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← ExitThe Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II

Reading language

YEAR 1816

May.

Children and the perfection of their pantomime. They understand the ridiculous, the amusing, but cannot understand the serious.

May 3.

This line by Lemierre:

Allegory inhabits a diaphanous palace.

Allegory: the charm of this word, and the charm of the word diaphanous. To inhabit is merely right; palace has a beautiful meaning.

G—rd—l in his b—ll—ts (ballets) often lodges allegory in a hut. The precept is not observed; allegory needs palaces.

May 7.

Neither strength nor virtue, that is, neither innate strength nor acquired strength.

May 13.

— whose life (through its regularity) sets the mind straight (unceasingly). And those whose life perverts reason.

May 16.

One fills one’s eyes with light by raising them to the sky. And one sees everything one looks at better for it.

One takes wings to reach it (truth); one follows it through the air; one descends to the depths of oneself and finds it in one’s heart; for our soul is the mirror.

Sunday, May 26.

“What is ideology?” Mr. de Bonnald was saying to us; and he could have added: “what is the... and the... and the... “It is l’—n—n—sm— of the mind.” This word cannot be spoken or written, and that is a pity, for it has all the qualities suited to the occasion. It is apt, it is frightening.

May 31.

That the liver is a religious viscus, the Sˣ an animal viscus, the heart a heroic viscus.

June 5.

Mr. Clauzel said: “You want to make a work whose idea does not exist and cannot exist.” That was speaking very well for those who can understand this language. There can be no good work without its prior idea. It would be contents without a container, a figure without sides, a kind of being without a place.

Some Revolutionary dies every day. Only prevent any from being born.

— consult the inward sense. Those are the best enlightened. Only the light that comes from the soul illuminates our mind.

Thursday, June 6.

“In a cartouche of light” and Of the cartouche of light. The cartouche of light is truly “the idea” of which Mr. Clauzel spoke.

T69.The nominal opening, perfection, two understood categories and denied serious category remain. Pantomime preserves the bodily expression term, without identifying a stage performance. The month label is not given an invented day.

T248.The only printed date text is capital Mai with its period; no numeral or positive numeral remnant is visible before it. A day is neither restored nor asserted lost from chronology. The nominal first sentence and final negative ability remain.

T70.The source attribution introduces the following separate verse line. No poem title, date of composition or external verification is supplied.

T249.The day 3 has both right lobes and connecting contour in the color crop; the left side remains abraded, so this full reading is qualified. The three physical paragraphs are separate: introductory prose, centered roman verse, and prose comment. No external verse source is imported. In paragraph 3 the noun allégorie alone is italic after roman L’; the colon is roman. Diaphane. includes its period in italics, while Habiter and palais are separately italic without adjoining punctuation. The quoted verse itself is wholly roman. Repeated agrément, restrictive ne...que and the semicolon remain.

T71.The fresh English retains the dwelling image and the diaphanous quality so that the following discussion of the individual words remains possible. This is one separate centered roman verse line, not an invented prose entry.

T72.The two charm formulations, merely-right qualification and beautiful meaning remain. The source’s italic metalinguistic words require exact corresponding English selectors; their roman occurrence in the verse remains distinct. Right renders juste as aptness, not a moral judgment.

T250.The opaque baseline code G—rd—l has two separate lowercase forms a and e visibly below its first and second dash positions in the color and native 381 crops. They are preserved as two explicit interlinear supplements anchored to that exact code. Their rounded, manuscript-like appearance does not certify who supplied them or when; they are not an apparatus call or a silently expanded name. The second opaque code b—ll—ts and its printed parenthetic (ballets) remain separate. One paragraph continues through the first two lines of 850, with no inserted punctuation at the page boundary. The complete allé-/gorie wrap, negative passive, semicolon, obligation and plural palais remain. The named 849 margins, date contours, Latin/roman and four metalinguistic italic extents, repeated en en, positional a/e code, annotation/call and complete 850 incoming continuation are retained as the source specialist’s qualified collation findings.

T75.Both neither/nor pairs remain nominal, with the second explaining the first rather than supplying a verb. Virtue retains vertu; acquired strength is the source’s own explanation.

T251.Complete 7 remains. The two ni...ni pairs and nominal form stay explicit, with unhyphenated c’est à dire and both commas.

T76.The dash, missing antecedent and two parenthetic qualifications remain. The second And fragment stays distinct. Mind and reason distinguish esprit and raison; the opposing straightening/perverting images are not replaced with a general judgment of character.

T252.Complete 13 remains. The opening dash belongs to the dependent fragment, not a separator or recovered omitted subject. Both parentheses, repeated vie and separate Et clause remain.

T77.The raised eyes, filling and resulting improvement of sight remain. Everything is retained; the second And is not omitted. Sky renders ciel here while allowing its heavenly association.

T253.Complete 16 governs two physical paragraphs. The comparative mieux, universal tout, parenthetic la vérité, four coordinated present actions and causal car remain. Fonds keeps its final s and soi même is printed without a hyphen. The right-edge starts and endings are complete in color.

T78.Wings, pursuit, descent and discovery remain successive actions with the delayed parenthetic truth. The switch from impersonal one to our soul remains. The mirror is definite and its object is not supplied.

T79.The reported question, us, past possibility and unfinished repeated questions remain. The successive source articles l’, la and le have no gender distinction in English the; their missing nouns are not supplied. The opaque l’—n—n—sm— remains unexpanded. The nested opening quotation is not silently closed before the next opening. Apt renders juste; both final judgments and the statement that the word cannot be said or written are Joubert’s text, not an instruction to the editor. The collated French prints Bonnald with double n and a raised r in Mʳ; English Mr. is the conventional title equivalent. The opaque code remains exact.

T254.The complete weekday and 26 remain. Bonnald has doubled n; the title has a clearly smaller raised r. The conditional perfect possibility auroit pu ajouter, repeated et, all three article-plus-ellipsis forms and opaque l’—n—n—sm— remain without expansion. The dash after the second n is part of the opaque code across its printed line wrap. The opening question has a complete quotation pair. The following lowercase question opens another quotation and the C’est clause opens a further one before a single final close; no extra closing guillemet is supplied. Both final Il est clauses and the ni coordination remain.

T80.The That fragment, three organs or opaque designations and repeated viscus remain. The source’s raised x is retained in the opaque Sˣ without expansion. The liver’s religious and heart’s heroic qualities remain Joubert’s formulation.

T81.The wish, two denials of existence, past assessment, present comprehension and conditional final images remain. Contents/container retains contenu/contenant, while figure and being remain different images. Said is a neutral rendering of the attribution imperfect, without asserting repetition. The source’s own quoted statement is not verified from another work.

T82.The singular indefinite death and daily recurrence remain. The second infinitive formulation is rendered as an English directive without a new actor; only modifies the preventing, and no murderous means are supplied. Revolutionary preserves the source capital.

T257.The initial present, universal daily expression, indefinite singular and capital Révolutionnaire remain. The following infinitive fragment retains seulement and the literal ne after empêcher; no pas or finite subject is added. A separate thin vertical margin mark is not treated as body punctuation or an established deletion.

T83.The opening dash and absent plural subject remain; those resumes without identifying a group. Inward sense is distinct from mind and soul. Alone qualifies the soul-derived light, not an additional claim that the soul is isolated. Consult renders finite plural consultent under the initial dash; it is not an imperative.

T258.The opening dash and subjectless plural verb remain. Ceux là is unhyphenated; superlative mieux and restrictive seule remain distinct.

T84.The first bounded quotation, second nominal Of opening and three cartouche occurrences remain. Cartouche retains the source’s masculine noun. The complete Académie 1798 Cartouche I entry gives an ornamental scroll in sculpture or painting, distinct from its feminine military senses; this supplies a bounded historical control for the light image without fixing its precise shape. The specialist directly read both complete Cartouche entries electronically; no printed dictionary image was inspected. Truly and the quoted idea remain, with the source’s explicit Clauzel connection rather than an inferred new one.

T259.The complete weekday and 6 remain. The first quoted fragment and capital Du outside it are literal; the second quotation encloses only l’idée. The repeated cartouche/lumière terms and truly degree remain. Original-size color confirms the smaller raised r in the final title, distinct from earlier baseline M.