Diotimos Reading Desk

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← ExitThe Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II

Reading language

YEAR 1816

January 1.

Of truths falsified (by the vice of the mind that expresses them, or that receives them).

January 2.

Historians without critical judgment, because without distrust.

January 9.

Polybius. There must indeed have been (whatever the philosophers of the time said about it) some glory then in being a tyrant.

January 10.

“Cordially.” That is what matters: obliging men to conduct affairs cordially.

January 14.

Of history; and Of monuments humiliating to other peoples.

One rarely picks up a book unless one feels disposed to become wiser or more learned. But monuments perpetually exposed to all eyes can strike the gaze of a man who is drunk or disposed by some other cause to anger, sadness and deep resentments. And in that case a people is exposed to the danger of making an enemy of every traveler who visits it.

January […]5.

Each is his own Fate and spins his future for himself.

January […]6.

Politics, or the art (or the gift) of knowing and leading the [multitude] or plurality. The glory of this art is to lead this [multitude], not where it wishes or where one would wish oneself, but where it [ought] to go.

January 17.

Bernardin de Saint Pierre. His morality (gravely) anacreontic. See his Harmonies de la Nature. (See volume IV, etc.)

January 18.

Worship. God will accept as true the worship that has been judged so in simplicity.

January 20.

Pride has its tendernesses; and pride’s gratitude toward Providence. — In scholars, in sectarians.

January 22.

Plutarch, who makes a gentle daylight shine even on crimes.

January 24.

If one taught oxen that ought to plow to fight against men, or to plow without a yoke and as they please... That is what these schools do.

T1.The nominal fragment and entire causal parenthesis remain. Of interprets Des as a topical heading; an indefinite reading, Falsified truths or Some falsified truths, also remains possible. Expressing and receiving are alternatives; vice retains the moral defect attributed to the mind rather than an accidental copying error.

T187.The separate printed ANNÉE 1816 heading follows a horizontal rule and applies from this entry. The date has complete 1 and raised er. The nominal fragment and complete parenthesis with the two relative clauses remain; its terminal period follows the closing parenthesis.

T2.The fragment and both without formulations remain. Critical judgment renders critique as an intellectual faculty, consistently with the preceding writers passage; no published reviews are supplied.

T188.The complete day 2 remains. Both sans constructions and the compressed causal relation remain without an invented predicate or ellipsis.

T3.Must indeed have been conveys the retrospective inference in falloit bien, not an obligation imposed on tyrants. Some, then and the parenthetic concession remain. Said about it gives the past reference of the imperfect subjunctive dissent, confirmed in the full page and an original-size crop; the preliminary present may say has been corrected. No Polybius work or historical example is identified.

T4.The quoted adverb repeats at the end. Obliging retains the constraint in obliger rather than reducing it to encouragement. Affairs leaves public and private dealings open; English quotation punctuation follows American style.

T5.Both nominal Of formulations, the second capital, semicolon and other peoples remain. No particular monument or nation is supplied.

T191.The complete day 14 owns two separately indented paragraphs. The first retains its semicolon and capital Des; the second preserves ne...guères...que, repeated plus, all/universal terms and reflexive relations. Original-size color shows plain c in scavant, plain letters in perpétuellement, literal yvre, and historical monumens/ressentimens. All right-edge words retain identifiable foreground letters despite show-through; no reproduction loss is invented. The named spelling, date and right-edge checks have received bounded independent comparison agreeing with these limits; all stated contour qualifications remain.

T6.The reading condition, wiser/more learned alternatives, perpetually/all and the three passions remain. Exposed repeats the source image, with to the danger of rendering the final risk construction. The drunkenness is one possible circumstance, not an explanation of every visitor; this second paragraph remains attached to the nominal first.

T7.Fate takes parque as the personified spinner in the image, not an abstract prediction. Own and for himself preserve the two reflexive relations. The incomplete date is not inferred from its neighbors. English capitalizes Fate to signal the personified spinner; French lowercase parque remains unchanged.

T192.Only terminal 5 survives as a complete numeral; preceding margin/show-through remnants do not certify its lost prefix. Lowercase parque, emphatic lui-même and reflexive se remain; no mythological name is expanded.

T8.Both art terms, the parenthetic gift, knowing/leading and multitude/plurality remain. Wishes, would wish and ought preserve three distinct modalities; the last destination is not identified with a particular policy. The source reproduces mul[…]itude, multi[…]ude and […]oit: both [multitude] occurrences and [ought] are broad English conjectural equivalents for these incomplete words, not certified recoveries of the missing letters. They remain distinct from the source editor’s printed brackets elsewhere.

T193.Only terminal 6 is complete; no earlier numeral is recovered. The interrupted left openings after mul- and multi- retain itude and ude, respectively; a full initial t is not certified in either color or native 377. Before oit the surviving upright lacks a complete bowl, so a full d is not certified. All three losses remain explicit rather than restored from sense. Connoître has a compressed raised peaked component supporting its qualified circumflex. The three alternatives, whole parenthesis, two mener forms, non pas/ni/mais opposition and conditional voudroit remain.

T9.The nominal judgment and parenthetic gravely remain, retaining the tension with anacreontic rather than explaining it away. Both Vid. abbreviations become See. The French title, volume and final etc. remain source references; no exact passage or external English wording was consulted.

T10.The nominal opening, future acceptance, truth judgment and simplicity remain. English repeats worship for celui, making its antecedent explicit. The relative perfect has been judged carries the source’s prior completion within the future assertion; no particular rite is named.

T11.The plural tendernesses and repeated pride remain. Gratitude is a nominal addition after the semicolon, not given a new predicate. Both final in fragments remain without named persons or sects.

T196.The complete 20, semicolon, nominal continuation, capital Providence and repeated dans after the dash remain. Scavans visibly has plain c; the repeated orgueil is retained. The left l of la retains its foreground stroke despite adjacent show-through.

T12.The relative fragment, causative shining and even remain. Gentle daylight keeps jour’s light image rather than a calendar day; no particular crime or Plutarch passage is supplied.

T197.The complete 22, relative fragment and literal singular même remain. A long curved non-typographic mark crosses the vicinity of crimes même; it is not incorporated as text or asserted to be an authorial correction.

T13.The conditional opening, without an expressed consequence before the ellipsis, its obligation, two taught alternatives and ellipsis remain. The schools stay unnamed. The image of the yoke is retained without turning it into a modern educational claim.