative event is supplied. Only printed Latin Nota. and its English counterpart Note. are italic.

T428.Only Nota. is italic. The following Que formulation is not supplied with an external main clause. Both oppositional pairs, the not-yet-born relation, the repeated possibilities and both literal loix retain their form. Elles-mêmes is hyphenated.

T112.The named places and initial fragments remain. Is lost/must be lost and both continuing absences remain distinct. The conqueror’s stated rule retains its best-for-itself standard before the two-part exception. The two French ne forms after unless are not made into English negatives. No modern treaty, border or political endorsement is asserted.

T429.The three named places and incomplete Chaque gouvernement etc... remain. Non-occupation is hyphenated while non possession is spaced. The actual present alternative se perd/ou doit, both parallel conditions and the final à moins exception retain the printed ne forms and pronouns without resolving a contemporary political referent.