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← ExitThe Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II

Reading language

YEAR 1815

The colored pastes or waxes. Precious stones are imitated with prepared glasses. And these glasses offer their brilliance, their colors, their facets and all their scintillations, but never their naturalness.

And so it is that at the Gobelins, workers, industrious but without any genius, reproduce in their tapestries all the colors of paintings with wools they use but have not dyed.

All [these] false gems, white, blue, yellow or green, lack only the essence of the emerald, the topaz, the sapphire or the diamond. All their outward features are there, but not “the configuration of the inner parts,” as the Cartesians say.

N. writes verse like Delile, and Villemain prose like Fontanes; but neither is a Fontanes or a Delile.

February 3.

The multitude loves multitude or plurality in government; the wise love unity in it.

February 4.

But to please the wise and attain its perfection, unity must have as its limits those of its proper extent. They want it eminent and full. Let it resemble a disk, and not resemble a point. Let its limits come from itself. Let it limit itself, like everything heaven has made.

February 5.

— If that is the book of a wise man, it is worth nothing; if it is an orator’s, it is very good.

February 7.

It is always what ends or limits a thing that gives it its character, its precision, its clearness, its perfection. That is what isolates it, what encloses it, what separates it from the rest, what shuts it up within itself and what brings it back to itself. Through this it subsists, is distinct, is known; and through this alone it is absolutely complete.

February 8.

Tormented by the cursed ambition always to put an entire book into a page, an entire page into a sentence, and that sentence into a word. That is me.

Religion that permits no pleasures except those one takes despite oneself, nature having provided for them.

February 10.

To say of a sentence that it is harmonious is to say it has a great fault, an agreeable fault, to be sure, but a real fault and dangerous for authors as well as readers, who are equally seduced by it and equally corrupted in their judgment and taste.

February 11.

Accurate images. Nothing is so difficult as working to make them, or at least nothing so painful. One is in the air, one works on a shadow or on a cloud. One walks on these four inches. Nothing supports one.

T66.Glasses here means prepared glass materials, not drinking vessels. The initial fragment, And, all four visible qualities and never remain. Naturalness continues the prior aesthetic vocabulary; no additional mineralogical explanation replaces the comparison.

T457.Four separately indented paragraphs remain one unit. The first retains its opening fragment, ou alternative, repeated verres/en offrent, four outward features and negative jamais. The second retains initial Et, sans aucun génie, toutes, employent and the negative relative about dyeing. The third [ces] is a printed roman editorial supplement. The four color descriptions and four named gems retain their order, the restrictive construction and Tous...mais non remain, and in the French source the quotation closes before the comma. Carthésiens literally has th, confirmed by the original-size color band; no philosophical spelling normalization is made in the French source. Both occurrences literally read Delile, with a single l after i, in the original-size color band. N. remains an unexpanded baseline initial. The Fon-/tanes wrap is complete, and the final ni...ni...ne construction retains its plural sont and both des forms. The whole unit, including the quotation, is roman.

T67.The initial And, industrious/no-genius contrast, all the colors and use/have-not-dyed distinction remain. Wools keeps the source’s plural material word. No history of the Gobelins or particular tapestry is added.

T68.[These] follows the printed source-editor [ces]. The four colors and four stones remain in their different original orders, with the restrictive only and all retained. The quotation is translated freshly as printed; no Cartesian work is identified. Its comma moves inside the closing quotation under American style. Cartesians is the ordinary English name for the source’s literal Carthésiens; its historical th remains in French.

T69.N. remains opaque. The crossed ordering of Delile/Fontanes and Fontanes/Delile is preserved. The French plural class-names become ordinary singular class predicates under neither in English, without treating the comparison as literal identity or supplying a name for N. Both source forms read Delile with one l after i; the English retains that spelling rather than regularizing the name.

T70.Both multitude terms, the alternative plurality, government setting and wise/unity contrast remain. No particular form of government or current political assessment is supplied.

T458.The original-size color margin retains the two foreground curves of 3, with the left contour softened and show-through distinguished; the complete date is qualified rather than inferred from sequence. The repeated multitude, alternative ou, semicolon and y relation remain. The gouverne-/ment wrap is complete.

T71.The initial But, required limits, repeated self-reference and three Let clauses remain. Eminent keeps the unusual elevated quality instead of reducing it to merely large or politically supreme. Disk and point remain distinct geometric images; the singular feminine source pronouns refer to unity. Proper extent is not assigned an external measure. Repeated resemble retains both semblable formulations; the source spelling étenduë remains in French.

T459.The original-size color date retains the sloping 4 stroke, crossbar and lower stem at a qualified level despite nearby show-through. The opening Mais and two pour clauses, modal il faut, both qualities and the three subsequent Que/Qu’elle formulations remain. Étenduë is printed with two separate raised components over the final e, their soft contours qualified. The repeated semblable and explicit non pas, disque/point distinction, source of limits and hyphenated elle-même remain. The émi-/nente and sem-/blable wraps are complete; no fresh gaps are inferred. All text is roman. The bounded independent original-size color comparison agrees with the named dates, spellings and upper marks at the stated contour limits; no expanded name or new source word is supplied.

T72.Both conditional judgments, the initial dash, nothing/very-good contrast and different kinds of author remain. No book or speaker is identified.

T460.The complete date 5 février and opening dash remain. Both present conditional clauses, the negative rien, sage/orateur contrast and degree fort are retained. No book or speaker identity is supplied.

T73.Always, both opening verbs, all four qualities and all five delimiting relations remain. Subsists preserves the philosophical force of subsiste. The repeated self-reference, three consequent predicates, alone and absolutely remain without defining the thing externally. Known and complete give ordinary English counterparts to literal connuë and complette; the French retains its diaeresis and doubled t.

T461.The complete date 7 février, toujours, termine/limite alternative and four qualities remain. All five ce qui relations retain their pronouns and the literal l’enferme à soi; neither occurrence of à soi is regularized. Connuë has two distinct upper e components in the original-size color crop, with soft contours qualified. Complette retains doubled t and plain e. The three qu’elle formulations, semicolon, seul and absolument remain. The carac-/tère and dis-/tincte wraps are complete.

T74.The opening participial fragment remains without an added I am. Always, both entire terms, the descending book/page/sentence/word sequence and abrupt self-identification remain. Cursed preserves maudite’s force. Both French phraze forms keep their z, while English uses the ordinary sentence.

T462.The complete date 8 février remains. The opening participial fragment, toujours, both whole-book/page terms and final C’est moi are preserved. Both phraze forms have z; no spelling normalization or source subject is inserted.

T75.The nominal opening and exclusive restriction remain. Despite oneself is not made an explicit voluntary choice. The closing participial explanation remains attached to nature; no particular religion is identified.

T463.The nominal-relative opening, restrictive ne...que, relative object and perfect participle ayant pourvu remain. The y relation and malgré soi are literal; no named religion, date or missing clause is supplied.

T76.All three fault terms, the agreeable/real contrast, authors/readers relation and both equally terms remain. To be sure expresses the concessive sans doute here; the sentence does not deny that harmony pleases.

T464.The complete date 10 février, initial infinitive and all three défaut terms remain. Phraze retains z. Sans doute, vrai, the coordinated authors/readers and both également degrees are retained, as are judgment/taste. The dange-/reux wrap is complete and all text is roman.

T77.The initial fragment, difficult/painful self-correction, air/shadow/cloud sequence and lack of support remain. Four inches renders quatre pouces without conversion to a modern measured distance; these preserves the unexplained demonstrative rather than supplying a platform or surface. The object one in Nothing supports one is an ordinary contextual English supply for Rien ne soutient, not a recovered missing French word.

T465.The complete date 11 février and opening nominal fragment remain. Both negative degree comparisons and the ou du moins correction are preserved, followed by the shadow/cloud alternative and separate final negative assertion. Original-size color distinctly reads ces quatre pouces, with c rather than a silently substituted s; the phrase is not regularized from context.