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← ExitThe Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II

Reading language

YEAR 1815

April 24.

What we miss about the old education is what was moral in it, not what was instructive. It is the respect we had for the masters and the respect they had for themselves. It is the spectacle of their lives and the idea we formed of them. It is the innocence of that time and the piety toward men and heaven inspired in our childhood, man’s happiness at every age.

Through the association of ideas, the happiness of the first age makes us love all its events, the foods on which we were nourished then, the songs we heard, the education we received, even the pains it caused.

April 25.

“Those beauties that hasty nature (brief nature) only sketches and art alone finishes.” (Shak. Cymbel.) Indeed, nature is in a hurry; she goes to her aim, which is life and not beauty.

“Whoever drinks is king,” say the songs. Plato asserts more gravely that love of wine and drunkenness make men tyrannical.

They have not known, and they do not know, what Royalty is. In everything, consider the moral effect or influence on morals, and observe what makes men better or worse. That is the aim.

April 26.

I see clearly that a Rousseau (I mean a corrected Rousseau) would be very useful today, and would even be necessary. But at no time is a Voltaire good for anything.

Precision and vagheze. Without the first, nothing exists (perfectly), and without the other, nothing moves (easily).

April 27.

What I was saying to Gⁱˡ, “that to write well and above all to translate well, one needs a natural facility and (a difficility or) an acquired difficulty.” I do not know whether I noted it down. — Yes.

Knowledge of evil and ignorance of good, knowledge of mad doctrines and ignorance of the opinions of wise men: There are the age and its knowledge.

“The snuffers.” Yes, the snuffers of the conflagrations you call light.

April 29.

To leave the dreams of the imagination time to evaporate.

Prejudices. The natural and unacquired ones, — which precede judgment and lead it where it must necessarily go, and by the paths it must follow to make sound progress. We go astray if we refuse such guides.

The philosopher, in setting forth truth, must conform to those; he may also sometimes borrow from those of his time their language, but never their wanderings.

T227.The moral/instructive distinction, repeated It is and both directions of respect remain. The spectacle/idea pair is not made into proof of actual innocence. Piety preserves piété toward both men and heaven without narrowing it to institutional worship. The final happiness formulation remains appositional, with every age intact.

T587.The complete 24 retains identifiable curve/diagonal/foot and crossed 4 at the qualified color level. The repeated imperfect predicates, moral/instructive opposition, repeated C’est, plural maîtres and reciprocal respect remain. Eux mêmes stays unhyphenated and fesoit unnormalized. The moral/pour/tacle/temps/et line openings retain identifiable foreground letters at the softened margin. The spec-/tacle wrap is complete. The final happiness formulation remains nominal, with no additional verb.

T228.The causal association, first-age wording, all events and four subsequent recollections remain. Even includes the pains caused by education rather than excluding them; no particular childhood experience is supplied.

T588.The causal association, en/y pronouns, tous, simple-past predicates, even/même and feminine elle remain. Événemens retains historical spelling. The aimer/qu’on/causa openings remain identifiable with soft contour limits; no new paragraph or date is inferred.

T229.The quoted fragment, only/alone distinction and sketches/finishes contrast remain. The already English brief nature is retained as printed inside the quotation; the surrounding French is freshly translated without importing a standard Shakespeare passage. The abbreviated author and visible Cymbel. title are retained, with plain e in Cymbel. The existing brief nature is italic without its parentheses; Cymbel. is italic through its period, with the author abbreviation and parentheses roman. Nature remains personified as she; aim, life/not-beauty and the distinction from art remain. No scene, line or independent textual identity is asserted.

T589.The complete 25 remains. In the French source, the quotation closes after finit. with the period inside. Brief nature is italic without its roman parentheses; Cymbel. is separately italic through its period, while Shak. and the enclosing parentheses are roman. Original-size color/native 363 show plain e in Cymbel., not the map’s accented form. The ébau-/cher wrap is complete, and the next-line pressée is intact. The restrictive ne...que, relative repetition, seul, en effet and final non pas contrast remain. The existing quotation is not replaced by an external English text. The bounded independent comparison agrees with date […]2, the clipped initial before ontrefaire, qualified n/i/q and lower margin forms, literal propre, italic boundaries, title spelling and the separate source apparatus; all stated contour qualifications remain.

T230.The bounded song quotation, plural songs, comparative gravity and love-of-wine/drunkenness pair remain. The causative tyrannical predicate is not softened to kingly. Neither a song nor a Platonic passage is externally identified. English moves the quotation comma inside the closing mark; the French retains literal Quiquonque and yvresse.

T590.Two separately indented paragraphs remain one unit. The quotation literally prints Quiquonque, while yvresse has initial y and Royauté a capital R. Sçu retains its cedilla, and scavent/scavoir-related forms are not modernized. In the French source, the quotation comma is outside its guillemet. The perfect and present negatives remain distinct; the paired infinitives, alternative moral effect/influence and comparative better/worse remain. After scavent, a thin extension is continuous with the t crossbar in original-size color/native 364 and does not establish a separate hyphen before pas.

T231.The past/present knowing contrast, capitalized Royalty, paired moral formulations and better/worse relation remain. The infinitives are rendered as direct exhortations, without naming the people referred to by they. The final aim stays in the second paragraph of this unit.

T232.The first-person judgment, two indefinite names, correcting parenthesis, both conditionals and useful/necessary gradation remain. Today contrasts with at-no-time; the final negative is kept categorical without an added biographical judgment.

T233.The emphasized foreign-looking vagheze is retained with one z and final e, italic through its period, without silently normalizing it to an Italian lemma or assuming it means mere vagueness. An indexed complete fourth-edition Crusca entry for Italian vaghezza offers desire, pleasure and attractive beauty; direct access to that entry failed. This is a possible lexical comparison, not an identification of the printed vagheze or proof of one intended sense. The existence/movement distinction, two nothing clauses and separate perfect/easy parentheses remain.

T234.The opening relative fragment, unidentified addressee and whole quotation remain. Gⁱˡ is a qualified approximation of two raised narrow stems; the first upper component is not securely a dot, and Gˡˡ remains possible. No name is expanded. Difficility is an intentionally unusual English formation corresponding to the printed difficilité, distinct from the following ordinary difficulté, difficulty; it is not claimed as an established lexical equivalent. Both well terms, above all, natural/acquired contrast and parenthetic or remain. English moves the quoted period inside its closing mark. The negative statement of uncertainty and separate dash-led Yes remain within this entry.

T593.The complete 27 remains. After capital G, two distinct raised narrow stems are visible. The renewed original-size color/native 364 comparison does not establish the connecting arch implied by the earlier n approximation. Gⁱˡ is now a qualified diplomatic approximation; the upper component on the first stem is not securely isolated as a dot, so Gˡˡ remains an alternative. No name expansion or certain letter identity is asserted. The independent peer comparison of the unenhanced senior code crop agrees with this qualified approximation and alternative; no broader 832 glyph review is claimed by that check. The quotation, literal difficilité before the distinct difficulté, parenthetic ou, repeated bien, surtout, obligation and imperfect disois remain. Sçais retains cedilla. The source period follows the closing guillemet; the following negative statement of uncertainty with its perfect predicate and separate affirmative response remain.

T235.Both repeated knowledge/ignorance relations and the madness/wisdom opposition remain. Knowledge contextually renders science and savoir without limiting either to modern experimental science. The final demonstrative judgment and capitalized continuation follow the printed formulation; scavoir retains its historical spelling in French.

T594.Both science/ignorance pairs, nominal list, colon and capital Voilà remain. Scavoir keeps sc. The doc-/trines wrap is complete.

T236.The quoted noun and its repeated corrective use remain. Snuffers preserves the extinguishing instrument rather than substituting a modern fire extinguisher; the movement from candle-scale object to conflagration remains deliberately striking. The unnamed second-person accusation is not assigned a political group. English moves the opening quotation’s period inside the closing mark.

T595.In the French source, the opening quoted noun phrase closes before its period. The affirmative repetition, metaphor, relative clause with vous and literal doubled-l appellez remain; the appel-/lez wrap is complete.

T237.The infinitive and the time/evaporation image remain. Dreams is not narrowed to sleeping dreams, and no decision or practice is added to the one-line entry.

T238.The opening noun and restricted natural/unacquired kind remain. Preceding and guiding judgment preserve the wordplay and path image. Both obligations, necessarily, sound progress and final conditional straying remain; prejudice is not silently changed to a favorable modern term or a named social doctrine.

T597.The initial nominal topic, explicit non acquis, comma/dash, relative antecedent, repeated obligations, nécessairement and two reflexive verbs remain. The che-/mins wrap is complete; no alternative acquired prejudices are silently added.

T239.The obligation versus permission, also/sometimes and never remain. Those retains the compressed referent rather than replacing it with a named set of opinions. Borrowing language and avoiding wanderings preserve the distinction and continue the preceding path imagery without creating a cross-entry date.