Diotimos Reading Desk

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← ExitThe Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II

Reading language

YEAR 1814

Dussault. His style is a pleasing warble in which one can [give] neither any character nor any definite air.

November 20.

It is permitted (or rather it is inevitable) for everyone to [have] an opinion. But it is not permitted for everyone to trust the [opinion] they have.

Our immortality is revealed to us (literally) by a [revelation] innate or infused into our mind. God himself, in creating it, [deposits] this word there, engraves this truth there, whose marks and sound [remain] there indelible, indestructible. But inattention and bad [suggestions] can make us deaf and blind to it. Inattention distracts [us] from this light and this sound. In this, God speaks to us [very] softly and illuminates us in secret. To hear him, we need inner [silence]; to perceive his light, we must close our senses [and] look only within ourselves.

God says even to the nature of the horse: “You shall obey the spur,” to the nature of the ox: “You shall obey the goad.”

God, therefore, in creating them, speaks to souls and to natures and gives [them] instructions whose meaning they forget, but whose [impression] remains with them. Of this word and this ray thus deposited, there remains to [us] in the soul, in its greatest darkenings, and [in] the mind in its greatest lapses of attention, a kind of [crescent] and of humming that never cease and that trouble us [from] time to time and sooner or later in our outward distractions. [But] [these] inner principles, to develop fully, have need [of] outward words and manifestations, as the eye, to see, has [need] of the light within it and of that in space; [as] the ear, to hear, of the air within its cavity and of [that] in the world.

Priests (true priests, good priests). Admit at least that we could have [no] better guides to lead us along the [way] and paths of virtue and those of perfection. [Admit] also that they alone know, or at least that they alone [prescribe], the latter.

November […]1.

All luxury corrupts either morals or taste. Once one has [tasted] literary luxury... But not every adornment is luxury. There are [adornments] that serve only to illustrate or to make manifest. They call to [the] eye; they fix attention, and by that very fact they make the object or subject better [known]. (The object is presented to the eyes; and the [subject] submitted to thought.)

T6.Dussault and ramage follow the direct source reading, superseding the provisional map’s different locator. Warble preserves the birdsong image. In which keeps où rather than silently emending it to an indirect-object pronoun. [Give] contextually reads donne[…] as donner. Both negative objects remain, and air retains its possible musical or expressive force; no particular tune or person is identified.

T158.The clearer color witness supports the complete name Dussault and agréable ramage. The old topology’s unknown-name/spectre locator is not source text and is superseded by this direct reading; no historical identity is inferred. The right edge after donne does not certify a complete r. Both aucun components, ni and the final adjective/period remain. Où has a compressed grave-like contour retained with qualification.

T7.The impersonal forms, repeated everyone and explicit revision from permitted to inevitable remain. The negative in the second sentence does not prohibit everyone without exception. [Have] and [opinion] contextually read avo[…] and av[…], without restoring the French endings. Ordinary singular they retains the indefinite possessor.

T8.The three-paragraph unit has no visible printed Ibid. or new date; no November 20 date is assigned across its separator. Literally, the innate/infused alternative, God himself, repeated there and the paired sensory images remain. Contextual English brackets correspond to révélatio[…], dépo[…], demeuren[…], su[…]gestions, nou[…], to[…] and silenc[…]. Deposits reads the incomplete verb as present dépose without certifying its lost letters. Very softly contextually takes to[…] bas as tout bas. [And] supplies a possible link at the suspected slot after nos sens; its source presence and extent remain uncertain. The mind is the object being created; the audible and visible word/truth images are not reduced to a doctrine.

T160.Three physical paragraphs remain in one unit, the last continuing through the five initial lines of 799 before its first star. A separator on 798 is followed directly by Notre immortalité; no printed Ibid. label is visible in the complete color image or original-size band. The map’s provisional Ibid. reading is not adopted as a date. No preceding November 20 date is assigned across the star. Paragraph 1 retains the parenthetic à la lettre, singular revelation, three-person deixis, hearing/seeing images and both il faut formulations. Right-edge losses remain after révélatio, dépo, demeuren, su before next-line gestions, nou, to and silenc. The word appercevoir retains pp. The obscured slot after nos sens is only a suspected loss of uncertain presence/extent; et is not certified. The visible large central text remains roman, with the accent contours qualified under the horizontal smear. In the French source, paragraph 2 keeps both singular future commands in separate quoted spans, the comma after the first closing guillemet and the terminal period after the second. The horse, spur, ox and goad are retained without supplying a source citation or theological interpretation. The œ ligature and narrow accents remain qualified visible readings. Paragraph 3 retains le before its lost ending, the split impre/sion, nou and dan before their unreadable endings, and d before the incomplete component preceding temps. After croiss the merged right-edge shapes do not securely identify the noun’s remaining letters; no familiar word is imposed from context. Only Ma is complete at the end of 798; neither i nor s is restored. The source’s sensory images, repeated dans and final extérieures remain. At the beginning of 799 only es, e, esoin, omme and elui are certified at the five left-edge openings. The damaged c/d/b/c/c components are not supplied from grammar; any earlier faint material is distinct from the readable foreground. All remaining central wording, the semicolon and final period retain their printed order. The comparative eye/ear construction stays within the same paragraph. Independent bounded comparison of complete color 798, original-size name/incipit/right-edge bands and the five 799 continuation initials agrees with the recorded qualified limits, Dussault/agréable ramage, raised-r Mʳ Bonald and absence of Ibid. No missing connector, closing quote, croiss ending or incomplete initial is recovered. This closure is limited to the explicitly reported targets and does not certify every small accent contour.

T9.The two quoted singular future commands, both nature phrases and the even qualification remain. The English puts the first comma inside its closing quotation mark under American style; the source places it outside. No biblical quotation, animal behavior claim or source identification is added.

T10.The one paragraph continues across 798–799. The literal plural natures, forget/remaining-impression contrast, two greatest qualifications, never, both timing phrases and eye/ear comparison remain. [Crescent] tentatively interprets croiss[…] as croissant within the light image; the noun’s remaining letters remain unresolved. The Académie dictionary of 1798 attests the lunar noun but does not establish this damaged reading or Joubert’s intended image. The specialist directly read the complete official electronic noun entry; no dictionary facsimile was inspected. Other brackets mark contextual readings of le[…], impre[…]sion, nou[…], dan[…], d[…], Ma[…] and the five 799 residues […]es, […]e, […]esoin, […]omme and […]elui. None supplies lost French letters. The second comparative member stays elliptical, with no repeated finite verb. The same term outward renders the repeated extérieures without identifying a practice or institution.

T11.The initial nominal designation and its two qualifications remain. Both imperatives, both at least qualifications, both they alone restrictions and the knowing/prescribing alternative remain. [No] contextually reads the damaged […]e as ne; the negative itself is not intact. [Way], the second [Admit] and [prescribe] broadly render […]hemin, […]vouëz and pres[…]rivent; no missing French component is restored. The latter refers contextually to the paths of perfection; no particular clergy or denomination is identified.

T161.The complete color 799 and original-size color/DjVu left strips have been read. Only e before scaurions and hemin at the next opening are certified; the second Avouëz loses a complete initial A, and the wrapped pres-/crivent loses its initial c. The surviving right leg or disconnected edge traces do not certify the missing components. Both only relations, the repeated du moins and the alternative ou remain. No new date is assigned across the separator. The first Avouëz has two distinct raised components over e; the second retains the same qualified diaeresis on the intact vouëz residue. Literal scaurions is not modernized. All wording is roman, including the parenthetic priest qualification. Independent bounded comparison agrees with these four losses and the named qualified diaereses; no missing component is recovered.

T12.The either/or distinction, unfinished once clause and only restriction remain. Call to the eye retains the visual summons of appellent […]a vuë. The five English brackets contextually render […]oûté, […]rnemens, […]a, con[…]oître and sub[…]ect without restoring French letters. [Known] is the verbal counterpart within English make…known; [the] covers the whole article although its source a survives. The earlier unbracketed subject is intact. Object/subject stay distinct, with both faculties and the final elliptical submitted retained. The entry date preserves only its terminal 1; no 21 is reconstructed.