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← ExitThe Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II

Reading language

YEAR 1815

Sunday, January 1. (At Villeneuve.)

Nothing in man that is an incurable evil matures. And nothing angelic that he may have in him grows old: who has ever been able to picture an old angel? At most one can imagine an old spirit, but only by supposing it more earthly than aerial.

Old age, a neighbor to eternity, is a kind of priesthood and, if it is also free of passion, it consecrates you. It therefore seems entitled to pronounce on religion; but with mistrust. with fear. If we then have no more passions, we have had them and we have (sic) their habits. If we are close to God, we have kept our impressions of the earth. Finally, we have long been mistaken. We must fear being mistaken still and, above all, misleading others.

We must fear being mistaken in poetry when we do not think as poets do, and in religion when we do not think as saints do.

The Jansenists say that we must love God, and the Jesuits make him loved. The latter’s doctrine is full of inaccuracies and perhaps errors; but, strange, surprising and yet incontestable, they guide better. It is probably (or perhaps) because their errors came from the heart and from an overly tender charity. The Jansenists have not lacked charity either; but it is harsh; rigorous and more attached, it seems, to teaching the truth than to loving either God or men. One would say they love the rule better than the good; and the others love the good more than the rule. The first are more essentially learned and the others more essentially pious.

Fénelon and his insipid theology. The Jesuits at least are frank and resolute in their errors. — “God (Maldonnat says loudly) has predestined all men.” “Sectarian and not heretic,” says Terillus, régl. des mœurs I. “Every unbeliever acting in good faith can be saved,” says Father Malène in his Curiosités utiles; and Casnedi (vid. loc.) “Excess of faith, excusing ignorance.” They introduced innovations into the church, there is no doubt of that; but at least innovations that are often only gentle and humane, and they declared themselves inventors. (Only their purely dogmatic errors are at issue here. They had worse ones; but, I believe, with good intentions.) Fénelon, in his cloying rigidity, is at bottom drier and harder than a Jansenist; and an innovator too, he invokes antiquity, constant tradition. — Fénelon: he knows how to pray, but not how to instruct.

To believe what is contrary to reason, that is possible — it concerns higher objects and has no consequence. But to believe of God what is contrary to justice (as the heart conceives it), perhaps that is neither possible nor right, unless he expressly commands it. Show me this command, then: if it is clear, I will submit; if it is obscure, I will suspend even my doubts, I will adore and I will wait.

The best metaphysics is the one we have despite ourselves, that is to say, the one founded on ideas or images that are inevitably and universally within us, by the nature of our intelligence, or by that of things, or by the will of God (whom this necessity proves sufficiently to us).

T1.The incurable evil, maturing/aging distinction, rhetorical question and final restriction remain. May have retains peut avoir rather than presuming an angelic quality is present. Spirit reads génie as a supernatural being in the immediate angel/earthly/aerial comparison, rather than creative talent; the 1798 Académie entry’s spirit sense supports this contextual choice. The singular man and ensuing him retain the generic individual. The source date and place are metadata, not a second body paragraph.

T406.The separate rule and ANNÉE 1815 heading precede this entry; they do not belong to the preceding 1814 unit. The full weekday, numeral 1 and raised er are identifiable, with the place circumstance retained on the same date line. Villeneuve. is italic inside roman parentheses after plain capital A; no accent is added to A. The two negatives, direct question, tout au plus and terrestrial/aerial comparison remain. Mûrit has a raised circumflex-like component and aërien has two distinct upper e components in the original-size color view; narrow contours remain qualified. The folded left starts rien/se/génie are identifiable foreground forms despite show-through, without added gaps.

T2.The neighbor/priesthood/consecration images, conditional freedom from passion and tentative seems remain. The source has on en a eu et on a (sic) les habitudes: and retains the intact et, and the printed source-editor sic remains after have. No explanation of the source editor’s intended correction is inferred. The unusual period after défiance and following lowercase avec are preserved as mistrust. with fear. Generic we renders the recurring on, while consecrates you preserves vous. Self-error and misleading others remain distinct. Only sic is italic; its parentheses remain roman. The source’s authorisée is not modernized.

T407.The whole passage remains one paragraph. The conditional si clauses, apparent authorization, negative ne...plus, past en a eu versus present on a and final self/other distinction are retained. Authorisée literally has h; no modern spelling replaces it. Original-size color and native pixels support the anomalous baseline period after défiance followed by lowercase avec; it is retained without assigning authorial intent. The source sic alone is italic, with its parentheses roman; it follows the printed on a, which is not emended. The folded si/être/crainte/habitudes/la/tromper beginnings remain identifiable at the qualified color level.

T3.Both when clauses, the repeated negative and the two fields remain. Must fear preserves the obligation without converting it into an assertion that disagreement always establishes error. Generic we renders on.

T4.The first/latter opposition follows the named order: Jansenists and Jesuits. The two perhaps formulations and the probably/or-perhaps self-qualification remain. Charity keeps charité distinct from generic kindness. Guide retains the spiritual-direction possibility without adding an explicit object or office. Make him loved renders the causative le font aimer; it does not merely state that the Jesuits themselves love. The semicolon before rigorous preserves the source’s unusual continuation, and past came remains distinct from the surrounding present judgments.

T409.This entire long contrast remains one paragraph. The saying/causing-to-love distinction, peut-être/probablement qualifications and parenthetic alternative, past venoient, both charitable groups and repeated comparative rules/goodness pair are retained without doctrinal repair. Ceux ci is printed with a space, without a hyphen; scavans remains literal. The semicolon after âpre is retained before rigoureuse, as are the spaced ce semble and both ou terms. The ordinary incon-/testable and jan-/sénistes wraps are joined without creating losses. The folded left starts remain qualified identifiable in the clearer color witness. All text is roman.

T5.The opening and quoted fragments, at least/often/only restrictions, two separate assessments of error, parenthetic I believe and concluding prayer/instruction contrast remain. Insipid and cloying preserve the distinct critical flavors of fade and doucereuse. Unbeliever renders infidèle in the religious context, and good faith does not assert doctrinal belief. The names Maldonnat, Terillus, Malène and Casnedi, title, abbreviated reference with Roman I, and Latin vid. loc. remain as collated, all roman. No authority or attributed teaching has been independently verified. Father renders P. Loudly contextually interprets the visibly anomalous hautemnet as the adverb hautement; the French retains hautemnet, and the English does not establish its intended reading beyond that interpretation. Printed inovateur also remains unchanged in French. There is no new paragraph at the 812 page turn.

T410.One paragraph crosses 811–812 and ends before the first star on 812. It keeps the four separately bounded quotations, first attribution parenthesis, later roman (vid. loc.), long parenthesis and both dashes. In the French source, the first quotation’s period is inside its guillemets; the final quoted fragment’s period is outside. The source references and titles remain roman, without an expanded author or exact external locus. Original-size color and native pixels distinctly read hautemnet, with m-n-e order after haute, not normalized hautement. Maldonnat has the printed doubled n; Terillus, Malène and Casnedi are retained literally. Régl. carries its acute and the following I. is a qualified capital Roman I with broad serifs, not an inferred volume title. Inovateur on 812 visibly has one n; fonds has s. The two past narrative verbs introduisirent/déclarèrent, parenthetic limitation to purely dogmatic errors, worse/better-intention qualification, comparative dry/hard and final knows-how/not-teach contrast remain. The color continuation’s right-edge letters and ordinary inten-/tion wrap are identifiable with reproduction limits retained. The bounded independent comparison agrees with the named spelling, punctuation and emphasis/date limits; all reproduction qualifications remain.

T6.The initial possibility, higher objects, no-consequence claim, perhaps, double modal denial and express-command exception remain. Right renders ne se doit as what ought to be done, not mere ability. The final clear/obscure conditionals and three future actions preserve their sequence; even modifies doubts. The French’s compressed change of construction after the dash is not expanded into a named theological principle.

T411.The opening infinitive, dash and literal il s’agit...et n’a construction remain without a supplied subject or connector. The justice parenthesis, peut-être, paired possibility/obligation negatives and explicit-order exception retain their syntax. Both conditional clauses, three final future predicates and même are preserved. The ordinary peut-/être wrap is joined as the lexical hyphenated peut-être. Complete color and original-size right-edge inspection retain qualified identifiable Dieu/peut/lui/est endings; no source loss is inferred from the fold.

T7.Both adverbs, ideas/images and all three alternative origins remain. Despite ourselves retains the involuntary malgré soi rather than replacing it with personal preference. Whom reads the final que contextually as God, whose existence the necessity is said to prove; a reference to the preceding will remains grammatically possible and remains open in the translation note. The parenthesis is Joubert’s assertion, not independent proof offered by the translation.