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← ExitThe Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II

Reading language

YEAR 1814

August 12.

Necessity that comes from things subjects us; that which comes from men makes us rebel. Why? Place, then, in things or in what resembles things—that is, unfeeling, impassive and inflexible like them (such as are or seem to be law, rule, etc.)—the necessities you need to impose either on others or on yourself.

August 13 and 14.

When one isolates one’s reasoning faculty from all one’s other faculties; when one succeeds in making abstract in the eyes of one’s mind what is most real and even most solid in the world, for the senses and for the heart, everything is doubtful, everything is problematic and everything can be disputed. Why do you speak of order, beauty, etc.? For the isolated reasoning faculty there are only noes or yeses, absences or existences, units or nullities.

To leave reasoning and enter inner sense, to leave the subject and range over the matter again, to leave arguments and catch one’s breath by giving oneself over to feeling, is very permissible, very useful and very fitting in discussions conducted in good faith. They must not be so methodical that they cannot be ingenuous.

August 15.

Procession. Memories. Gratitude to God. Etc.

August 16.

There is nothing perfectly true for man; I mean in human opinions. Just as there is nothing perfectly round.

August 20.

“To the daughters of memory who make us forget evils.” (Hesiod.) The other version was not, however, devoid of sense. Indeed, memory or the recollection of good things makes us forget evils.

We should not, either for his pleasure or for ours, have an excellent guest as a perpetual table companion. He makes us jaded, and we make him jaded.

August 26.

Those are buffooneries, and Voltaire is most often only a buffoon.

August 27.

When it is a question of an individual, there is no room for abstraction. What is collective authorizes it, because every multitude forms a whole only through fiction.

August 28.

In England, parliament is king and the king is minister; but a perpetual hereditary minister, irremovable under certain conditions. He is a mutilated monarch, one-eyed, lame and one-handed, but honored.

Those whose opinion carries great authority must be placed in the temple of the wise, not on the benches of those giving opinions. They must be employed to decide, but not to deliberate. Their voice must make law, not add to the count. Since they are without peers, they must be kept outside the ranks.

August 29.

The Aeolian harp. Of those who are organized, and of those who have only a few sounding strings. And Of the Aeolian lyre.

T284.The two opposed effects, Why and final imperative remain. The parenthetic are-or-seem relation and either-on-others-or-yourself alternative retain their uncertainty and scope. English dashes make the long intervening gloss legible; no French punctuation is claimed recovered. The English semicolon between the first two opposed clauses corresponds to the French comma.

T557.The initial Nécessité has no article. The two relative clauses, Pourquoi question, imperative, donc, paired ou…ou and all three descriptive adjectives remain. C’est à dire and vous même are spaced without added hyphens. The complete parenthesis includes both sont and semblent être and the source etc.

T285.Both when clauses, all, even and all three everything statements remain. The final three paired alternatives preserve the noun forms; only noes and yeses correspond to the two italic French words. The compound date remains August 13 and 14 without dividing the paragraph. Why reads Que as a rhetorical question about the reason for invoking order or beauty before the faculty’s restricted alternatives; it does not supply an answer. Only the two English noun forms noes and yeses receive source italics, leaving or and following punctuation roman. The 1798 Académie entry attests the causal sense of Que but calls its use without a negative uncommon; the rhetorical choice here rests on the local argument, not on an exact dictionary example.

T558.The two complete days are joined by et on one date line; they are not replaced by a continuous inferred interval. Both quand clauses, the semicolon, repeated pour, tout and three final alternative pairs remain. Rationatrice is repeated literally. Only non and oui are italic; their articles, conjunction and comma are roman. The visible material below existences is reverse-side show-through, not a source call or a new division. Ne…que is restrictive.

T286.All three movements away/from and toward/into remain, with all three very judgments. Inner sense retains sens intime; subject and matter remain distinct. Ingenuous preserves candor or uncontrived openness rather than inventiveness. The final they refers to discussions. Again preserves the re- in reparcourir. French ingénuës keeps its diaeresis over e without changing the English distinction from ingenious.

T287.The four brief nominal fragments remain. The dated religious context is not expanded into a named procession, remembered event or reconstructed spiritual practice.

T560.All four short nominal sentences remain separate within one paragraph. Reconnaissance keeps its printed modern ai spelling; no procession or memory is identified beyond the text.

T288.Both perfectly formulations and the explicit restriction to human opinions remain. The second sentence stays a comparative fragment. No universal denial of truth beyond that restriction is supplied. The color facsimile supports the complete August 16 date, with the initial digit qualified for show-through.

T561.The first day is read as 16 from the color witness: the foreground 1 retains its narrow stem and foot, although reverse-side show-through crowds its left edge; the 6 is clear. Both ne…rien negatives and parfaitement remain, with the semicolon and the separate Comme sentence. No new relative or governing clause is supplied.

T289.The quotation, separate parenthetic attribution, other-version reference and however remain. Good things and evils preserve the biens/maux contrast, and evils retains the repeated maux. The earlier version is not reconstructed, and no exact Greek text or translator is assigned.

T562.The roman quotation closes after maux and its period, before the separate parenthetic Hésiode. attribution. The alternative version remains unnamed. Cependant and en effet, memory/recollection, goods/evils and singular fait remain without replacing the author’s wording from an external text.

T290.The paired pleasures, excellent/perpetual distinction and reciprocal final effects remain. Jaded preserves blaser’s dulled responsiveness from familiarity. The Académie dictionary of 1798 records blaser for dulling the senses or weakening taste, including through satiety.

T563.Both ni formulations retain their distinct possessors; the reciprocal blase/blasons verbs and the commensal/convive distinction remain. No pas is inserted into the French prohibition.

T291.The demonstrative, repeated buffoon root and most-often/only qualifications remain. No book or passage is assigned to those.

T564.The related bouffonneries/bouffon wording, frequency le plus souvent and restrictive ne…que remain; no specific work or target is supplied.

T292.The conditional opening, individual/collective distinction and universal restrictive final clause remain. Fiction is not silently turned into falsehood or a named political theory. Because gives literal parce its causal force; the French has no following que, and none is inserted. The spelling l’authorise remains unchanged.

T565.The printed connective is literally parce toute multitude, with no que between parce and toute; this is not a reproduction loss to be repaired. L’authorise has h. The individual/collective contrast, whole and restrictive ne…que remain.

T293.The reversal and the bodily descriptions remain as the source’s political metaphor. Hereditary, perpetual and the qualification under certain conditions retain their separate force. The historical assertion is Joubert’s; it is not a description of present institutions. The ordinary English adjective order reverses hereditary/perpetual without changing either qualification.

T294.The two locations, decision/deliberation distinction and law/count contrast remain. Without peers and outside the ranks retain the repeated hors relation and social-spatial image. No assembly or voting system is identified.

T295.The three nominal sentences, paired relative clauses and only-few restriction remain. Organized keeps organisés in the instrument/body analogy without narrowing it to administrative order; no physiological mechanism is inferred. Harp and lyre stay distinct, and the second Of retains its source capital.

T568.The three nominal sentences remain. The final De has a printed capital after Et. Harp and lyre are not conflated; seulement and quelques preserve their limits.