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← ExitThe Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II

Reading language

YEAR 1814

Return often into your sphere, rest within your center, plunge into your element: a good maxim to practice, and one we must remember.

Let us not harden light, let us not solidify it.

A lamp in alabaster. — That does not illuminate, but it gives great pleasure and exercises the eyes themselves while resting them.

Plato. More light than objects.

“God loves (says [the] Father Q[uesnel]) those who give themselves to peaceful and gentle occupations.” This sentence is charming. — The text has: “He calls and blesses those who occupy themselves with quiet and innocent work.” It is almost the same idea; but this expression is graver.

Why even a bad preacher is listened to with pleasure by the pious. It is because he speaks to them of what they love. But you who explain Religion to the men of this century speak to them of what they have perhaps loved, or of what they would like to love. But they do not love it yet. And you must make them love it. Take care, then, to speak well.

Letourneur (whom I knew), a great writer when he translates; full of faults when he does not translate.

There is always something moaning in his style. It is the accent and habit of his earlier fortune. He always wants to arouse pity. The lament of emigration or exile mingles with the prosperities of return.

December 28.

Of accent in education. Its importance. “Eh meou! eh pitit!” etc. — Acts independently of words. The accent of conviction.

J.-Ch. died on the cross... as if one were saying: he got himself killed by a sword thrust.

There are no truths (worthy of the name) except those that enlighten the heart and govern actions.

“Heirs to your fathers’ fortune, be, then, the heirs to their oaths.” That is to say: All who are heirs to their fathers’ fortune must also be heirs to their oaths. Here, certainly, is a truth, a rule.

The Persian king’s saying in Sadi, “You always tell me the truth,” means: on the occasion of all the facts about which I question you, you always tell me not what I should believe about them, but what I should do on this occasion and on all similar occasions.

“Not all truths are good to tell,” because they are not all true truths.

One must live in peace and union with one’s neighbor. Here is a truth founded on the nature of neighborhoods and of man — and I must know it. — That my neighbor is or has been in his cellar or in his attic is a hypothetical truth about movements that I may remain ignorant of, and to that truth I should even rarely pay attention. Let us call nothing truth that we are permitted to remain ignorant of.

T117.All three imperatives and the sphere/center/element images remain. Often applies to the return. A good maxim to practice stays nominal, while one we must remember retains the explicit obligation in dont il faut se souvenir. The generic English we adds no identified speaker or group. The source’s reposez vous and plongez-vous keep their differing hyphenation; English does not silently standardize French.

T232.The three imperatives retain the printed spacing: reposez vous has no hyphen, while plongez-vous has one. The colon and subsequent nominal maxim are preserved; no finite verb is supplied after the colon.

T118.Both first-person exhortations and the distinct harden/solidify verbs remain. The physical metaphor is not replaced by a general warning against dogmatism.

T233.Two separately indented paragraphs remain. The first has two negative exhortations. The second keeps the nominal lamp/alabaster phrase, dash, negative illumination and positive pleasure/exercise relation; the final en les reposant is not smoothed away. The hyphen in eux-mêmes is literal.

T119.The nominal lamp, dash, negative illumination and positive pleasure remain. Exercises and rests preserve the paradox, with the emphatic eyes themselves. No particular lamp or optical mechanism is identified.

T120.The name and comparative fragment remain two sentences. No finite predicate or identified Platonic work is supplied.

T234.The name and comparative nominal fragment remain as two sentences, without an inferred finite verb, date or expanded reference.

T121.The two quotations and their different predicates remain distinct, as do charming and graver. Father renders the printed P. abbreviation, while [the] and Q[uesnel] correspond to printed editorial brackets rather than present losses. Almost preserves à peu près, and the final comparative is not strengthened into an absolute judgment. No external Quesnel passage is identified. The printed source supplements [le] and Q[uesnel] are now confirmed, as are both quotation boundaries and literal phraze. No reproduction loss is inferred from these edition-supplied letters.

T235.This entire block is one paragraph. The two quoted statements retain their own closing periods within the quotations, the parenthetic attribution in the first and the intervening dash/colon. The two printed supplements [le] and Q[uesnel] belong to the source edition and are distinct from any translator supply. Literal phraze has z. The alternative phrasing keeps both appelle/bénit predicates, the approximate identity of the idea and the comparative gravity of the expression. P. is not expanded in the French, and no externally sourced wording replaces either quotation. All text is roman.

T122.The opening Why retains the source period. Even, perhaps, would like and not yet keep their different scopes. The two But transitions, final And and practical exhortation remain. The capital Religion is retained. The paragraph continues through the first four lines of 809 without a new date or entry; its visible source has no additional loss.

T236.The initial Pourquoi sentence ends with a printed period, not a question mark. Même, the two contrasts introduced by Mais, the perfect ont aimé, conditional voudroient and pas encore remain. Religion retains its capital R. This one paragraph continues through the first four lines of 809 before the star. The color opening preserves recognizable vous/parlez/aimer/Ayez despite surrounding show-through; no missing initial or new paragraph is inferred. The successive aimer constructions and the final donc exhortation are not replaced by a generalized paraphrase.

T123.The name, first-person acquaintance and present when clauses remain, with the semicolon and omitted main copula. The judgment distinguishes translating from other writing; no particular translation or biographical claim is supplied beyond the source.

T237.The printed name Letourneur is not divided or expanded. The first-person parenthesis, nominal grand/plein predicates, two quand clauses and final negation remain. The lower-line de is recognizable despite surrounding show-through; no source gap is warranted.

T124.Both always formulations, moaning/complaint imagery and emigration/exile alternative remain. Earlier fortune takes première fortune as his prior circumstances, without identifying them. The plural prosperities is retained. The unnamed his is not automatically assigned to the person in the preceding separately divided entry.

T238.This is a separate undated unit after its own star. Son/sa/Il are not assigned a name in the French; the preceding entry does not create an explicit source attribution here. Both toujours, the first fortune, complaint and alternative émigration/exil remain. All four sentences and the final return retain their forms. The left starts remain qualified identifiable in the color witness.

T125.The opening and closing nominal phrases and subjectless Acts remain. The source reads Eh meou! eh pitit!, including the final t before one exclamation mark. The utterance remains untranslated rather than being assigned a dialect or speaker. Its two phrases form one italic span, with quotation marks and etc. roman. Accent includes vocal inflection and emphasis, not solely regional pronunciation. The qualified complete 28 December is preserved.

T239.The complete date 28 is retained at a qualified contour level, with both numerals identifiable beside lighter show-through. The successive fragments/sentences and subjectless Opère remain; no imperative or finite subject is invented. The original-size color and native crop support the literal exclamation Eh meou! eh pitit!: the last letter of pitit is t, followed by one exclamation mark, not two exclamation marks. Both quoted utterances form one italic span through the second exclamation; the quotation marks and etc. remain roman. No standard-language expansion or personal identity is imposed. The ordinary con-/viction wrap has an identifiable opening v.

T126.The printed abbreviation remains unexpanded. The first death statement, ellipsis and hypothetical paraphrase retain their distinction; got himself killed conveys se fit tuer without adding a motive. The source’s compound past is rendered as ordinary English narrative past, and its sword image is not softened.

T127.The restriction, full parenthesis and both relative predicates remain. Enlighten preserves the light image; govern takes règlent as regulating conduct, without identifying a religious rule.

T241.The restrictive clause, parenthetic qualification and both repeated qui relatives remain. The word cœur is readable at the margin; no letter is restored from context.

T128.The quoted imperative and its subsequent universal restatement remain separate. Oaths renders sermens, not sermons; fortune retains the inherited-estate sense without a named inheritance. Also, certainly and the truth/rule pair retain their force.

T242.Four separately indented paragraphs remain within one unit. The first quoted exhortation, spaced C’est à dire, prose restatement and final two nouns are preserved; sermens remains literal in both occurrences. The second paragraph keeps Sadi without an expanded title/reference, its internal quotation and the repeated toujours/devoir distinction between believing and doing. In the French source, the third retains both partial-negative tout constructions and the comma outside its closing quotation; they are not recast as absolute universal negatives. The fourth keeps its two dashes, voisin/voisinages distinction, subjunctive alternatives soit/ait été, cave/grenier alternatives, qualified rarely/permission claims and final negative exhortation. Literal scavoir and mouvemens remain. Color margin/native comparison makes the starts leurs/fortune/mens/veut/me/dans/sont/fondée/scavoir/grenier/ignorer/nons identifiable with stated reproduction limits, without new gaps.

T129.The named Sadi and attributed saying remain without an identified work or external quotation. Both always formulations, all facts, belief/action distinction and final extension to similar occasions remain. The English adds commas around the quoted saying for readability; they do not claim new source punctuation.

T130.Both not-all restrictions and the deliberate repeated truth root remain. The wording does not claim that no truth should be told, and true truths is not reduced to an ordinary adjective such as useful. The comma moves inside the English quotation under American house style; the French puts it outside.

T131.The duty and incidental-fact contrast remain, with peace/union, cellar/attic, present/past alternatives, hypothetical and even rarely. Neighborhoods preserves plural voisinages and its social-spatial relation without supplying a geographical setting. The final first-person exhortation retains the restrictive criterion, rather than turning permissible ignorance into a duty to ignore. The feminine à laquelle refers to vérité; the earlier que after mouvemens can grammatically attach to the truth or the movements. English repeats that truth for the later feminine relative, while leaving the first that available for truth or movements; no additional event is identified.