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← ExitThe Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II

Reading language

YEAR 1816

September 23.

The great abuse of abstractions is to take, in metaphysics, beings of reason for real beings such as “thought,” etc., and to present, in politics, real beings as beings of reason such as “executive power,” etc. Whenever a man treats politics by the ways of politics (sic), break off all conversation with him on this subject.

She has a character that has its defects, and I have one that has its excesses.

September 24.

— like pens that take too much ink, or — ink that is too thick.

September 25.

The faith of desire.

(In the fields.) These pleasures of the body give the soul great illnesses. And first they enervate it.

October 9.

Courage has its follies. The Iberians of Sertorius.

October 13.

Divine physics and human physics.

The inner sense deceives us little, or at least deceives us only in the way God himself wishes us to be deceived. For none of us is destined to know everything and never to be mistaken.

Ingenious turns of phrase direct and contain the mind.

October 14.

In this writer, style is born of thoughts; and in the other, thoughts are born of style.

October 15.

Saint Teresa is the Sappho of devotion.

Figures inferior to the idea one inevitably forms of them. Homer, Plato, Fénelon and Racine. This is because they belong to transcendent genres of which one has within oneself a necessary idea, and one attributes to them the merit of their sphere.

October 16.

Verve; but no gall.

T125.The reversed abstract/real relations, named domains and both quoted examples remain exactly as the source places them; thought is not reassigned to repair a presumed doctrine. Beings of reason retains the technical êtres de raison. The repeated politics is preserved with the source’s parenthetic sic, italic within roman parentheses. The imperative and all-conversation scope remain the author’s text, not a workflow instruction. American commas move inside the two English quoted phrases.

T293.In the French source, the two quoted terms retain separate guillemets with their following commas outside. The repeated real/rational beings and metaphysics/politics reversal, two etc. forms, toutes les fois and final imperative/tout remain. Voyes retains y. Only sic is italic, with its enclosing parentheses and following comma roman. The repeated politique is not silently changed; the printed sic is retained. All five right-edge endings les/de/tels/de/tout are identifiable despite the fold.

T126.Both possessive clauses, third-person woman and first-person speaker remain, with defects distinct from excesses. No woman is identified from neighboring entries.

T127.Both dashes, the opening comparison, too-much/too-thick alternatives and unfinished relation remain. Pens renders plumes in the ink context without adding a writer or a specific instrument material.

T295.Both dashes, the dependent comparison, alternative and two trop degrees remain. Encre is complete at the right edge; no finite main predicate is added.

T128.The short nominal phrase and genitive remain without a supplied verb or doctrinal explanation. The source spelling foy is not normalized in French.

T296.Two separate paragraphs remain under the date. Foy retains y. The second opens with a body circumstance, whose period is inside the parenthesis. The demonstrative, body/soul relation, plural diseases and explicit Et d’abord remain. Mala-/dies is a complete wrap.

T129.The circumstance remains inside this second paragraph under the same date. These, the body/soul distinction, plural illnesses and first remain. Enervate takes énerver in its weakening sense, not the modern French meaning irritate; no medical diagnosis is added.

T130.Both sentences remain, the second a nominal historical pointer. No particular ancient episode or external source is supplied.

T297.The complete 9, possessive and second nominal fragment remain. Ibères has a grave; no historical narrative is supplied.

T131.The two nominal phrases retain their shared physique. The complete 1798 Académie entry supports physics as broad inquiry into natural things within philosophy. The feminine source term is not the later masculine bodily-constitution sense; the divine/human contrast is retained without an identified theological system.

T298.The complete 13 and paired nominal physiques remain with no supplied verb.

T132.Little, the corrective or-at-least, only, himself and the passive deception remain. Inner sense renders sens intime without adding a specific philosopher’s system. The final none, everything and never retain the limits on human knowing, rather than guaranteeing infallibility.

T299.The peu degree, corrective ou, du moins restriction, repeated deception forms, divine willing, causal Car and nul/tout/jamais relations remain. Lui même has no hyphen; scavoir retains sc. The right-edge que, Car and final period are complete. All thirteen 854 units have complete visible date labels where present and no current reproduction gaps. The named bracket/code elevations, sic boundary, fold-edge completions and literal spellings are retained as the source specialist’s qualified collation findings.

T133.Both verbs retain their distinct spatial force; contain is not softened into mere guidance. Historical phraze remains in French.

T134.The reversal and repeated birth remain. Writer makes the implied literary comparison explicit; the source itself says this one and the other, without naming either. The intact et remains and after the English semicolon.

T301.The first stile has i, the final style has y. Nait has a compact dot-like mark over i in color/native 387, with no certified circumflex; plain i is retained. The inversion between style and thoughts, singular/plural verbs and demonstrative contrast remain. The complete 14 is qualified by the softened left edge, but its first 1 has an identifiable stem/foot and the 4 is complete. Naissent retains an identifiable initial n in color despite native loss of its thin first stroke.

T135.The direct identification retains the striking analogy without explaining or tempering it; no individual work is supplied.

T136.The opening fragment, four names, necessity and movement from genre to sphere remain. Figures renders personnages without asserting that they are fictional characters; the named writers supply its context. Transcendent retains transcendans without attaching a named philosophical system. The complete 1798 Académie entries support the personal sense of personnages and a broad kinds-or-manners range for genres; no exclusive modern literary classification is asserted.

T303.The opening nominal description and separate four-name sentence remain. Transcendans retains its printed ending. Inévitable-/ment is a complete wrap; the following à and qu’on openings are identifiable despite the left abrasion. The causal clause and repeated impersonal/reflexive/pronominal relations remain.

T137.The two nominal terms and adversative remain; gall preserves the bodily metaphor of fiel as bitterness rather than replacing it with malice.

T304.The complete 16, partitive nominal opening, semicolon and negative point remain.