Diotimos Reading Desk

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← ExitThe Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II

Reading language

YEAR 1817

August […]1.

M-r-bx p-r- (last works). — because he wanted to draw from his [head] what was not in it.

September 20.

(At Villeneuve.) Books that perfect the will.

September 22.

Men upright as reeds. That is, ready to bend in the slightest wind.

The beauties of the hearth.

October 4.

This politics, which is full of passions, and which ought to be full of prudence.

October 9.

...There is in the expression of these thoughts a certain firmness of sound and sense that rightly leads one to presume their accuracy and truth.

October 13.

Recherché truths. That is, too far removed from the mind’s ordinary paths and conceptions. But when one sets them against errors that are also recherché...

October 18.

Of the beauties and delights of the hearth; and the words let the hearth shine with unceasing fire.

A confessor, reasonable through his reason, and not through reasoning.

October 19.

Naturalness, no. But there is art; and art is a merit. The accuracy that comes from art.

The priest makes the people and the people make the priest.

Art (they say), art. Art is indeed something if (as has been very well said) “nature is the art of God,” God’s art in matter. Art is also a nature that comes from man. And accuracy (which comes from art) always pleases well-formed minds.

T73.The opaque code, parenthesis, dependent because and negative remain. Last renders derniers without establishing a bibliography. The canonical […]ête has a lost opening: [head] is a contextual whole-word rendering, not a claim to recover the missing French letter. The day […]1 remains incomplete without an invented leading digit.

T188.Only the final 1 is complete; the earlier detached vertical traces do not certify another digit. The opaque baseline M-r-bx p-r- and its hyphens remain without expansion. At the next line opening only ête is readable; the incomplete strokes before it do not certify t in either color or native 397. The parenthetic period, following dash, dependent parce que and distinct past forms remain.

T74.The place parenthesis remains part of the paragraph; the nominal phrase is not completed into advice. Perfect renders perfectionnent rather than merely increase. The canonical date reads September 20, with the leading 2 qualified by abrasion; no missing digit is conjecturally supplied.

T189.The abraded leading 2 retains a curved head, diagonal and lower foot in color/native 397, supporting qualified 20 rather than a restored unknown digit; the 0 is clear. The roman parenthetic place remains in the body, with plain A and its internal period. The nominal books/relative formulation is not completed.

T75.Upright keeps the physical straightness and moral suggestion of droits; the second sentence undercuts that suggestion. Ready and slightest remain.

T190.Both digits are complete with mild edge abrasion. The two nominal formulations and unhyphenated C’est à dire remain. The initial m in moindre is softened but identifiable in color.

T76.Hearth retains the concrete center and domestic associations of foyer. The fragment is not expanded into a description.

T191.The nominal fragment remains undated, without inheriting the preceding date.

T77.The singular demonstrative, nominal structure, two relative clauses and conjunction remain. Politics here denotes a kind of political conduct; its singular framing follows cette politique rather than implying that the English noun must be plural. Repeated full and normative ought retain the source contrast.

T192.The complete 4 remains. The nominal opening, repeated pleine and contrast between the present and conditional obligation remain; the left d of de is identifiable in color.

T78.The opening ellipsis, certain, two paired qualities and qualified presumption remain. Rightly does not turn presumption into proof; sound and sense retain the audible connection of son and sens.

T79.Recherché provisionally retains the sense of elaborately sought or overrefined, as the following explanation qualifies it. The same word is repeated for errors; too, also and the unfinished sentence beginning with when remain. A merely neutral sought-after reading would lose the stated distance from ordinary thought.

T80.Of retains the topic fragment. The words is ordinary English support for the metalinguistic function of the French article l’, not a recovered French noun. Only the translated Latin formula corresponds to the source italics. Assiduo luceat igne focus is freshly rendered as a wish, with its duration and light image intact; no quotation source is asserted.

T195.The complete 18 remains. The Latin assiduo luceat igne focus. is italic through its period; the French l’ prefix and preceding et are roman. The nominal opening and semicolon remain.

T81.The nominal figure and repeated reason-root preserve the distinction between a faculty or quality and discursive reasoning. No individual is identified.

T196.The nominal opening and explicit reason/reasoning contrast remain. Raisonne-/ment is a complete wrap; the initial m is softened but identifiable in color.

T82.The clipped negative, But, repeated art and final nominal phrase remain. Accuracy renders justesse without equating it with moral justice.

T197.The complete 19 remains. The initial negative fragment, repeated art, semicolon and final nominal relative remain. Jus-/tesse is a complete wrap.

T83.The reciprocal syntax and repeated words remain. Makes is not narrowed to a specific institutional power or electoral act.

T84.The repeated art, three parenthetic constructions, if, also and always remain. God’s art in matter freshly translates ars Dei in materia, separate from the preceding French quotation. English places the comma within that quotation. A nature keeps the unusual countable noun; well-formed minds retains the making image without identifying the unnamed quotation.