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← ExitThe Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II

Reading language

YEAR 1815

Three means of arriving at truth or making oneself its possessor: feeling (or the inward sense), imagination and intelligence. To use only a single one of these instruments—and, I will say, these organs—would be to distance oneself from the other two. Therefore: Of those who think that by distancing themselves they see better.

— Of arriving at truth or making oneself its possessor — and remaining so. This last point is no less necessary than the other, which would be illusory, vain, useless without it.

The inward sense is of every moment, and makes us act, enlightens us even independently of attention; intelligence is less constant, and imagination is fickle.

All these people lack wit and spirituality, which is a double evil and a double misfortune; for spirituality takes the place of wit for good people who have none.

April 18.

Take away the beautiful, and you take away half of morals; half of their rules. We have only one criterion left; with the beautiful, we have two: the good and it.

April 19.

In every sense of the word, the heart is the principle of life. That is why devotion helps us live.

All foods are indeed good for someone who is hungry, but not for someone who has only an appetite.

If someone who knows all the laws of statics walks no better for it, but...

Do you wish to admit a plundering philosophy that makes religion useless by stealing its precepts?

But these are the waters of the triarii: what is most efficacious and vivifying is no longer there.

That eye of our intelligence which is called imagination. — My expression is clear and exact. — I will therefore not say of him that his intelligence is without eyes, but that his intelligence is without an eye.

The innate love of wisdom and what Plato called “the philosophical nature.”

It seems that Plato regarded ideas as spectacles without which one sees nothing.

Religion is neither a theology nor a theosophy. It is more than all that. It is a discipline, a law, a yoke, a necessity, a commitment one imposes on oneself and wishes to be indissoluble.

T204.All three means, arriving/possessing alternatives and parenthetic inward sense remain. Single-one restriction, future self-description of instruments as organs, conditional distancing and the other-two relation retain their force. English dashes mark the self-interruption without an added claim. The final Of fragment remains under Therefore; its pronoun is not replaced by a named object.

T566.Three separately indented paragraphs remain one undated unit. The first has three means, a parenthetic alternative, restrictive single instrument, first-person future dirai and conditional seroit; Donc is followed by a colon and capital De. The later nominal dash formulation stays separate. The comparative negative pas moins, conditional seroit, three final adjectives and two demonstrative references remain. The au-/tre wrap is complete; no page or paragraph boundary is inserted there. Paragraph 3 retains both nous objects, même, two comparative/qualitative contrasts and historical momens. The le/servir/seroit/s’éloignant/demeurer/tre/éclaire/constante left openings remain identifiable with abraded contours rather than added gaps.

T205.The initial dash, repeated arriving/possessing and remaining-so addition remain. Last/other and no-less relation preserve the dependence; all three conditional judgments remain. It contextually refers to the last point, without supplying a new process of retaining truth.

T206.The every-moment claim, both actions and even independently of attention remain. Less constant is not changed into inconstant, while fickle preserves volage. The three faculties remain distinct and in the same unit, without an added physiological account.

T207.All, the two lacks and both double terms remain. Wit contextually renders esprit as intellectual liveliness or resource rather than the soul; spirituality remains distinct while taking its place in the final claim. The repeated spirituality/wit and the good-people restriction are retained. One paragraph continues onto 830; no source separator is crossed.

T567.One paragraph continues onto the first two lines of 830. Gens là remains unhyphenated; the repeated double, causal relation, substitute relation tient lieu and final negation remain. The 830 continuation is complete in color, with no boundary punctuation or missing word added. The bounded independent comparison agrees with the new 829 date prefixes/full 17, conservative margin limits, Eterum., Latin/emphasis extents and qualified readable lower initials, and the two incoming 830 lines. All contour qualifications remain; this check does not certify new 830 units.

T208.The repeated taking-away, both halves, one/two distinction and good/beautiful pair remain. The second half formulation stays elliptical. It refers to the beautiful without repeating or substituting a new criterion; morals retains the evaluative domain rather than a new book title.

T568.The complete 18 remains. Initial Otez has plain capital O, unlike the circumflex in ôtez; the repeated half, restrictive ne...plus que, explicit one/two count and final pronominal pair remain. The vertical marginal stroke is not a source call.

T209.Every sense retains the literal and figurative heart together. Principle preserves principe without assigning a biological mechanism. The causal why and modest helps remain; the English is a translation of Joubert’s claim, not an independent health assertion.

T210.The all/indeed claim, hungry/appetite distinction and both not/only restrictions remain. The sentence is not reduced to a literal dietary recommendation or assigned an unprinted metaphorical object.

T570.Historical alimens, en effet, contrastive non, repeated singular celui and restrictive ne...que remain.

T211.The conditional fragment and unfinished but remain with the ellipsis. All, no-better and the for-it relation preserve the relation between knowledge and action. Statics retains the technical field rather than being changed to statistics or a general science.

T571.Original-size color/native 362 confirm connoit with an ordinary dot-like i mark, without a certified circumflex. Loix retains final x. The conditional opening, negative comparative, printed mais and terminal ellipsis remain without a supplied consequence.

T212.The question and second person remain. Plundering/stealing preserves the repeated appropriation image; precepts belong to religion in the source. The proposed effect is part of the question, not an independently established claim.

T213.The complete color image and an original-size crop visibly read triaires, not the source map’s provisional rivières. Triarii contextually renders that Roman military term; the complete 1798 Académie Triaires entry describes soldiers of the legion’s third body. That lexical control does not explain the waters phrase or authenticate an ancient allusion. The reference remains unresolved, and no lost wording is supplied. The initial But, both final qualities and no-longer remain.

T573.Original-size color/native 362 distinctly read triaires, not the preliminary map’s rivières. No more familiar noun or contextual source is substituted. The colon, comparative plus, paired qualities and final ne...plus remain. All text is roman.

T214.The initial relative fragment, two dashes, first-person assessment and future therefore remain. Plural eyes versus singular eye is deliberately preserved in the not/but correction. No person is identified, and no diagnostic meaning is supplied.

T574.The initial nominal relative formulation and both dashes remain. The first-person future denial, personal lui and repeated intelligence contrast plural yeux with singular œil. Both œil forms have the œ ligature and ordinary i; no new subject identity is inferred.

T215.The nominal coordination, innate qualification, past attribution and bounded quotation remain. Nature contextually renders naturel as a disposition or endowment, not an externally defined Platonic entity. No work or passage is identified. English moves the quotation’s terminal period inside the closing mark.

T575.The formulation remains nominal with et, not an inserted finite est. Appelloit retains doubled l. In the French source, the quoted phrase closes before the terminal period; all text is roman.

T216.Seems preserves tentativeness; spectacles retains the optical aid and without/nothing its negative limit. The past regarded is not an independently authenticated account of a particular Platonic text.

T576.The present appearance qualifier, imperfect considéroit and negative relative relation remain. All text is roman.

T217.Both neither/nor terms, more-than and all five final descriptions remain. Yoke preserves the physical constraint image. The two voluntary relations and indissoluble retain their force. Theosophy is not assigned to a later named movement.

T577.Both ni terms, comparative plus, five nominal predicates and the reflexive imposition/will/subjunctive chain remain. The negative and pronouns are not simplified.