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← ExitThe Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II

Reading language

YEAR 1814

Ecstatic Epicureanism (of Ducis, Bernardin de St. Pierre, etc.) Those people, in their most lively religious stirrings, do not bring everything back to God, but bring God back to themselves.

Moral egoism, by which one does not conform to the rule, but adjusts the rule to oneself.

April 16.

Moderation (in the prince’s soul). That is where it must be placed. In a word, the barrier in the will.

Of how many phrases and doctrines one could say: — This is precise, but it is not clear!

April 17.

The good old nun who said of Emperor Napoleon: “He is my sinner.”

April 18.

Old age. It takes away strength, perhaps; it takes away power, but at least it does not take away wisdom. What, then, does it hold for the mind to fear?

April 20.

Hobbes was, they say, moody. I am not surprised; it is bad temper above all that makes the mind and tone peremptory. It is bad temper that irresistibly drives us to concentrate our ideas. It abounds in lively expressions. But to become philosophical, bad temper must arise solely from the unreason of others, not from our own, from the ill spirit of the times in which one lives, not from our own ill spirit.

True depth comes from concentrated ideas.

Executive power, etc. Those are ciphers. One has brought into politics (and into morality itself) the procedures and almost the language of algebra. One uses abstract words instead of letters. One combines these obscure words; one thinks one understands and gains light because one has stirred shadows. And indeed all these obscure notions that these new words have introduced are for the mind only shadows, without body, without reality, without beauty.

April 21.

The idea and the object. One continually needs both. The idea to form one’s reasoning; and the object to regulate one’s judgment, which is still more important.

April 22.

He did not know how to do anything with little; neither with few men nor with little money. But such was his ascendancy that he took the money and the men without anyone daring to refuse them.

Heaven has put only rays in my intelligence and for eloquence has given me only beautiful words. I have strength only to rise, and for virtue only a certain incorruptibility.

April 23.

He is a man whose heart, mind and head always swim between two waters.

— a beautiful fire, beautiful words, beautiful flashes and a varied elevation.

T147.The nominal opening and named parenthesis remain. The superlative and reversed bringing-back relations preserve the criticism without an added account of either writer’s beliefs. The conventional English forms leave the source’s qualified plain-i Epicuréisme and later diaeresis in Egoïsme unchanged. English St. uses an abbreviation period against source St without one.

T457.Both indented paragraphs remain in one unit. Native Epicuréisme has a single i dot after the acute é, without a certified diaeresis; this differs from the provisional map spelling. Egoïsme has a compressed joined upper mark consistent with a qualified diaeresis; its contour remains uncertain. The complete parenthesis includes St without a period and the printed etc. before its closing parenthesis. Gens là is spaced. The partial ne…pas tout and the reversed divine/object relation remain, as do the separate rule/self contrast and both present predicates. No specific doctrinal system or identity is added. Independent native comparison confirms plain Epicuréisme versus the qualified bridged Egoïsme mark, and supports the earlier subtilité t reading with its abrasion limits.

T148.The relative fragment and conform/adjust contrast remain. Rule is repeated, with no supplied moral system or governing verb.

T149.The nominal opening, parenthetic place, necessity and final barrier image remain. The prince is not assigned an identity, and will is not replaced by a political institution.

T458.The complete day, parenthetic location, demonstrative emphasis and final nominal fragment remain. Neither a governing independent verb nor a named prince is supplied.

T150.The exclamatory range, conditional could and dash remain. Precise renders net as distinctly delineated, without making a claim of truth or accuracy; clear remains a separate judgment.

T459.Phrazes retains z. The conditional, colon/dash, repeated cela and distinction between net and clair remain, with the final exclamation.

T151.The nominal-relative fragment and bounded quotation remain. Said renders the citation imperfect without asserting repeated occasions. The possessive my is left unexplained; no nun, anecdote source or relation to Napoleon is invented.

T460.The complete day, nominal relative fragment and imperfect reporting form remain. Empereur keeps its capital and pécheur has a small acute-like mark, qualified for its compressed reproduction. No identity is supplied for the religious woman, and the period remains inside the quotation.

T152.The opening, repeated taking-away, distinct strength/power/wisdom and at-least limit remain. Perhaps is retained beside the first claim rather than silently broadening the certainty of every clause. The final rhetorical question remains a question. English punctuation sets off perhaps and separates the first two clauses with a semicolon; French retains its comma after the first perhaps and has no preceding comma there.

T461.The complete day, repeated ôte and force/puissance/sagesse distinction remain. In the French source, Peut-être follows the first object without an added preceding comma; du moins and the final question are not omitted.

T153.Moody reads humoriste in its temperamental context, not as a modern comedian. The attribution they say, first-person reaction, above all and irresistibly remain. The repeated bad temper is the feminine elle and the subject becoming philosophical; sole origin and both exclusions remain. Ill spirit renders mauvais esprit as disposition, not a supernatural being. The first paragraph continues on 784 before its separate conclusion. Peremptory renders décisifs in its unfavorable sense of categorical judgment and speech. The Académie dictionary of 1798 explicitly marks the mind and tone collocations adversely; dogmatic is another possible rendering, without a particular doctrine being named.

T462.The first paragraph continues on 784 and is followed by a distinct indented second paragraph before the next separator. Abbonde retains two b. The past étoit, present reporting dit-on and current first-person response remain; no individual pronoun is silently reassigned. The 784 continuation keeps both non pas comparisons, nôtre versus notre, and the repeated mauvais esprit. The full continuation starts at the ordinary margin with intact faut/trui/et; detached surrounding artifacts do not justify extra losses or words. The second paragraph preserves the passive-participial ideas image without an added causal claim.

T154.The separate second paragraph, true depth and concentrated-ideas relation remain, without an added causal account.

T156.The algebra/cipher/letter metaphor, almost, repeated obscure and shadows, and all three without clauses remain. Understands leaves the reflexive s’entendre broad rather than supplying a particular interlocutor. The French source-editor suffix [es] in introduit[es] marks feminine plural agreement; English introduced has no corresponding inflection, so no invented bracketed English word is added. The printed French ending remains visible; its absence in English reflects the languages’ differing inflections, not an omitted substantive word.

T463.The initial nominal phrase and etc. remain. The parenthesis retains spaced elle même; presque qualifies langage. Introduit[es] contains a literal source-editor supplement, not a newly inferred ending or reproduction loss. The shadows repetition, restrictive ne…que and all three sans phrases remain.

T157.Both nominal terms and their distinct purposes remain, with continually and still more important. The final comparison attaches contextually to regulating judgment rather than replacing the object with another faculty.

T464.The complete day, repeated idea/object pair and both nominal-purpose clauses remain. Perpétuellement and encore plus are not reduced to a neutral conjunction or equality; the latter clause retains its relative relation.

T158.The unnamed he, inability, repeated scarcity and men/money reversal remain. Ascendancy retains the personal power relation; no ruler or campaign is named. The negative concerns knowing how to accomplish anything with scant resources, not a skill in remaining idle.

T159.All four restrictive constructions, first person, rays, rising and a certain incorruptibility remain. The self-assessment is not converted into praise by dropping only; rays is not expanded into a systematic doctrine.

T466.All four restrictive que formulations remain, with their differing objects and first-person possessives. The repeated pour relations, ascent image and degree certaine are not expanded into a named doctrine.

T160.All three faculties, always and the physical swimming image remain. The idiom suggests an unsettled or intermediate position, but no specific opposing parties or motive is supplied.

T467.The complete day and all three body/mind terms remain, with plural nagent and always. The two waters stay a source image, without identifying their political or doctrinal referents.

T161.The dash, nominal sequence and three beautiful repetitions remain. Flashes and elevation retain the source images without a named work or person.

T468.The initial dash and nominal fragment remain. All three beau/beaux occurrences and the fourth distinct elevation phrase are retained; no subject or finite verb is supplied.