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← ExitThe Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II

Reading language

YEAR 1816

January 27.

When a saint steps out of holiness, is he far below a sage? If he stays within it, he is above.

A character veiled and transparent at once: there is the charm.

January 29.

Columns were consecrated to the gods, like verses.

“The invention of characters...” and it is the “epic character” that constitutes the epic. There is no epic without it. But is the epic character sufficient for that? must there not also be an epic time, places and events? — an essential condition of which is to be half unknown and half known... And in an age and in countries where there were poets. (Unknown to history, but not to the imagination).

January 31.

Neither enlightenment nor modesty. It is like a face lit by a false light.

February 1.

In poetry, in eloquence, in politics, nothing new unless it is evidently better, and consequently tested by practice and examination.

February 2.

In literature, nothing makes minds so imprudent and so bold as ignorance of times past and contempt for old books.

February 3.

Captive time slips by in a gilded prison.

The watch. (Fontanes; dictated by him).

Bernardin de Saint Pierre is right, God did not first create the germs, but the plants, but the trees, the animals.

The hope of the Gospels and the promises of the old testament.

February 4.

Of what is polished by art, and Of what is polished by nature alone (in the strokes of style). What makes some reach and penetrate, while others reach little.

Sermons, schools of wisdom.

T14.The repeated spatial relation to holiness and the question/condition contrast remain. Far below preserves fort au-dessous; above remains without a repeated comparison object, as in the source.

T15.Both apparently opposed qualities and at once remain. Character is left without an identified person or a single inferred moral trait.

T200.The nominal pair, simultaneity and colon remain. The separator leaves this unit undated.

T16.The past passive, plural gods and concise comparison remain. The historical statement is not supplied with a particular ancient practice or independently authenticated.

T201.The complete 29 and passive imperfect remain, with the comma before the comparison.

T17.The two distinct quoted phrases, character/epic repetitions, both questions, lowercase must and unfinished attachments remain. Time, places and events stay a coordinated group before the relative condition. The half-unknown/half-known and history/imagination contrasts remain; the final parenthesis retains the source’s period outside it. An essential condition preserves the indefinite une rather than implying a unique or sufficient condition.

T202.Both quoted spans, their differing number, the first printed ellipsis, negative/exceptions, two questions and lowercase ne after the first question remain. In the French source, the dash-led relative, hyphen in demi-ignorés but no hyphen in demi connus, second ellipsis and final period outside the closing parenthesis remain. Poëtes has two distinct upper e components in original-size color. The left openings constitue/épique/lieux/d’être/pays/gination retain identifiable foreground letters; no extra gaps or words are inferred from margin show-through. All text is roman.

T18.Neither/nor and the nominal opening remain. Enlightenment renders plural lumières collectively in its intellectual sense; the following face and light retain the physical comparison. No individual is identified.

T19.All three fields, the restriction, evident improvement and consequently remain. Tested keeps éprouvé’s experiential force without turning it into a modern experimental protocol. The one paragraph continues onto 846 and ends before its first separator.

T204.The complete 1 with raised er precedes this single paragraph, which continues through the first two lines of 846 before its separator. Poësie visibly has two separate upper e components. The triple en, negative condition, comparison, causal phrase and both tests remain. The final 845 n’est and all 846 incoming words are intact; no page-boundary punctuation or paragraph is invented. The named 845 dates, three damaged initials, identifiable abraded starts, upper marks and all roman typography have received bounded independent comparison agreeing with these limits; all stated contour qualifications remain.

T20.Both so comparisons and the two causes remain. Old books is not expanded into a fixed canon or a particular period.

T21.This is a fresh translation of the whole Latin Labitur aurato captivum carcere tempus. Captive agrees with time, and gilded with prison. The displayed italic line remains its own paragraph, separate from the following prose attribution; no external version was consulted.

T206.The complete day 3 owns a centered italic Latin line as paragraph 1 and a separately indented roman French paragraph 2. The whole Latin line including its terminal period is italic. The complete printed Latin letters are retained without substitution from an external quotation. Fontanes has plain a with no certified circumflex; the topology’s provisional accented name is not used. The semicolon inside the attribution and the final period outside its closing parenthesis remain.

T22.The object is named only in this separate prose paragraph. The parenthesis preserves the reported dictation and its semicolon; its period stays outside as printed. The collated printed name is Fontanes, with no certified circumflex; the provisional map’s accent is not adopted.

T23.First, both but formulations and the final comma-linked animals remain. Germs has its generative sense rather than pathogens; plants renders herbes in its nonwoody sense here, in contrast with trees. The creation claim remains Joubert’s and is not completed from scripture. The specialist directly read the complete official electronic 1798 Académie Herbe entry, whose initial sense excludes trees, shrubs and bushes; no dictionary page image was inspected.

T24.The nominal pairing keeps singular hope and plural promises. The source’s lowercase old testament is retained; no verse or denominational reading is supplied.

T208.Capital E in Evangiles has no certified acute; ancien testament remains lowercase. The nominal coordination and terminal period remain; the singular hope and plural promises are distinct.

T25.Both Of phrases, the second capital, repeated polish and nature alone remain. Strokes leaves traits’ physical and stylistic force available beside reach and penetrate; no particular weapon is inserted. The final explanatory construction remains a fragment, without declaring which kind is superior.

T209.The complete day 4, both capital De openings, repeated poli and atteignent, seule, whole parenthesis and peu remain. The second sentence retains its relative opening rather than receiving a repaired predicate.

T26.The two plural nouns remain linked by the source comma in a nominal fragment.

T210.The roman nominal apposition and comma remain, as a separate undated unit.