January 15.
Everything that produces only an imperfect movement torments. (Shaking.)
January 18.
In Mr. de Bonald, it is thought that is cadenced; and one feels it, although the expression is not.
January 19.
A contented air always suits a good man.
To let one’s mind rest only in happy ideas, in satisfying or perfect ideas. — Happy ideas, we have them when we await them — and when we are fit to receive them.
January 21.
Acquired naturalness (like that of J+ffr—t and Villemain).
Too much harmony. Prose can have too much of it, just as it can have too much sweetness. And this is a very seductive fault, very agreeable at first, but unbearable in the long run and ridiculous.
Varnish (in style) makes a glacis (for the reader).
As long as a man keeps his reason, he has enough fire left, enough wit and enough memory to converse with heaven and with simple, good souls. That is enough. All the rest is a surplus useful only for business, for pleasures, for honors, for amusements. And what business does one have, what honors, what pleasures does one need, when one has nothing necessary to ask of fortune, when one is wise and old?
I. Mr. de Beausset has rediscovered the lost thread of continuous narrative; that ductile thread which bends and bends again in a thousand ways without tangling, without breaking and without knotting.
II. A simple elegance, an ease achieved with care, a sober wisdom, a true moderation, nothing contrived: that is what is rare today, or rather what we no longer see, and what distinguishes him.
III. In Fénelon, he had pearls to set, and he surrounded them more richly; here he had blocks to show, and he set them farther apart, cultivating austere muses.
His quotations lie in the course of his narrative like islands all full of monuments.
Reading him, one seems to descend a river and make a journey by boat in fine weather and through a beautiful country. The century he passes through is shown to right and left... Sketching what he encompasses. Etc.
He has restored its character to the temperate style, the only style that is classical, or at least the only one that is scholastic. — To bring us back to wholesome beauties that charm the soul without altering its light, without troubling it with passions.
It needs (the present century), it needs softer virtues in which it may suspect some wounds, virtues more ailing and which it may pity.
T41. Only retains the restriction. The parenthetic Ebranlement remains a separate nominal fragment within this paragraph; shaking provisionally retains the disturbance/motion sense without inventing a named physical or spiritual mechanism.
T440. The complete date 15 janvier is retained at the qualified color level, with recognizable 1 and 5 contours. The universal restrictive statement remains. The parenthetic Ebranlement has plain capital E and its period inside the close; it begins at the continuation margin on the following line and remains within this paragraph.
T42. The cleft emphasis, thought/expression distinction and conceded absence remain. Cadenced retains the rhythmic term rather than merely calling the thought orderly. The abbreviation is rendered as ordinary English Mr.
T441. The complete date 18 janvier retains the identifiable first stem and two closed lobes of 8 despite show-through. The title has a small raised r ; the name is Bonald without expansion or spelling substitution. The thought/expression contrast, semicolon and concessive negative remain. The folded quoique opening is identifiable.
T43. The air remains outward demeanor, and suits renders sied bien . Always and the good-man description remain; no assumption of self-satisfaction or personal transformation is added.
T442. The complete date 19 janvier remains at the qualified color level, with the 9 loop and descending tail distinct. Sied has a plain i and no added accent. Toujours and both bien formulations retain their positions.
T44. The initial infinitive, only, fronted and repeated happy ideas, possession and both conditions remain. English uses the ordinary zero article before happy ideas for the source editor’s supplied [des] , so its bracket cannot be transferred as a separate English word; no new source word is implied. The collated satisfesante has e and a singular ending despite plural idées ; satisfying does not imitate that French spelling or agreement anomaly. Fit preserves aptitude for receiving rather than promising that waiting alone suffices.
T443. The opening restrictive infinitive remains without a supplied subject. The first [des] is printed roman editorial material; the second des is unbracketed. Original-size color distinctly reads satisfesante , with e and singular ending despite plural idées ; no spelling or agreement repair is made. In the French source, both dashes, the comma before ou , repeated idées heureuses and the waiting/receptivity coordination remain. Folded dans/a beginnings retain identifiable foreground; no missing word or new paragraph is inferred.
T45. The paradoxical nominal phrase and comparison remain. The masked name is retained without expansion; the collated J+ffr—t retains its plus sign, double f , r and long dash before t , with its contour qualifications retained.
T444. The complete date 21 janvier preserves the 2 curve/diagonal/foot and following 1 at the qualified color level. The nominal fragment and whole parenthesis remain. Original-size color supports opaque J+ffr—t with a plus sign, double f , r and a long horizontal dash before t ; the code is not expanded to a guessed name. All text is roman; the bounded independent code comparison agrees, without expansion.
T46. Can, both too-much relations, the opening fragment and And remain. The strong contrast between first pleasure and later intolerance is preserved without reducing ridiculous to mere weariness.
T47. Glacis is deliberately retained because choosing one English sense would narrow the metaphor. The 1798 Académie gives both a smooth gentle slope and, in painting, a light color layer, even a transparent one. The neighboring varnish supports the painting sense, while the reader’s movement across a smooth surface remains a possible implication; neither reading is certified as exclusive. Both source parentheses remain. The French word is roman in the body and requires a French language span.
T48. The three enough terms, fire image, two converse-with relations and separate sufficiency sentence remain. All four uses of the surplus and the final three interrogative phrases retain their order, including the changed position of honors and pleasures. The question stays conditional on needing nothing necessary, wisdom and age. This single paragraph continues through the opening five lines of 816. Wit carries the broader intellectual faculty here, not exclusively humor.
T446. The whole unit remains one paragraph across 815–816, with a separate printed boundary after the preceding varnish paragraph. The three assés forms and both avec terms remain, followed on 816 by the sufficiency statement and the four pour objects. The incoming color passage and its original-size crop retain complete foreground words; no source loss is inferred. Both a-t’on forms literally have a hyphen before t and an apostrophe after it, not two modernized hyphens. Amusemens retains its historical ending. The final question keeps its three interrogative objects, negative rien and repeated temporal clauses. All text is roman.
T49. The thread remains a physical metaphor, with ductility, both bend verbs, a thousand and all three without clauses. Continuous renders continuë . The source’s name spelling is retained without supplying a book title.
T447. Seven paragraphs remain one unit. Roman I/II/III are printed only at the first three paragraph openings; the next four are unnumbered. The title before de Beausset has a raised small r . Original-size color shows continuë and nouër with paired upper e components, qualified for soft contours; no name or title expansion is made in the French source. The ductile-thread imagery keeps plie/replie , mille and all three sans . The second paragraph retains its four indefinite formulations, negative rien , colon and ou plutôt correction. The third preserves the earlier/later comparison, avoit versus perfect a forms and both plus placements. The fourth paragraph retains îles with a compressed circumflex-like component, qualified rather than normalized, and monumens . The fifth retains two beau formulations, the three-dot printed ellipsis after gauche , the separate participial Dessinant fragment and Etc. within the same paragraph. The sixth distinctly prints rendu , not the preliminary map’s perdu , with seul repeated and the infinitive Nous ramener after the dash. Both sans phrases remain. The seventh repeats il lui faut around the parenthesis, with two comparative plus forms, quelques and the final relative relation. Original-size color and the complete page support these readings; the bounded independent comparison of the named upper-mark/verb/type targets agrees at the stated qualified level.
T50. The five-part description, today/no-longer self-correction and concluding distinction remain. Care is the force of soignée ; nothing contrived retains the negative rien de cherché without implying absence of labor.
T51. Both had-to constructions describe the biographer’s material, without inventing a new command. Pearls, blocks, richer setting and greater isolation retain their contrast. The named Fénelon is not expanded to an independently identified edition or work title.
T52. Course preserves the narrative/river double sense developed in the next paragraph. All full retains toutes pleines rather than omitting its fullness or plural scope. The islands and monuments remain concrete; no particular quotations or monuments are identified.
T53. The river, boat, weather and country remain, followed by the source ellipsis, participial fragment and Etc. The final ce qu’il circonscrit makes il the subject that encompasses, not the object being surrounded. He is a contextual reading of the implicit writer; it, referring to the masculine century or another preceding nonpersonal image, remains possible. The fragment’s own implicit agent is not independently identified. The unenhanced native-size crop confirms the active pronoun relation.
T54. The complete color page reads a rendu ; the topology’s preliminary a perdu incipit is not adopted. Temperate style preserves genre tempéré as a category of writing rather than a person’s temperament. Both only terms retain seul…seul . Classical/scholastic retain the source’s corrective distinction; scholastic may concern suitability for schools, not exclusively medieval philosophy. The closing infinitive, two without clauses and the soul’s light remain.
T55. The interrupted subject explanation and repeated needs remain. Both comparisons and the two possible responses are retained. Ailing virtues preserves the bodily personification; no named person’s illness is inferred.