February 13.
Strong, strongly. — “A strong theologian, a strong metaphysician.” I would almost as gladly hear it said: a strong poet.
To have ideas strongly, that is nothing. What matters is to have strong ideas, that is, ideas in which there is a great strength of truth. Neither truth nor its strength depends on a man’s head. A strong man is what we call someone who stands up to objections. But that is only a strength of posture. A blunt dart thrown by a strong hand (like a stick) can strike strongly. That is because here one goes from body to body. But strong lungs and strong obstinacy will give no true efficacy to a weak argument strongly uttered, because there, mind alone goes to mind. To conceive an idea strongly, even a weak one, gives it strength (although to have it strongly does not), because in the first [case] there is the strength of a spiritual operation, whereas in the second case it comes only from the organ and can therefore act only on other organs.
This fine saying of St. Francis de Sales, reported by his disciple Mr. Le Camus, bishop of Belley: “God hates the peace of those he has destined for war.”
Application: I, and the continence of those he has destined for marriage; II, and the marriage of those he has destined for chastity.
(Esprit du B. François de Sales. Paris, 1639.)
Essence that is not overrefined. Or essence without an alembic. That is difficult; but it is necessary.
February 15.
(Fénelon?) And at least he had the gall of the dove, whose moans his bitterest reproaches imitated. — And simple as the serpent, without treachery, but not without tortuosity.
February 16.
He forgot where uprightness lay, because he could no longer understand where truth lay. There was more than one cloud in that mind so luminous. His friends have moved them, those clouds, and have them over their own eyes.
February 17.
In the explanations of physics, and especially medical physics, one does nothing but imagine; but this way of imagining is called conjecture. Conjecturing, however, ought to apply only to facts.
It is like making chyle for oneself. Does one do it through one’s will?
The meter of this little line of verse is permissible there; but not its hammering, which one must scrupulously avoid.
February 18.
“They have seen better,” they say. And indeed they have seen better. But that is because their eyes have seen better, and not because they had better eyes.
February 17.
Saint Francis de Sales called a mind that had justice and looked at both sides a “just mind.” (See page 185.)
February 19.
(at night.) False merit loves false merit, and true merit loves the true.
T78. The adjective/adverb opening, both quoted professions and the unquoted poet comparison remain. Almost retains its degree. The repeated strong is not replaced by different synonyms that would erase the lexical experiment.
T466. Two paragraphs remain one unit under the complete date 13 février . The first retains the opening fragment/dash, one complete quotation, present conditional aimerois , presque autant , colon and poëte with paired upper e components at the qualified color level. Only un homme fort in paragraph 2 is italic; its surrounding text, the earlier quotation and printed editorial [cas] are roman. C’est à dire is spaced without supplied hyphens. The actual La vérité ni sa force construction is retained without supplying a first ni . The original-size color crop shows attitude followed directly by capital Un , with no discernible terminal mark in the intervening space. No period is added to the French source and no authorial intention is inferred from this reproduced absence. Both parentheses, repeated fort/force/fortement forms and all restrictive and negative constructions remain. The fai-/ble and or-/gane wraps are complete. The bounded independent original-size color comparison agrees with the named punctuation, demonstrative, emphasis and upper-mark targets and incoming 819 boundaries; their readings remain confined to the displayed color evidence, without a new native DjVu claim.
T79. The repeated strong/strongly/strength root preserves the sustained distinction between forceful possession and ideas with force of truth. Have and conceive remain different acts, even where the English is unusual. Head, posture, dart, hand, stick, lungs and organs remain concrete. The first [case] mirrors the printed source-editor [cas] ; the later case is intact. A strong man requires the source italic counterpart. The full stop after posture is an English division at the visible source join attitude Un ; the source collation finds no discernible punctuation in that space, without asserting an authorial intention. Both restrictive only terms at the end and the organ/other-organs distinction remain.
T80. The saying’s attribution and reported chain remain as printed, without independently authenticating either the wording or the historical relationship. Hates preserves the strong predicate, and the relative clause limits those whose peace is meant. This paragraph continues across 818–819.
T467. Three paragraphs remain one unit: the first continues onto 819, the second is the separately indented Application with I and II inline, and the third is the independently indented bibliographical parenthesis. No paragraph or punctuation is added at the page boundary. St on 818 is baseline text; the incoming Mʳ has a raised small r . The original-size color 819 crop supports complete foreground Mʳ /destinés /Application /riage /parenthesis openings despite left-margin show-through. Hait retains a plain dotted i without a supplied circumflex. In the French source, the quotation closes after the period following guerre ; Application remains outside it. Both inline Roman numbers are followed by commas, and both et terms and destinés forms remain. The year 1639 is bibliographical, not an entry date. All text including the reference parenthesis is roman; no identified edition or external quotation correction is substituted.
T81. Both numbered fragments remain within one paragraph, each beginning with “and” and relying on the preceding saying. Continence and chastity are kept distinct instead of being collapsed into celibacy. No new finite verb or additional moral claim is supplied.
T82. The bibliographical title and B. abbreviation remain in French without expanding the title or claiming an identified copy. The place and publication year stay in this third body paragraph, not an entry-date field or translator apparatus. The French title requires a language span; no source emphasis is inferred from its bibliographical role.
T83. The two nominal formulations, Or and the necessity contrast remain. Overrefined conveys alambiquée ’s figurative intellectual sense; the next sentence keeps the actual distilling vessel. The 1798 Académie describes excessive subtlety or refinement under alambiquer and the distillation apparatus under alambic . The English cannot reproduce their common word stem; the linked images are retained across the two sentences.
T84. The questioned name remains in the body, not a definite heading or attribution. Gall, moans, bitterest reproaches and the serpent’s simplicity retain the deliberately unusual pairings. Both And openings and the without/not-without distinction remain. No biblical wording is substituted for Joubert’s images.
T469. The complete 15 February date is supported by identifiable foreground stems/curves despite show-through. The opening parenthetic question belongs to the body; no attribution is certified. The plain eut is retained, along with pour le moins , the superlative, imperfect imitoient and historical gémissemens . The later Et fragment, sans and non sans remain.
T85. The past forgetting, inability any longer, uprightness/truth distinction, more-than-one and luminous mind remain. The clouds’ repeated object and their movement to the friends’ own eyes preserve the metaphor. No person is named in this unit by inference from its neighbor.
T470. The complete date 16 février retains recognizable foreground 1 and 6. Both où/étoit relations, negative ne...plus , plus d’un and degree si remain; the perfect displacement and present possession clauses stay distinct. The com-/prendre , lumi-/neux and pro-/pres wraps are complete, with the left initials identifiable under qualified show-through.
T86. Physics retains the historical natural-philosophical vocabulary, with medical physics making the elliptical la médicale relation explicit; it does not identify the modern clinical discipline. The two imagining terms, conjecture/conjecturing repetition and conditional ought/only remain. This is Joubert’s methodological judgment, not a modern account of medical practice. The French retains ceppendant with doubled p ; ordinary however does not reproduce that spelling.
T471. The complete date 17 février remains. In the French source, La médicale is literal and unexpanded. Both restrictive constructions, surtout , repeated imaginer and modal devroit are preserved. Ceppendant visibly retains doubled p ; the final faits begins with an identifiable foreground f despite show-through. All text is roman.
T87. Chyle retains the historical physiological noun rather than replacing it with digestion in general. The reflexive production, question and will remain; no missing antecedent of It is supplied and no modern physiological explanation is added.
T472. The reflexive comparison and separate present question remain. Chyle is literal; no medical explanation, date or added subject is supplied.
T88. Meter follows American spelling. The locative there remains unspecified. Hammering preserves martellement ’s physical sound image and the prohibition’s force; no particular line, meter or work is identified.
T89. All three have-seen-better formulations and the final had-better-eyes distinction remain. The quoted saying stays separate from the speaker’s subsequent agreement and correction; no observer is identified. The first comma is inside the English quotation under American style.
T474. The complete date 18 février retains the foreground stem and two 8 lobes at the qualified color level. In the French source, the initial quotation closes before the comma; the present reporting clause, en effet , three mieux vu forms and final meilleurs contrast remain. The perfect seeing versus imperfect possession relation is preserved.
T90. Just and justice preserve the shared root and the two-sided attention; just is not silently changed to intellectual accuracy. The inline source pointer remains without an invented link destination, since the referenced edition or work is unassigned. The printed February 17 follows February 18 and must not be reordered.
T475. The complete printed date 17 février follows 18 février and is not reordered. Appelloit retains doubled l . The quoted words, repeated relative predicates and both sides remain. The roman Vid. pag. 185 parenthesis is an unassigned source reference, not identified with this edition’s page 185.
T91. The lowercase circumstance remains inside the paragraph. Both false-merit terms and the final nominal the true remain; the latter is contextual to true merit without repeating a source noun that is absent.
T476. The complete date 19 février remains, with a foreground 9 loop/tail. The lowercase parenthetic la nuit. is printed at the beginning of the body, with the period inside its parentheses; it is not moved into the date heading. Repeated false merit and the contrasting true terms remain.