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 1816

July 22.

Ambition is pitiless toward everything that does not serve it. Every useless merit is contemptible in its eyes. (Note. Mᵒ de l-Vˢ and M l D d’Alxs.)

July 23.

Knowledge may be there, but what gives pleasure in knowledge is not.

Like that man who distinguished the shape of objects but saw only the same color in all of them: for example, ripe cherries and their leaves. So it is in these minds: knowledge is there, but what gives pleasure in knowledge is not. In the same way, through the telescope one sees the stars; but what charms in the stars is not seen there.

In the same way, human skin seen through the microscope, features seen in a concave mirror, etc. Everywhere knowledge spoils beauty, the instrument serves less well than the organ, the faculty within its limits is worth more than in its extensions.

July 26.

(In a dream.) My brothers or Gentlemen, Why am I trembling at this moment? Why does the sound of my own voice frighten me as I hear it resound in public for the first time and think of it reaching your ears? It is because, despite myself, I aspire to please you when I ought to labor only to instruct you! It is because I think of my success when I ought to concern myself only with my duty. What I experience makes me feel two truths that will be the matter of this discourse. We desire what we ought [not] to desire, and that will be the subject of my first word. We fear what we ought not to fear, and that will be my second point. I offer myself as an example, and my errors will serve me as expiation. The conclusion of these first...

July 30.

For that accords with the laws of Heaven’s governance. (In religions.)

August 2.

The true depends on fact, truth on essence. Thus truth concerns necessary things; the true (a true thing, however) concerns contingent things. The true depends on facts, and truth on essences. Truth therefore concerns necessary things, and the true concerns contingent things. The one is bound to reality, the other to natures. It is necessary, important, to know truth, but not all realities. Knowledge of realities serves to live and to operate; but knowledge of truth serves to live well, to act well, to think well, to will well.

August 8.

The religion of the people. (Mme d[e] St S[u]z[i]n.)

August 14.

To philosophize with one’s soul, and not with one’s brain, like Mʳˢ etc.

One can learn to produce good oratorical or philosophical French as one learns to produce good Latin, without much good taste, without much talent and without much intelligence.

August 31.

If a historical truth compromises a moral truth, then one must mistrust it and await its explanation. Unknown circumstances alone make known facts dangerous.

September 3.

The wit cares only about speaking well. He believes he has enough glory if people say of him that he has spoken well.

September 17.

(At Villeneuve.) It is in the depths of minds that literatures lie.

T112.Everything/every, the negative service criterion and personified eyes remain. Useless is relative to ambition’s service, not an added judgment of intrinsic worth. Note renders the italic Nota. within the roman parenthesis; the opaque name/title forms remain unexpanded. The first raised round form is provisionally transcribed as o-like in Mᵒ; the source contour does not securely exclude an e-like form or identify the title. The raised s in Vˢ and baseline l forms remain as collated.

T282.The complete 22 remains qualified by softened left contours. Tout appears twice, with a relative negative and possessive eyes. Mérite and d’Alxs retain identifiable foreground initials despite damage in the native scan. In the French source, only Nota. is italic, including its period; parentheses and the opaque names remain roman. The first M has a small raised round o-like glyph, provisionally transcribed ᵒ; its compressed interior does not securely exclude an e-like form or establish the intended title. The later V has a small raised s-like glyph. Both l characters in l-Vˢ and M l D are baseline tall stems; no abbreviation or name is expanded. The final point precedes the closing parenthesis.

T113.Perhaps and the present-there/absent-pleasure contrast remain. Knowledge renders science in its broad learned sense, without reducing it to a modern experimental discipline.

T114.The opening comparison remains a fragment, with only, same color and both examples. The earlier knowledge/pleasure sentence returns, and the telescope/stars distinction keeps its negative charm clause. No medical condition or named observer is supplied.

T115.The first list remains nominal and ends in etc.; both optical instruments and their objects remain distinct. Everywhere, less-than and worth-more comparisons preserve the source’s judgment. Knowledge here renders scavoir, as knowledge above renders science; the French lexical difference is retained in the left text.

T116.The dream circumstance, alternative forms of address, both questions, first-time hearing and repeated causal explanation remain in one paragraph. Despite myself, ought and only keep their scopes. First word translates premier mot rather than silently changing it to point; the next source term is point. [Not] is a broader English rendering of printed editorial [ne] together with intact pas; it is not a reproduction loss or a claim that the full French negation was supplied. The final plural first remains unfinished, without a supplied noun. Expiation is retained rather than softened into explanation.

T284.The complete 26 is qualified by slight left abrasion but retains its identifying contours. The dream circumstance is an opening body parenthesis with a period inside, not a second date. One continuous paragraph retains both questions, the exclamation, repeated C’est que, the first-person-to-plural shift and future discourse divisions. The brackets around [ne] are printed source-editor brackets, not a current reproduction loss. The intact pas remains outside them. The final three dots are printed and the ending is not completed. Literal premier mot and second point remain distinct. The l’en-/tendant wrap is complete; the remaining left starts are identifiable in the original color despite softened strokes.

T117.The initial For and unnamed that remain dependent. Governance renders police in its older order/administration sense, supported by the complete 1798 Académie entry, which includes the ordering of an assembly or community. The application to Heaven is contextual, not an identified theological formula. The source capital Heaven and final parenthetic fragment remain.

T118.The complete opening Latin receives a fresh English rendering before the following French is translated; both remain in one paragraph. The true/truth distinction, singular fact/essence in Latin versus plural facts/essences in French, and repeated necessary/contingent categories remain. The Latin parenthesis autem res vera is provisionally rendered a true thing, however, retaining its explanatory and adversative words without inserting a different Latin text. Masculine L’un points to le vrai as the one bound to reality; the other is truth, bound to natures. English retains one/other without treating them as the first and second members of the immediately preceding, reversed clause. The necessary/important pair, not-all restriction, realities/truth distinction and all four well phrases remain. Operate distinguishes opérer from the later agir. The independent specialist reread supports this literal rendering without identifying an external Latin source.

T286.The complete 2 remains. The entire Latin opening is roman, as is its parenthetic autem res vera; the subsequent French continues in the same paragraph. The ne-/cessariis wrap is complete. No external Latin text or extra predicate is inserted. The repeated true/truth distinction, donc, singular reality versus plural natures, explicit non pas toutes and all four repeated bien phrases remain. Contingens and connoissance remain literal. Lower margin initials nécessaires/aux/non/et/bien are identifiable in color. The named 853 date/left-margin contours, opaque raised round M glyph and raised s, baseline l forms, vuë upper pair, Nota. italic extent and roman Latin are retained as the source specialist’s qualified collation findings.

T119.The nominal subject and parenthetic abbreviation remain. The printed letter supplements remain inside their original brackets; no full name or title is supplied.

T287.The nominal statement and parenthetic name remain. Mme and St are baseline, with no raised letters or extra punctuation supplied. The three printed editorial bracket groups [e]/[u]/[i] remain distinct; no additional name expansion is made. The final point is inside the parenthesis.

T120.The infinitive, soul/brain contrast and trailing comparison remain. The raised abbreviation is retained provisionally as an opaque source form rather than the English marital title Mrs.; the raised r/s-like forms are the qualified canonical reading, not an identified or expanded title. The comma after source Philosopher is omitted for smoother English infinitive syntax.

T288.In the French source, the infinitive, first comma, repeated avec son and explicit non pas remain. M has two small raised r/s-like forms; Mʳˢ is retained as an opaque abbreviation, not identified or expanded. The complete comme at the right edge is readable in color.

T121.The possibility, repeated learning/producing, French/Latin comparison and all three without-much clauses remain. Intelligence renders esprit here, without identifying a school or denying every degree of ability.

T289.The modal possibility, repeated learning/making, French/Latin comparison and all three sans beaucoup phrases remain. Philosophi-/que is a complete wrap; bon at the folded edge retains all its letters.

T122.The condition, obligation, waiting and unknown/known reversal remain. It most naturally refers to the historical truth in context; English retains the pronoun rather than replacing it with an independently certified antecedent. Alone qualifies the unknown circumstances.

T123.Wit renders bel esprit as the person characterized by verbal brilliance. Only, enough, the conditional praise and repeated speak-well formulation remain without replacing glory with ordinary approval.

T291.Assés retains final s. The restriction, repeated bien dire/dit, condition and compound-perfect final predicate remain. The right-edge de is intact.

T124.The place remains in the opening parenthesis within this paragraph. Depths retains fonds, and literatures stays plural; no national canon, town identification or new date is added.

T292.The place circumstance remains an opening body parenthesis, with plain A and its point inside; it is not part of the date label. Fonds retains s, and the cleft and plural littératures remain. Littéra-/tures is a complete wrap.