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← ExitThe Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II

Reading language

YEAR 1815

There is a long way from a courtier’s devotion to a citizen’s (and from a soldier’s).

October 6.

What does it matter, indeed, that Harlequin, or Crispin or Scapin or Scaramouche are fantastic beings, if they give real pleasure.

“Good humor has its worth, as truth has its own.” (Journal des Débats, feuilleton of October 6.) One can extend this maxim further and say to men: — Piety is worth more than truth.

October 10.

One of the properties of power, in whatever degree it exists, is to intoxicate those who exercise it.

October 11.

The eminently false mind is the one that never feels it is going astray.

Deplorable times! when the human race has no other recourse left than to take refuge in the mountains from which it had descended.

October 14.

Liberty (among the ancients); that is, public power exercised by all the inhabitants of the city who were not slaves.

Old age and its mask.

October 15.

That piety ennobles them. How does piety ennoble them? Piety makes one live at court; the heavenly court.

October […]5.

“It is faith that begets faith,” Fontanes said. Yes; and let us [add]: — It is faith alone.

October 28.

Everything is new. And we live in circumstances so singular that old [people] are no more practiced in knowing them, no more accustomed to them and have no more experience of them than young people.

We are all novices, because everything is new.

October 30.

In the Theaetetus. “The movement of the heavenly bodies, by which mixtures are made.” A kind of ventilator. In this kind of invention we have therefore imitated an important mechanism of the system of the world.

T348.The distance image, three possessors and parenthesis remain. The parenthetic from follows the actual de rather than silently changing it to a parallel to; the direction of its attachment remains awkward. English places the terminal period after the closing parenthesis; the source places it before that parenthesis. The French retains literal dévoûment, with û and no e before m.

T349.All four names and repeated or remain. Harlequin is the ordinary English counterpart of Arlequin. Fantastic retains the imagined-beings sense rather than a modern compliment; real contrasts with it. The interrogative syntax keeps the source’s final period.

T350.The two worth formulations, comparison and final stronger maxim remain. The newspaper title and feuilleton designation stay in French within the body citation; October 6 dates that reference, not the undated notebook unit. No newspaper text or editorial attribution is independently authenticated.

T698.The quoted maxim’s period is inside its guillemets. The full roman newspaper citation and its period inside the parenthesis remain in the main paragraph, not apparatus. Its 6 octobre is an embedded citation date, not an entry date or a supplied year. The possibility, farther comparison, colon/dash and final better-than relation remain.

T351.One-of and whatever-degree preserve the limits and extension of the claim. Intoxicate keeps the sensory metaphor; no particular holder of power is named.

T352.Eminently and never preserve their degrees. False mind retains the source’s unusual quality rather than being replaced by a moral accusation of lying; feels and the wandering image remain.

T353.The exclamation followed by lowercase when, no-other-left restriction and past-perfect descent remain. The mountains retain their literal image without an invented historical migration or biblical event.

T701.The opening nominal exclamation and lowercase où, no-longer/other-than restriction, reflexive refuge and past-perfect descent remain. The des-/cendu wrap is complete.

T354.The nominal definition, parenthetic ancient setting, all and restrictive relative remain. The source distinguishes inhabitants by enslavement status without naming a specific ancient polity or extending the claim to every resident.

T355.The nominal pairing and possessive remain; no metaphorical explanation or particular face is supplied.

T703.The nominal coordination and possessive son remain without an inserted predicate.

T356.The dependent opening, repeated piety/ennobling and direct question remain. The court image and clarifying final fragment retain the social and heavenly relation. The unnamed them stays unnamed; English one supplies the ordinary implicit subject of vivre. The source prints first anoblit with one n and then annoblit with two; both remain literal in French, without different English meanings invented from the spelling difference.

T704.Complete 15 remains. Original-size color/native 372 distinguish first anoblit with one n from second annoblit with two n; neither is regularized. The initial Que clause, period, subsequent question, repeated piété/cour, causative and semicolon remain. All main text is roman; bounded independent comparison agrees with the named 840 spelling/upper-mark differences, complete right edges, date reversals and embedded citation, retaining all contour qualifications and the clipped native-word limitation.

T357.Begets keeps the generation image, all three faith occurrences remain, and alone retains the final restriction. The reporting imperfect is rendered neutral said; the quotation’s comma follows American style. The name is not used to import a different version of the saying. [Add] contextually completes ajou[…]ons; the source’s missing t is not silently recovered. The opening October day retains only its final 5.

T705.Only terminal 5 is complete: the preceding upper curved remnant and detached lower foot do not certify a whole 2. After line-final ajou-, only ons is securely legible at the damaged left opening; the faint/disconnected vertical and cross-stroke remnants do not certify a complete t. No completion is supplied. In the French source, the quotation comma, imperfect disoit, Oui semicolon, colon/dash and final seule remain.

T358.Everything, the initial And, so-that relation and all three no-more comparisons remain. [People] corresponds to the source-editor [gens]. The feminine vieilles remains a French agreement feature; no separate English gender anomaly is invented.

T706.Complete 28 and both physical paragraphs remain. [gens] is a literal roman printed supplement, not a present reproduction gap. Original-size color/native 373 show a compact dot-like i mark in connoitre, not a certified circumflex. The initial l in the wrapped singu-/lières and n/j at the next line starts are abraded but identifiable in color; no extra words are recovered from adjacent show-through. All three pas plus comparisons, masculine exercés/habitués, repeated nouveau and causal second paragraph remain.

T359.All, novices, because and everything-new repeat the previous paragraph’s relation. This short statement remains a separate second paragraph rather than being treated as a duplicate to remove.

T360.The title and quotation remain source attributions, freshly translated from French without an exact Platonic locus. Heavenly bodies renders astres without restricting them to fixed stars. Ventilator retains an apparatus for moving air in the analogy, not a modern respiratory machine. Both kind terms, therefore and important remain. English places the quoted period inside the closing quotation, whereas the French prints it after the guillemet.

T707.Complete 30 remains. In the French source, the two initial nominal fragments and the period after the closing guillemet remain; systhème is literal. The left starts les/cette/monde retain identifiable foreground contours despite margin/show-through damage. No completion of the quotation or source identification is imposed.