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← ExitThe Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II

Reading language

YEAR 1816

November 15.

In this head there are molds of admirable elegance and precision — and an accommodating mind, rich in suitable feelings and ideas. On the subjects he treats, he says not what is truest and best, but what is most apt.

A healthy imagination. A beautiful meaning of the word.

November 18.

(Paris.) Which is more deformed? a religion without virtue, or virtues without religion? Religion, source; religion, virtue of the soul. The others, virtues of life.

November 19.

And this style, sparkling, so to speak, bespeaks a dazzled mind.

Exaltation, elevation. Exaltation comes about through external means and is only a mechanical product. Elevation is natural, and it takes place through the effect of qualities that are our own.

November 20.

Mme de Lévis said of Mr. de Richelieu: “He is a weather vane that does not know the wind is blowing, or thinks it is the one making it blow.”

November 27.

B+ch-s w. Oratorical phrases are not what we call thoughts.

November 30.

To be an honorable man through what is passed on. That is what matters above all to society. A man’s actions are not passed on (that is, they do not become another’s); but his opinions, his principles, his maxims are passed on.

December 3.

All these accounts that make each people love a country other than its own, and inspire each man with the desire to be away from home—do they not, for that very reason, have a most harmful drawback?

December 4.

That “what is sea was land, and that what is land was sea”; through subsidence and uplift.

December 5.

Everything is made by fire, air, water and cold. All metals come from some melting. All mountains are swellings. The rocks themselves have flowed. Uplifts from within, subsidences from without, form and deform the globe. (The Huntists.)

December 7.

For Kings too make and unmake Kings.

T169.The molds remain concrete, and both admiration and the final limitation are preserved. Accommodating reads complaisant without importing modern complacency; mind interprets génie contextually. No person is identified. Apt renders à propos as suitability to the occasion rather than intrinsic truth.

T170.The two nominal sentences and comment on the word remain without replacing the striking health metaphor with moderation.

T330.Both nominal sentences remain without a supplied verb or explanatory referent.

T171.The place remains embedded, followed by the question, singular/plural contrast and fragmentary definitions. Source retains the source image rather than adding a full predicate. The others points contextually to the other virtues; its compressed wording is retained.

T331.The complete 18 remains. Paris is an opening body parenthesis with its period inside, not part of the date. Diforme has one f. Both question marks and lowercase une after the first remain. The singular/plural reversal, two sans phrases, repeated religion, semicolon and final nominal distinction remain. The named 857 color-supported days 2/4 versus abraded native contours, Tout vérité/la, absoluë upper pair, literal [...] bracket, thrône/diforme spellings, title italic extent and complete left starts are retained as the source specialist’s qualified collation findings.

T172.The opening And, tentative comparison and distinction between emitting sparkle and being dazzled remain. The English does not turn dazzled into an unqualified compliment.

S1.Source editor’s annotationA separate leaf, dated only “15 7bre,” — and which I do not know exactly what year to assign to, but which, by analogy, seems indeed to belong to this period, — contains this: “Exaltation is that height of feelings or ideas which comes from external causes; that which arises from character is not called exaltation, but elevation. Declamation arises from exaltation. It differs from eloquence in that the one always sets forth great feelings or great ideas, and the other great words, great objects. The orator is occupied with his subject; the declaimer with his role. The one acts, the other feigns. The first is a person, the second a character.”

T173.Both related terms and their repeated contrast remain: external/mechanical versus natural/one’s own. Mechanical gives machinal its involuntary-produced force without naming machinery. The separate source call remains attached to the ending own before the period.

T182.The source editor’s first person, uncertain year and analogy remain separate apparatus. The date abbreviation 7bre is retained as printed rather than silently assigned a year or transferred to the main entry. The quoted one/other order is retained even where its relation to declamation/eloquence is unexpected; no transposition repairs the passage. Height, character, role, acts/feigns and person/character preserve the related but distinct comparisons. This whole annotation is one paragraph. The source’s et after the first dash remains and in English.

T333.The opening nominal pair and restrictive ne...que remain. The raised 1 follows propres before its separate baseline period, attaching the separate source apparatus to this undated unit. Neither adjacent main date is inherited.

T334.The entire apparatus is one roman editorial paragraph, with two quotations and the source editor’s first-person je. The date is literally 15 7bre, with bre on the baseline; no year is printed or assigned. The editor’s express uncertainty and analogy-based placement remain separate from the main text’s undated status. Both naît forms show peaked upper i marks in color, with compressed native 390 contours; the circumflex readings remain qualified. Sentiments has its printed t in both occurrences. The alternatives, singular vient, both l’une/l’autre comparisons and personne/personnage distinction remain. The final period precedes the closing guillemet; no speaker or antecedent is silently reassigned.

T174.The attribution, feminine source object and two alternatives remain. He introduces the man compared; subsequent it follows the weather vane. Making it blow retains the imagined agency rather than merely turning with the wind. The one retains the identifying emphasis of c’est elle qui.

T335.The complete 20 and baseline Mme/M. remain. Scait has a simple i dot, not a circumflex. The imperfect reporting verb, both alternative relatives, negative clause and feminine elle are retained; the quotation period precedes its closing guillemet.

T175.The opaque initial form is provisionally copied from color, without expanding a person or replacing its plus and hyphen. The canonical ch is a qualified color reading; reproduction blur leaves cb possible. No missing person name or certain letter distinction is claimed. The categorical negative and first-person plural remain.

T336.The complete 27 remains. The opaque baseline code is provisionally B+ch-s w.: color shows an open lower arch after c, supporting h, whereas native 390 fills that arch into a b-like bowl. The b alternative remains possible under reproduction blur; no name is expanded. The final w and period remain baseline, without assigning meaning to nearby thin traces. Phrazes has z. The complete appel-/lons wrap retains doubled l. The negative point and distinction between phrases and thoughts remain.

T176.The infinitive and repeated transmission retain the contrast between actions and three kinds of thought. Honorable gives honnête its moral/social range rather than reducing it to truth-telling. The parenthetic explanation and above-all scope remain.

T177.Accounts contextually reads relations as narratives, likely of travel, rather than social relationships; no genre or title is inserted in the body. The rhetorical question, all/each repetition, other/own contrast and emphatic causal relation remain.

T338.The complete 3 remains. Toutes, both chaque phrases, the comparative country relation, feminine plural inversion and très remain. Right-edge pays/de/inconvénient and the terminal question mark are complete in the color witness.

T178.The opening That leaves the proposition fragmentary. The quoted reversal, former state and two opposed earth movements remain; no geological school is named. The repeated that and uneven quotation boundary follow the printed Que outside and et que inside the quotation.

T339.The complete 4 remains. The dependent Que, repeated que inside the quotation, reversed mer/terre relation and both passé-composé phrases remain. The semicolon follows the closing guillemet, before the final par phrase; no governing clause is supplied.

T179.The four agents, repeated all, some melting, bodily swellings and form/deform wordplay remain. Huntists retains the printed Huntistes without correcting it to a better-known school; the historical allusion remains unidentified. This renders the source’s conjecture without modern scientific endorsement.

T180.The dependent For, additive too, repeated capitals and make/unmake reversal remain without a supplied historical occasion.