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← ExitThe Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II

Reading language

YEAR 1815

The quietist and the Jansenist. The one awaits God’s grace, and the other awaits [his] presence. The first waits with fear, and the other waits [with] languor. The first submits, the second resigns himself. Very [unequally] passive, but equally fatalists.

Finally, quietism is the shivering love of a state of which Jansenism [is] the fear.

Every punishment (if the fault is known) must be not only [medicinal], but exemplary. This last point is important.

“Which separate the spirit from the soul...” (Fr. de Sales. See above.) [Between] the spirit and the soul there is imagination, which partakes of both. Between the spirit and imagination there is judgment, there is [taste].

March […]ᵉʳ.

Of true and false diamonds. The same facets, the same brilliance. But in the light of the former [there is] a freedom, a joy not [found] in the light of the latter. The true is lacking there: “Nothing is beautiful but the true.” (Boileau.)

March […].

Yes, light! But what does it illuminate? It is beautiful even [when] it illuminates nothing. But when it illuminates evil? Even then [it] is beautiful; but what it illuminates is hideous.

Space is to place what eternity is to time, an infinity.

The saying quoted from Akempis’s book by St. Francis de Sales: “I [sought] rest everywhere, and found it only in a little corner [with] a little book.” His love for little books, the preference [that] he gave them. Happy is the writer who can make a fine little book. Virgil and Horace have only one volume. Neither Homer, nor Aeschylus, [nor] Sophocles, nor Euripides, nor Terence... Menander, who charms us, is reduced to a few leaves.

March […]3.

There must be music and drawing everywhere (I mean in all works of art).

T127.The two named terms, four waiting formulations, first/other/second sequence and submission/resignation distinction remain. The final fragment keeps unequal passivity and equal fatalism. The pronouns are not replaced with doctrinal names to repair or force their relation to the opening order; these are Joubert’s descriptions, not a new account of either movement. All four occurrences of attend are explicit as awaits or waits in English. [His] interprets damaged […]n contextually as en referring to God, without certifying a recovered French e; [with] renders […]vec and [unequally] inéga[…]ment. The English brackets cover whole counterparts rather than the exact missing-letter extents.

T496.Two separate paragraphs remain one undated unit. The damaged left openings certify n, vec and ment after inéga-; the initial e/a and the l/e continuation are not recovered. The first e-like remnant before ment lacks its complete left contour in original-size color/native 355, so it remains within the explicit loss. Paragraph 2 retains only st at its clipped final-line opening. Le and Enfin retain identifiable foreground initials despite adjoining show-through. The initial nominal comparison, l’un/l’autre, repeated premier, second, paired present predicates and très/également contrast remain. All text is roman; no reconciliation of the philosophical categories is inserted.

T128.Love and fear remain paired through the same unnamed state. Shivering keeps bodily and affective possibilities of transi. The complete 1798 Académie Transir entry includes cold or numbness, fear or affliction, and the trembling, abashed or affectedly timid lover. These support the rendering without determining one precise emotional state or a doctrine of quietism. [Is] renders damaged […]st; no French letter is restored.

T129.Every, the whole conditional parenthesis, obligation, not-only/but and last-point emphasis remain. Medicinal preserves the curative image; exemplary means serving as an example in this punishment context, without adding a particular penalty or modern legal rule. [Medicinal] is the whole English counterpart of […]édicinal. The historical source connuë and its qualified upper marks remain in French.

T130.The plural relative quotation, ellipsis, abbreviated attribution and backward pointer remain. The two between relations and repeated there-is keep imagination, judgment and taste distinct. The preceding 822/e06 passage supplies the contextual navigation target for See above; the printed pointer gives no entry number or external edition. Only the source’s backward-reference phrase should inherit its italic styling. [Between] renders […]ntre and [taste] […]oût. The missing initial of […]’autre belongs to the French article in l’un et de l’autre; collective English both has no separate article counterpart and receives no empty or additional bracket. No lost French letter is restored.

T131.Both opening fragments, repeated same and the former/latter comparison remain. Freedom and joy preserve the surprising qualities of the light. The true repeats the nominal vrai in the claim and quotation. The Boileau attribution is retained without substituting an existing translation or asserting an independently checked locus. The damaged March date is not completed from context. [There is] broadly renders damaged […]l together with intact y a; [found] renders […]rouve within the intact negative/reflexive construction, with not outside the brackets. In Rien […]’est, Nothing already carries the negative force, so the missing French negative particle has no separate English word or empty bracket. The date preserves only […]ᵉʳ mars., without a supplied numeral.

T499.The damaged date retains a raised er-shaped group, but the preceding numeral has no complete identifiable contour; no day is restored. The raised letters remain a qualified diplomatic reading, not evidence for a recovered 1. The left openings retain l, rouve and the apostrophe plus est; i/t/n are not restored. The intact ne before se remains outside the damaged later trouve opening. Joye, plural Mêmes versus singular même, premiers/seconds and the quoted restrictive construction retain their source forms. In the French source, the period is inside the closing guillemet, and the attribution has its own period within parentheses. All text is roman.

T132.The nominal opening, two questions, all illumination repetitions, both even terms and beautiful/hideous distinction remain. Evil is what light illuminates, not a quality silently assigned to light itself. The canonical date remains […] mars., with no day recovered. The opening exclamation follows the facsimile. [When] contextually renders the conjunction inside […]orsqu’elle; its intact elle remains it outside the bracket. The later [it] renders […]lle. No French initial is restored.

T500.The day before mars survives only as an incomplete narrow curved/upright remnant: it does not certify the mapped 1 or another complete digit. The whole numerical day remains unreadable. The damaged openings retain orsqu’elle and lle. The first l and following first e are incomplete in the native margin, unlike the later intact lorsqu’elle. The exclamation, two questions, negative rien, repeated même, semicolon and final contrast remain. All text is roman; no implied answer clause is inserted.

T133.The complete four-term relation and final indefinite infinity remain. Space and place are not collapsed, and no named metaphysical system is supplied. This is its own separator-bounded entry.

T501.The one-line paragraph is separated by printed centered separators above and below. The paired relation and final nominal apposition remain. Its foreground L and final punctuation are identifiable despite margin show-through. All text is roman.

T134.The attribution chain, everywhere/only, corner/book pair and repeated little remain. His is not replaced by an inferred name. The love/preference phrase stays a fragment, and neither-series remains unfinished. Only one volume is not expanded into a bibliographical claim about editions or a supplied apiece. Leaves renders feuillets without inventing a surviving manuscript. Akempis and the quotation remain as given; no external book or locus is asserted. [Sought], [with], [that] and [nor] render […]herché, […]vec, […]u’il and […]i, respectively. The that bracket concerns the damaged relative connector only; the intact il remains he. The whole English counterparts do not certify missing French initials.

T502.The conservative left-edge limits preserve herché, vec, u’il and i before Sophocle; the missing c/a/q/n are not reconstructed. The h before erché, later livre initial l and réduit initial r remain abraded but identifiable at the qualified color/native level, distinct from the incomplete preceding missing initials. Le and the internal wording remain intact. Akempis is printed as one word after d’; St remains baseline. In the French source, the initial quotation closes after the period following livre. Its perfect tense, negative restriction, partout and repeated petit remain. The subsequent nominal preference, generic Heureux formulation, restrictive n’ont qu’un, incomplete Ni-series ending in printed ellipsis, and final Ménandre relative/reduced predicate remain. All text is roman; no external citation wording or completion of the Ni-series is substituted.

T135.The obligation, everywhere, self-explanatory parenthesis and all works remain. Drawing preserves dessin as the visual and formal counterpart to music; it is not restricted to paintings or replaced by a new theory of design. The date’s missing earlier component is not supplied. The date retains only […]3 mars.; no earlier digit is added.

T503.Only a qualified terminal 3 is retained from the damaged day: its two rightward lobes remain identifiable, while the left margin and any earlier numeral are uncertified. The full day is not inferred from the sequence. Il and the second-line de remain identifiable foreground at the qualified color/native level, with adjacent thin fragments belonging to the damaged margin rather than evidence for extra words. The obligation, partout/toutes, full explanatory parenthesis and both arts joined by et remain. Œuvres retains the œ ligature. All text is roman. The bounded independent comparison of the new 823 margin limits, three dates, connuë upper marks and Vide supra. italic extent is complete and agrees at the stated limits; all contour qualifications remain.