Diotimos Reading Desk

Tap the page, move to the top or bottom edge, swipe down, or press Tab to reveal reading controls. Use the arrow keys or swipe sideways to turn pages.

← ExitThe Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II

Reading language

YEAR 1815

If you call outdated everything that is ancient, if you stigmatize with a name that carries an idea of decline and a feeling of contempt everything that time has consecrated and made stronger, you profane it and weaken it. The decline comes from you.

Light style. Lightness of mind (or rather) lightness of head. — Racine, in his letters to Port. Royal. And whether it be the Chevalier de Grammond or the abbé Dulaurens (in Le compère Mathieu), Chevrier or Lamorlière, Voltaire or Lovelace in Richardson...

November […]6.

Mr. Rubichon. He ravages history, he destroys it, but he illuminates, because what he teaches is independent of what he recounts.

This Mr. Rubichon is a madman, very luminous.

De l’Angleterre, by Mr. Rubichon. In this book there are great historical errors, but many great moral truths; great errors of memory, but great truths of intelligence. The facts are distorted in it, but sound doctrine is set right in it. The author shows himself in it an ignorant scholar, but a very enlightened political thinker. His ignorance is luminous. Finally, he overturns history, but illuminates it (the mind).

November 8.

Vanity and affronts. She seeks them by seeking success.

The minutiae of the heart and the minutiae of the mind. The difference between them is very great.

What is called esprit de corps. In this esprit de corps there is at least love of others, or of some others, which is always worth more than simple love of self.

The spirit of a body or community; and the spirit of self or of the individual. (See the remonstrances of 1776 in favor of the guild councils or masterships.)

Latin, Greek. Speaking them badly helps one understand them well.

What appears to be lightness of mind is sometimes only an appearance produced by the ease of its movements; a lightness of evolution very different from lightness of attention and judgment.

November 9.

Mr. h-D- a man who is master of none of his feelings and none of his ideas. In him the content always molds the container.

November 14.

To excel in the rank in which providence causes us to be born, and to keep it: that is certainly the best of ambitions and the only one that conforms to order.

In knowledge, the useless often makes one forget the necessary.

Voltaire. That vicious mind.

T361.The two if clauses, both everything terms and two opposing verb pairs remain. Outdated renders vieilli’s depreciatory force in contrast to ancien, without making the source call the old defective in itself. Decline repeats, and the final responsibility remains with you.

T708.Appellez has two l. Both si clauses, both tout ce qui relations, coordinated perfect participles and the two consequent predicates remain. The left starts nom/mépris/vous remain identifiable under abrasion; no additional margin word is supplied.

T362.The light/lightness root, parenthetic correction, two faculties and unfinished alternatives remain. Proper names and the French book title stay as visibly printed, including Port. Royal and Grammond; no authorial identity or spelling is repaired from external biography. The whole paragraph is roman. English capitalizes Le in the title; the source has le. A fresh color/native comparison confirms the small printed point after Port, retained alongside the darker period after Royal.

T709.The nominal fragments, parenthetic correction, dash, Racine comma, unhyphenated Port. Royal and dependent Et que ce soit sequence remain. The complete Gram-/mond wrap gives literal Grammond; no historical name normalization is applied. Both parenthetical passages and the three printed terminal dots remain; the whole paragraph is roman. A bounded return to the complete color page, the senior original-size crop and separate original-size color/native 373 crops confirms a small baseline point after Port, distinct from the darker terminal point after Royal. The earlier omission is corrected to Port. Royal.; the lighter contour is retained without asserting an authorial punctuation intention or deriving it from the familiar name.

T363.The three repeated he clauses and teaches/recounts distinction remain. No object is supplied after illuminates, where the source has none; the paradox is not reconciled into a factual verdict on the writer. The November day retains only its final 6; no preceding digit is supplied.

T710.Only terminal 6 survives securely; earlier damaged/displaced traces do not establish an earlier digit or the original extent. All three physical paragraphs remain in this single unit. Each Mʳ has a small raised r, not an expanded title. The title alone is italic; its following comma and par are roman. Original-size color/native 373 show literal boulleverse with two l. The fool’s comma, repeated contrasts, semicolon, both grandes vérités sequences, the noun/adjective pairing érudit ignorant and final parenthetic l’esprit remain without grammatical repair.

T364.The demonstrative, very and luminous image remain with the source comma. The judgment stays separate as the second paragraph of the same unit.

T365.The French title remains italic and unexpanded. All four great terms, many, both error/truth contrasts and repeated in-it relations remain. Political thinker contextually renders politique as a capacity without assigning an office. English retains the pronoun before the source’s parenthetic the mind, which identifies the intended object without replacing the pronoun in the body. The historical assertions remain Joubert’s review of the book. The title’s following comma is roman; literal French boulleverse retains its doubled l.

T366.The nominal opening and repeated seeking remain, with she preserving vanity’s feminine personification. Them refers to affronts; success is the means by which she seeks them. No particular person is named. French literal charchant, unlike preceding cherche, remains unrepaired; English omits the comma before the by-seeking phrase.

T711.Complete 8 remains. In the French source, the opening nominal coordination, both pronouns and the comma remain. Charchant visibly has a after ch, unlike cherche immediately before it; the anomaly is retained literally.

T367.Both minutiae terms and the heart/mind distinction remain. Very great preserves the degree without supplying the nature of the difference.

T712.Both repeated nominal groups, possessive Leur and degree fort remain.

T368.The repeated conventional French expression remains, with at-least, the alternative limited group, always and comparative worth intact. Esprit de corps concerns attachment to a body or group; it is not restricted to a military corps.

T713.Both physical paragraphs, repeated esprit/amour alternatives, the comparative toujours mieux, semicolon and final roman parenthetic reference remain. The internal 1776 is an embedded historical reference, not an entry date. Original-size color shows the raised peaked mark in the complete maî-/trises wrap; its contour is somewhat compressed. Bounded independent comparison agrees with the named 841 date/letter losses, literal spellings, upper marks, title boundary and raised titles, and separately confirms both Port. Royal. periods, with all contour qualifications retained.

T369.The nominal parallel and both alternatives remain. The body/community wording continues esprit de corps, while self/individual remains opposed. Guild councils selects the collective trade-warden sense of jurandes; the 1798 Académie also gives the office and its term. Masterships renders maîtrises as the status of masters in trades. These complete electronic entries were directly read by the literary specialist, without dictionary facsimile inspection. The 1776 date belongs to the unlocated reference, not the notebook entry. No specific remonstrance text is claimed as directly read.

T370.The two language names remain a nominal opening. Badly and well keep the paradox; helps retains a contribution rather than a guarantee. No missing accent in the French is silently supplied to its transcription.

T714.Aide a visibly has plain a in original-size color, without a certified grave. The nominal topic, infinitive subject and contrasting mal/bien remain; no accent or grammatical repair is supplied.

T371.The three lightness terms, sometimes only, appearance and very different remain. Evolution means movement or maneuver here, not biological development; the qualifying phrase after the semicolon remains a fragment. Its refers to the mind.

T715.Paroit has an ordinary dot-like i mark, not a certified circumflex. The sometimes restriction, passive participle, possessive, semicolon and repeated légèreté comparisons remain. Mouvemens is literal. Both right-edge endings apparence/évolution remain complete under shadow/show-through.

T372.The opaque h-D- is retained without a guessed identity. The repeated none and content/container image remain; no comma or finite verb is supplied between the name and a man. Mr. renders the printed raised-r abbreviation.

T716.Complete 9 remains. The title has raised r; h-D- is an opaque baseline abbreviation with lowercase h, capital D and two hyphens, without expansion. The nominal opening, repeated negative d’aucun/d’aucune, toujours and contenu/contenant relation remain. The conte-/nant wrap is complete.

T373.Both infinitives, providence’s causative force, certainly, best and only remain. Keep it refers to the rank. English uses a colon to introduce the summation where the source has no certified punctuation after garder; it does not turn the passage into a command to another person.

T717.Complete 14 remains. In the French source, the comma after Exceller and naître remains; color/native 374 do not certify a punctuation mark after garder, and none is supplied before c’est. Detached marginal strokes there are not treated as punctuation. Naître has a compressed peaked upper mark; the final à retains a qualified grave contour. The two infinitives, lowercase providence, causative, certes, superlative and sole qualification remain.

T374.The two substantivized adjectives remain opposed. Often and the causative relation are retained; knowledge renders the historical spelling of savoir without narrowing it to academic scholarship.

T718.Color/native 374 show ordinary c in scavoir, with no cedilla; the map’s provisional sçavoir is not followed. The often qualifier and causative relation remain.

T375.The name and separate nominal judgment remain fragments. Vicious retains vice rather than merely intellectual error; no reason for the judgment is supplied.

T719.The separate name and nominal judgment remain without an inserted predicate.