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← ExitThe Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II

Reading language

YEAR 1815

December 16.

“Imitation” (in the fine arts), they say, “is a principle.” That is because illusion is their cause. Wherever there is illusion, one represents to oneself and traces anew.

The fine arts: that is to say, those whose object is the beautiful.

Masonry has as its object the useful, the solid; architecture has as its object the beautiful.

Anger whose seat is in the nerves passes more quickly and more completely than anger whose seat is in our humors; the latter leaves deeper traces. It lasts longer, is more inward, and is followed by grudges or rancors.

The physiology of the mind, — and that of the moral being.

December 19.

Unhappy condition of the age! and deplorable situation of all minds!... We know what is bad and cannot distinguish what is good.

December 20.

One is wide and the other is deep. Both have much extent and consequently greatness, but it is differently offered to attention and, to appear equal in both, needs to be looked at closely.

December 21.

My brother. (?) It is softness defending itself. Softness, which yields to what nourishes it, resists everything that can destroy it.

In such circumstances, if one wishes neither to lie nor to wound, one is reduced to silence.

That haughty philosophy of which ignorance was an ingredient.

December 23.

What does historical truth matter where there is moral truth? This historical truth (outside practical affairs) concerns only the scholar. Physical truth concerns only our body; but moral truth concerns our whole soul, and our life and our death.

December 26.

When all that has become unbearable... That is the rule. Then necessity makes the law, or changes it.

December 30.

If one had to choose, I would prefer softness that leaves men time to become better to severity that makes them worse, to haste that does not wait for repentance.

“Double Europe” by Mr. de Pratd. France double. The public spirit is double. Unfortunately everything is double. — But what! literature is double, morality is double, politicology is double, and Catholicism is double!

Writers without critical judgment, because... without distrust. Their credulity pleases good taste.

He is right, “dominion over a country is not the only way to possess it.” France possessed Spain through commerce.

T388.The two separate quoted portions and intervening parenthesis remain. A principle supplies the English article for principe. Their selects the fine arts as the contextual referent of en. The French pronoun does not mark number and can also refer to imitation itself; this alternative is not ruled out. Represents to oneself and traces anew keep the related but distinct verbs without supplying their objects. English moves the period inside the second closing quotation under American style.

T732.Complete 16 and three separate paragraphs remain one unit. In the French source, the two separately quoted pieces, intervening parenthesis and attribution, unhyphenated beaux arts/c’est à dire, and the period after the second closing guillemet remain. The en referent is not expanded or fixed by the transcription. The reflexive se représente and nonreflexive on retrace remain distinct. Both final object constructions, useful/solid pairing and semicolon are literal. The left starts C’est/représente/objet remain identifiable with abrasion, not restored words.

T389.The definition and its nominal form remain. French beaux arts literally says beautiful arts, making the relation to le beau audible in the name itself; the established English fine arts does not reproduce that shared adjective.

T390.Both object phrases, the two substantivized qualities of masonry and the separate architectural quality remain. Solid is not expanded into permanence or structural safety.

T391.Both seats and all five comparisons remain. Humors preserves the historical bodily and temperamental term, not the modern sense of jokes. The latter refers to anger seated in the humors. English gives lasts longer for est plus longue and keeps both plural alternatives at the end.

T733.All five plus comparisons, repeated seat relation, nos, celle-ci, feminine pronoun and final ou distinction remain. Rancœurs has the œ ligature. The left starts entièrement/laisse/a are abraded but identifiable; no extra word is supplied.

T392.The nominal form and dash remain. Moral being renders l’homme moral as the person considered in moral life; it does not mean that this person is necessarily virtuous.

T734.The coordinated nominal formulation keeps both comma and dash, without an inserted predicate.

T393.The two exclamatory fragments, lowercase and, all and the ellipsis remain. Bad and good leave the range of judgment open; know and distinguish are not made synonymous.

T735.Complete 19 remains. The two nominal exclamations, lowercase et, three dots after the second exclamation, universal tous and negative ability remain. The left starts esprits/distinguer retain complete identifiable foreground letters.

T394.The two dimensions, both, much, consequently and the condition for appearing equal remain. It keeps the relative clause’s relation to greatness, with extent still part of the preceding paired conception. The English finite clause resolves the French connective mais qui only as required by syntax, without identifying the two things.

T395.The printed parenthetic question mark is retained as part of the source, not a new translator’s query. Both softness terms and the yields/resists opposition remain. Softness leaves mollesse’s physical and moral overtones available without diagnosing the brother or replacing the image by a single trait.

T396.Such, the conditional wish and both refusals remain. Wound keeps blesser’s metaphorical force without requiring a physical injury.

T397.The demonstrative and nominal fragment remain. Was preserves the past tense; ingredient keeps the mixture image and does not turn ignorance into the whole philosophy. English omits the French comma before the relative clause without completing the fragment.

T739.In the French source, the nominal relative fragment, comma and imperfect remain without an inserted main predicate.

T398.The opening takes où as where moral truth is present; the comma in the French also permits hearing a second, abrupt question about where moral truth is. English supplies there is and omits that comma, making the first reading explicit. Practical affairs renders affaires without restricting it to business. All repeated truths, both only restrictions, whole and the last two ands remain. The historical/physical/moral distinctions are not harmonized.

T740.Complete 23 remains. In the French source, the comma-linked opening question, where/où relation, parenthetic restriction, two ne...que forms, semicolon, toute and repeated et/notre remain. The complete final paragraph ends on 843, without an inferred continuation. The left vérité/physique/toute starts are readable with foreground/ghosting distinction. All main text is roman. The named 843 dates, literal double consonants, upper marks, parenthetic question mark and qualified complete left starts received bounded independent comparison, agreeing with the saved limits and qualifications.

T399.The dependent temporal opening and ellipsis remain. English uses the present perfect in the future temporal clause for sera devenu. All, then and both alternatives remain; it refers to the law.

T400.The hypothetical obligation, first-person preference and repeated comparative to remain. Softness repeats mollesse from the preceding section, preserving its changed evaluation here. Better/worse and the time allowed before repentance remain opposed.

T401.All eight double occurrences and the nominal France double remain. Pratd preserves the visible letter order here; Pradt is printed in the later unit. Double Europe freshly translates the source’s quoted wording without certifying an external book title. Politicology keeps the unusual politicologie rather than silently replacing it by a modern discipline. But what retains the abrupt exclamation; double is not reduced to either division or duplicity.

T402.Both without terms, the unfinished causal pause and the paradox of credulity pleasing good taste remain. Critical judgment renders critique as a faculty here, rather than published reviews or criticism received from others.

T743.Two paragraphs remain in one undated unit. Plain capital E in Ecrivains, both sans, printed three-dot ellipsis and the separate assertion remain. Plait has a compact dot-like i mark, without a certified circumflex. Païs has two separate raised components over i. In the French source, the comma after raison, lowercase quoted opening, negative sole-way formulation and period outside the closing guillemet remain. The imperfect possédoit and commercial means remain without an independent historical assertion.

T403.The anonymous he, quotation and only restriction remain. Dominion renders domination without identifying a legal form of possession. The historical claim remains Joubert’s; the past possessed is not converted into a present assertion. English places the quoted period inside its closing quotation; the French period follows the closing guillemet.