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← ExitThe Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II

Reading language

YEAR 1815

March 17.

The multiplier. He sees the same thing a million times, all at once. (Mr. D—D—l+D—g+r.)

March 18.

False minds are those that have no feeling for the true and have its definitions; that look into their brains instead of looking before their eyes; that consult, in their deliberations, the ideas they have of things and not the things themselves, which they can see and handle.

March 20.

Instead of continuing wisdom, they have interrupted it. (I mean Montesquieu and the others.)

March 21.

In a well-ordered state, kings command kings; that is to say, fathers of families, masters at home and governing their households. Now if someone governs his badly, it is a great evil, but much less than if he did not govern it at all.

No freedom unless a strong will assures the agreed order. A strong will (and by that very fact a powerful one) gives all minds great security; at least one has only it to fear. What tranquility! For one does not fear that anyone dares think of disturbing it.

The chatter of thoughts comes from their multiplicity: their multiplicity comes from their uselessness; their uselessness, from their scant solidity or their scant truth. Of all chatter, this is the most troublesome, because it troubles the reason of the speaker and the listeners.

March 22.

Superstitious, that is to say, beyond the rules, born of fancy alone. What is born of feeling is never superstitious.

March 23.

To write one’s views or insights, one’s ideas, but not one’s judgments. Our judgments set bounds to our views. Some enclosures, but no walls. The man who always writes his judgments places calpés and abylas everywhere before his eyes. He goes no farther and makes nec plus ultras. Thus, in the study of wisdom, many views and few judgments.

March 25.

One renders almost proven what one succeeds in making perceptible, and renders almost perceptible everything one makes imaginable. It is therefore a great service to abstract truths to make them imaginable.

March 26.

One gives one’s sentences a naïve roundness and their clarity by rolling them in one’s thought and molding them to one’s mind.

And of a line of verse she purifies in the rays of good sense...

Boileau, at this moment, had the knife grinder in mind. But how delicately!

T160.The nominal multiplier, same thing, million and simultaneous all-at-once remain. The source’s opaque code was read in an original-size crop and is retained without a name expansion; plus signs and dashes are not apparatus calls. English Mr. renders the abbreviated title, whose French r alone is raised; all code characters stay on the baseline after canonical comparison.

T525.The complete 17 is retained. The initial nominal label, singular predicate and exact one-million phrase remain. Tout-à-la-fois keeps its printed lexical hyphens across the line break. Original-size color/native 357 show a raised r only in Mʳ; the opaque code D—D—l+D—g+r is baseline, with three capital D letters, lowercase l/g/r, three dashes and two plus signs. The final period is inside the closing parenthesis. No personal identity, title expansion or substitution for the tall l is inferred. All text is roman. The bounded independent comparison agrees with the new 825 conservative margin limits, date suffixes versus complete dates, terminal punctuation absence, two poësie upper marks, internal verse display and opaque code. The check covers the inventoried original-size color and four native 357 rectangles; all contour qualifications remain.

T161.False means mistaken in judgment here rather than necessarily dishonest. The feeling/definitions contrast, three relative descriptions, brain/eyes distinction and final ideas/things opposition remain. See and handle retain the sensory and bodily terms; no diagnosis or scientific claim is added.

T526.The complete date 18 is retained. All three relative clauses, negative distinction, two semicolons, inward/outward relation and final voir/manier pair remain. Elles mêmes is printed without a hyphen. The right-edge endings are complete at the qualified color level. All text is roman.

T162.Continuing/interrupted, the perfect result and self-explanatory parenthesis remain. The named Montesquieu and unspecified others are not expanded into a school or a historical claim. The qualified source upper marks in continuër and interrompuë remain French; English adds no loss marker.

T527.The complete date 20 is retained. Original-size color shows paired upper e components in both continuër and interrompuë, with soft contour qualification. The perfect tense and full naming parenthesis, including its internal period, remain. Montesquieu is spelled literally. All text is roman.

T163.The repeated kings, explanatory fathers/masters/governing sequence and household relation remain. The conditional, great/much-less comparison and final at-all negation retain their scope. This is Joubert’s political analogy, not a modern institutional description.

T528.The complete date 21 is retained. C’est à dire has spaces rather than hyphens and a following comma. The repeated rois, semicolon, explanatory fathers/masters relation, conditional Que si, possessives and beaucoup moindre comparison remain. The last negation is ne...point with imperfect gouvernoit. All text is roman.

T164.The nominal opening, conditional need, repeated strong will and parenthetic inference remain. All minds, at-least/only, the exclamation and final negative fear retain the argument’s tension. It in the last sentence points contextually to tranquility without adding a named ruler or an endorsement.

T529.The initial nominal negative construction, conditional ne, full parenthesis, tous, semicolon, du moins and restrictive qu’elle remain. The exclamation and final ne...pas/personne clause are preserved without smoothing the source argument. The tran-/quillité wrap is complete. The bent marginal stroke beside the opening is not a lexical character, source-note call or paragraph divider. All text is roman.

T165.The repeated causal chain, elliptical third verb and solidity/truth alternatives remain. Scant preserves peu rather than turning a small degree into complete absence. The all/superlative claim and both speaker/listeners remain; no cause is added outside the source. English uses a colon at the first source semicolon; the later semicolon and elliptical comma remain.

T530.The repeated causal terms, third elliptical predicate with comma, two peu qualifications, ou alternative and superlative remain. Écoutans retains its printed spelling without t. The multi-/plicité wrap is complete. All text is roman.

T166.The opening adjective and participle remain compressed. Beyond the rules renders the author’s explanation without claiming a verified etymology. Alone, repeated born and never retain the categorical contrast between fancy and feeling.

T531.The complete date 22 is retained. C’est à dire and au delà are unhyphenated. Phantasie uses ph; the phan-/tasie wrap is complete. Naît has a visible raised circumflex contour in original-size color, with reproduction limits retained. The initial definitional fragment, seule and final ne...jamais remain. All text is roman.

T167.The infinitive, alternatives, explicit but-not and final many/few remain. Bounds, enclosures, walls and the named limiting images are not collapsed. The source visibly reads italic calpé and abyla, verified in a native crop; English adds ordinary plural s to the generalized names without emending French. Nec plus ultras retains the Latin expression as an English plural noun: in this context its literal no-further force, rather than merely the finest example, matters. Canonical French italicizes calpé alone, then abyla. and nec plus ultra. including their periods. English plural counterparts preserve the words; the moved sentence period after the abyla counterpart requires explicit metadata treatment. No unverified identification is added.

T532.The complete date 23 is retained. Ecrire opens with plain capital E. All three vuës forms have paired upper e components at the qualified color level. Apperçus retains double p, and every jugemens retains the historical ending without t. The juge-/mens wrap is complete. Clôtures retains its qualified circumflex. Original-size color/native 358 show literal lowercase calpé and abyla, with an acute on final é in calpé and a clear y descender in abyla. No normalized place-name spelling replaces either form. In the French source, Calpé alone is italic before roman et; abyla. and nec plus ultra. each include their terminal periods within the italic run. The intervening French remains roman. The initial infinitive, alternatives, negative contrasts, always/everywhere, ne...pas plus loin, Donc and final beaucoup/peu relation remain. No numerical or argumentative completion is supplied.

T168.Both almost qualifications, the succeeds-in relation and the perceptible/imaginable chain remain. Proven renders démontré as achieved demonstration rather than the merely possible demonstrable. Perceptible keeps sensible distinct from the English sensible meaning reasonable. The final therefore and service to abstract truths remain.

T533.The complete date 25 is retained. Both presque limits, repeated rendre predicates, tout, donc and final plural imaginables remain. The right-edge wording is complete at the qualified color level. All text is roman.

T169.The naïve quality is natural or uncontrived in context, not necessarily ignorant. Roundness, the source’s their clarity, and both rolling/molding actions remain. To one’s mind preserves the à relation without making it merely a location inside the mind. French naïve, phrazes and distinct leur/ses possessives remain as collated.

T534.The complete date 26 is retained. Naïve has two separated upper i components in original-size color, with soft contour qualification. Phrazes uses z. The literal leur before netteté and ses before phrazes remain distinct possessives; the two coordinated participles and final à relation remain. All text is roman.

T170.The dependent And of opening, unnamed feminine agent, purifying image and terminal ellipsis remain. Good sense renders bon sens without supplying a doctrinal source. This is a separate displayed verse paragraph, with no restored preceding line. Canonical source confirms a separate centered roman verse paragraph, followed by roman prose.

T535.Two paragraphs remain: a centered roman verse line with capital Et and a printed terminal ellipsis, followed by separately indented roman prose. The feminine elle in the isolated verse is not assigned a new antecedent. The commas around en ce moment, imperfect avoit, literal rémouleur image and final exclamation remain. Vuë visibly has paired upper e components in original-size color. No preceding verse or missing verb is supplied. The bounded independent comparison of complete color 826, eight original-size color rectangles and the single native 358 calpé/abyla rectangle agrees with the named spellings/upper marks, three italic extents, source spacing, complete wraps and final verse/prose distinction. All existing contour qualifications remain; no broader native-page or external allusion claim is made.

T171.The named author, at-this-moment qualification, craft image and exclamation remain. Knife grinder renders rémouleur as the sharpening trade in the image, not an identified individual. The relation to the preceding verse remains the notebook’s interpretation rather than an independently authenticated authorial intention.