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 1817

January 15.

Our true Homer, the Homer of the French, who would believe it? is Lafontaine.

February 4.

Just as faith requires us to go against the testimony or impression of our senses, virtue requires it too; for without this, duty would sometimes go unfulfilled.

And what am I saying? In practicing our duties we must sometimes go against our very reason or our reasoning. Thus, to love a hateful father, to respect a contemptible magistrate...

February 15.

And indeed remorse is only the punishment for crime; repentance is its expiation. The first belongs to a tormented conscience, the other to a soul changed for the better.

February 16.

His heart was not mediocre.

February 20.

The words altars, tombs, inheritance, native land, ancient customs, nurse, master, piety; whenever these words are spoken or heard with indifference, all is lost.

February 23.

“Text.” What is to be laid out for weaving, to be embroidered, what serves as a sort of weft.

February 28.

Those who hope know providence better, and have a surer and more unshakable feeling of it than those who fear.

March 2.

Let us love and make beautiful everything that is good.

March 8.

“Eternal.” Let us grant them, if they wish, that by this one may mean only a certain extent of time whose end it is impossible for man to determine by any imaginable number, — such a duration being necessary for the punishment of certain offenses against an infinite being to become medicinal for the guilty person’s soul, that is, to give it the goodness it did not have. (See Bayle and the thousand years.)

Indeed, when feeling suffices for certainty, what does the idea do?

March 11.

Port Royal. They wrote well out of piety.

March 12.

Faith in things makes them a reality.

Note: that one always remembers with pleasure one’s first simplicity and one’s early credulities.

T1.The repeated Homer, possessive our, question inserted within the assertion and printed name remain. This is the first entry under the separately printed 1817 heading, distinct from the earlier January 2 parenthesis before that boundary.

T2.The analogy, two alternative grounds, repeated requirement and conditional failure of duty remain. Sometimes does not become a universal dismissal of the senses.

T124.Two indented paragraphs remain one unit. The 4 is complete at the qualified level in color/native 391: diagonal junction and right stem remain recognizable; no prior digit is inferred from the marginal traces. Foy, imperfect-looking conditional accompliroit, subjunctive allions, repeated quelquefois and both alternatives remain. The quelque-/fois wrap is complete. Paragraph 2 keeps lowercase il after the question mark, repeated pour and final printed ellipsis without a supplied continuation. Haïssable has two separate raised i components; the left starts l’impression/fois/contre/aimer remain identifiable in color.

T3.The first-person self-question, must/sometimes, reason/reasoning alternative and two infinitive examples remain. The last sentence stays unfinished rather than gaining a supplied conclusion. Hateful retains haïssable as the father’s stated quality.

T4.The opening And, indeed, only, punishment/expiation distinction and first/other pairing remain. Changed for the better retains the moral direction without naming a sacrament or doctrine.

T125.The complete 15 remains. The opening Et/en effet, restrictive ne...que, two distinct consequences and comparative en mieux remain. Tourmen-/tée is a complete wrap; the t of tée is faint but identifiable in color despite native 391 interruption.

T5.The past tense, negative and bodily metaphor remain. No person is identified from adjacent fragments; mediocre is not expanded into a list of virtues.

T126.The complete 16 and past negative remain; the sentence does not receive an inferred named subject.

T6.All eight terms, repeated words, spoken/heard alternative and universal judgment remain. Nurse retains nourrice as a person who nurtures or nurses, not a modern professional title; master keeps maître open. Only the enumerated source terms and their closing semicolon take the corresponding italic emphasis.

T7.The quoted word, two infinitives and repeated what retain the textile image. Laid out for weaving renders ourdir’s preparation of threads, as defined in the complete 1798 Académie entry; weft renders trame’s shuttle-carried threads. This preserves the two images without turning the fragment into a technical description of warp and weft.

T8.Both groups, comparative knowing and two comparative qualities of feeling remain. Feeling renders sentiment rather than adding a theological certainty or a named object of fear.

T129.The complete 28 remains. The two relative groups, comparative mieux, repeated plus and lowercase providence remain. The lower left start un is softened but identifiable in color. The source collation records the 859 new 1817 dates/left contours, haïssable upper pair, complete wraps and list emphasis boundary, with the individual reading qualifications retained; the earlier 035 units remain separate.

T9.The shared object of love and make-beautiful, collective exhortation and everything remain. Beauty and goodness are not merged.

T130.The complete 2 remains. Both first-person plural imperatives, tout and the beau/bon distinction remain.

T10.The concession, unnamed them, conditional wish, only/certain/any restrictions and infinite-being distinction remain. Medicinal retains the curative image; it refers to the soul, the feminine elle antecedent. See renders abbreviated Vid. without identifying a Bayle work or a specific millennium doctrine. The whole long sentence and final parenthesis remain one paragraph.

T131.The complete 8 remains. Eternel has plain initial E and its period inside the guillemets. Accordons leur has no hyphen. The condition, seulement, indefinite certaine/certaines, impossibility/aucun, dash and dependent étant phrase remain. Étenduë has two distinct upper e components in color/native 392. Medicinal wording, feminine elle, past negative and literal unhyphenated c’est à dire remain. The entire terminal Vid. Bayle et les mille ans. is roman within its parentheses, with the period inside; no external target is inferred. Right-edge words/marks are complete in color.

T11.The when circumstance and question remain; feeling and idea are distinct terms, with no invented answer or named philosophical system.

T12.The place/name fragment and plural past claim remain. Out of piety gives the motivation of par piété without supplying particular authors or works.

T133.The complete 11 remains. Original-size color/native 392 show Port Royal with no point after Port and a point after Royal; punctuation from other occurrences is not imported. The imperfect and manner/motive phrases remain.

T13.Faith in is a contextual interpretation of foi des choses, not the things’ own fidelity. The plural things and singular a reality remain; no further metaphysical claim is supplied.

T134.The complete 12 remains. Two indented paragraphs stay one unit. Literal les rend une réalité is not syntactically repaired. Foi has i here. In the French source, only Nota is italic; the spaced colon and following dependent qu’on clause are roman. Toujours, singular première and plural premières/crédulités remain. The sim-/plicité wrap is complete.

T14.The authorial Note cue remains in this separate main paragraph, not translator apparatus. That keeps the dependent formulation; always, first and plural credulities remain. Only Note corresponds to italic Nota; the colon remains roman.