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← ExitThe Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II

Reading language

YEAR 1815

January 3.

— saying: “It is possible for me to mask everything and conceal everything, except myself.”

Truth that would deceive, we must never tell that truth.

— And I will tell as many lies or fables as you wish, but I will never wound the truth.

January 4.

Is there anything better than judgment? — Yes. — And what? — The gift of seeing, the mind’s eye, the instinct of penetration, prompt discernment, finally natural sagacity for everything spiritual.

Thus, what he decides, he does not judge, he sees.

January 5.

(On the way to Paris.) Part of the love of truth consists in liking to hear men say what they think, and also in liking to see them show themselves as they are, in their actions. (Or better:) When one loves the true, one always takes some pleasure in hearing a man say what he thinks, and some pleasure even in seeing a man do what he had wished to do.

That the good actions of unbelievers are sins (as St. Augustine expressly says), one can believe it, but one cannot think it, unless the word sin is taken in the sense of a defective action, an action in which something is missing, perfection.

Let us no longer say the Jansenists; let us say the Augustinists.

There is joy in the Jesuits’ books of devotion, because nature and religion agree in them. In those of the Jansenists there is sadness and a judicious constraint, because in them nature is, so to [speak], perpetually put in irons by religion.

Fénelon had more friends and, so to speak, more worshipers precisely because he had more artifice. There is no bewitchment without art and without skill. A woman who has one lover may be merely charming; if she has a thousand, she practices wiles.

— And this is precisely what gives the Jesuits a more […] and above all a more assured air. They venture. They have little fear of being mistaken.

“To reach the good by every path” seemed the motto of the one group. “To observe the rule at any cost” was the motto of the other. The first of these maxims must be spoken to men; it cannot lead them astray. The second must sometimes be practiced, but never recommended. People of thoroughly tried virtue are the only ones incapable of abusing it.

January 6.

(At Lieursaint.) In poetry, in eloquence, in music, in painting, in sculpture, even in reasoning, nothing is beautiful except what comes from the soul or the entrails.

The entrails! After the soul, they are what is most inward, most intimate in us. Therefore: nothing is beautiful except what comes from the soul or the entrails.

T17.The initial dash and subjectless participle remain; no speaker is supplied. Both everything terms and both verbs remain, with the exception attached to the first-person speaker. The source quotation is kept within this first paragraph.

T421.The complete date 3 janvier is retained at the qualified original-size color level: both right curves and their joining middle survive despite soft foreground and show-through. Three separately indented paragraphs remain one unit. The first begins with a dash and lowercase participial disant, and contains the only quotation; the third retains its separate initial dash. The repeated tout, final excepté moi, conditional tromperoit, two jamais negatives and future dirai/voudrez/blesserai remain. Neither the participial attribution nor the first-person speaker is expanded. Left ler/La/mais starts are identifiable foreground, not restored missing words.

T18.The conditional would and never retain their scope. The demonstrative repetition keeps the particular deceptive truth as the object; it does not prohibit telling any truth. No explanation resolves the paradox.

T19.The initial dash and And, future promise, lies/fables alternatives and never remain. Wound retains the physical blesser metaphor rather than making it a merely logical contradiction. The source does not reopen quotation marks here, and the English does not invent them.

T20.The question-and-answer sequence and all five descriptions remain. Instinct of penetration keeps the unusual noun relation rather than smoothing it into a definition. Spiritual retains the source’s spirituël and its intellectual/spiritual range here; no exclusively theological object is named. The final domain remains attached to the sequence. Printed Ouï and spirituël retain their diaereses in French; no unusual English spelling is introduced.

T422.Two paragraphs remain under the complete qualified date 4 janvier; its crossbar and stem are identifiable despite the folded margin. The questions and successive answer dashes, finally and universal tout are retained. The second paragraph keeps the negative judgment versus direct seeing distinction. Original-size color shows paired upper i components in Ouï and paired upper e components in spirituël, with their soft contours explicitly qualified. L’œil retains its ligature; the later instinct has a complete final t, unlike instinc in the preceding comparison. All text is roman. The bounded independent comparison agrees with these named upper-mark/date readings at the stated qualified level.

T21.All three present verbs and the intervening negative remain, without an added conjunction. The masculine il lacks a newly named personal antecedent; he preserves an implicit thinker as a contextual reading. A reference to a masculine faculty in the previous paragraph remains possible and remains explicitly open; no person is identified.

T22.The travel circumstance remains in the body exactly once, separate from the date metadata. Both liking clauses and the parenthetic self-revision remain. The true distinguishes le vrai from the earlier vérité. Part/some/some/even retain their limits, and the final prior wish remains past perfect rather than becoming present desire. The English supplies to do as the ordinary complement of wished, without claiming a lost source word.

T423.The complete qualified date 5 janvier remains on its date line; the upper stroke, connecting descent and lower curve remain recognizable in the original-size color view. The roman place circumstance belongs at the opening of the body, not in an invented expanded date. The second parenthesis closes after the colon in Ou mieux : before Quand. The two formulations stay within one paragraph, with et aussi, toujours, repeated quelque plaisir and même preserved. The final avoit voulu remains past perfect. Folded left à/aimer/mieux/entendre/voir and the parenthetic opening are identifiable foreground without added gaps.

T23.The believing/thinking distinction and can/cannot remain. Unless scopes the proposed sense of sin, with no added denial. Both action formulations and the final perfection explanation remain. Only the singular sin corresponding to the later péché on 814 is italic, while the earlier plural sins is roman; the attribution is translated as Joubert gives it and has not been independently verified. The page turn does not create a new paragraph.

T424.Two paragraphs remain in one unit. The first crosses 813–814 between peut and pas without a new paragraph or missing word; the second begins on 814 before the printed separator. The attribution remains in the first paragraph, with expressément, the believe/think distinction and the exception clause preserved. Only the later singular péché on 814 is italic; the earlier plural péchés is roman. The repeated action formulations and final appositional la perfection remain. The second paragraph prints Augustinistes, distinct from Augustiniens above, and retains negative ne...plus followed by the repeated imperative. Original-size color 814 confirms the continuation and italic extent; the soft accent contours remain qualified.

T24.The no-longer/let-us-say self-correction remains. Augustinists corresponds to the distinct printed Augustinistes, rather than silently replacing it with the Augustinians used for Augustiniens earlier on 813. The English semicolon separates the two exhortations; it does not imply a source semicolon.

T25.The two kinds of devotional books, joy/sadness and agreement/constraint remain. Judicious preserves the qualification rather than converting constraint into mere cruelty. The repeated locative in them retains the books as context. Irons keeps the physical imprisonment image; [speak] corresponds to the printed source-editor [dire], not a new reproduction loss.

T425.Joye retains y. The repeated causal formulations and the nature/religion agreement versus perpetual restraint remain. The printed [dire] is a roman editorial supplement, not a current reconstruction; its following comma remains. All body text is roman.

T26.All three more terms, precisely and the qualified worshipers remain. Bewitchment retains ensorcellement without turning it into an independent supernatural claim. Both without terms remain. The one/thousand contrast and may/if distinctions preserve their scope. Practices wiles contextually renders a du manège as artful conduct; no particular woman or relationship is identified.

T426.The three plus comparisons, precisely causal relation, point/sans/sans and restrictive ne...que remain. The conditional one/thousand contrast retains its two present predicates and the manège term without an added moral gloss. The ensor-/cellement line wrap is complete; the qualified fold-side ends adorateurs/ensor-/peut remain identifiable.

T27.The initial dash and And, precisely, broken comparative and above all remain. The printed […] is left unfilled. Assured reads délibéré as ease and freedom of manner in this air construction, consistent with the following risk and slight fear; it does not mean slow reflection. The 1798 Académie entry Délibérer explicitly gives the adjective’s aisé/libre sense and an air délibéré example. The incomplete antecedent of this is not resolved across the source separator.

T427.The opening dash and the already printed bracketed ellipsis are retained. That ellipsis is source-editor material, not a newly inferred reproduction loss, and is not filled. The repeated plus, surtout and degree peu remain, together with the literal z in hazardent. All text is roman.

T28.Seemed versus was, all-paths versus any-cost and the first/second sequence remain. Sometimes qualifies practicing the second maxim; never qualifies recommending it. Incapable preserves the modal negative of ne…puissent pas, rather than merely stating that good people happen not to abuse it. Generic passive constructions render il faut without adding an individual adviser; the opening quotations retain their own boundaries.

T428.Both separate quoted mottoes remain roman and close before their reporting verbs. Voyes retains y. Sembloit and étoit remain distinct, as do the first/second formulations and the say/practice/never-advise contrasts. The final restriction, degree très and printed ne...pas remain; the incomplete-looking impersonal coordination is not supplied with extra French words.

T29.All six fields remain, with even on reasoning and the restrictive nothing-except. Entrails retains the concrete bodily term and its emotional resonance, consistently with the next paragraph and the earlier translation. The place circumstance belongs to the body; literal Lieursaint is retained, with no modernized place-name supplied.

T429.The two paragraphs remain under the complete date 6 janvier. The roman place circumstance is in the body, retaining plain A and literal Lieursaint, not normalized to another locality. Original-size color shows the two upper e components of poësie, with contour softness qualified. The six repeated en terms, même and the soul/entrails alternatives remain. The second paragraph retains its exclamation, two more-interior comparisons, Donc followed by a colon and repeated restrictive statement. The ordinary inté-/rieur line wrap is joined without a source loss.

T30.The exclamation, after-the-soul ordering, two superlatives and therefore remain. The concluding formulation repeats the prior paragraph instead of being shortened. English plural they makes the plural entrails the ordinary counterpart of the source c’est construction; it does not introduce a new organ or faculty.