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← ExitThe Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II

Reading language

YEAR 1818

All the great truths in religion express themselves through antitheses, according to our human language, and cannot be expressed otherwise, because everything that is opposition in the virtues and in subordinate natures is, in the divine nature, accord, reunion, harmony.

December 24.

Thus, where there is no truth there is no light, where there is no love there is no beauty. Power without goodness bruises the good when it touches it; and compassion without goodness waters and foments evil.

December 27.

Cuvier rises to the council; we must explain clearly Why this operator is being bought. Poor France is dying; they want to dissect her: No one can make a skeleton of her better than he.

December 29.

“Good laws (said an assembly on the island of Barbados) must leave nothing to men’s arbitrary will.” (Quot. December 29.) There is therefore arbitrary will wherever there is unlimited freedom. To ask for this freedom in anything whatever is to ask for arbitrary will. If everything must be regulated, nothing must be free.

Questions that must not be plumbed but only skimmed, if they are to be treated usefully, because by stirring their depths we would make their waters more turbid, if I may put it so.

Doctrines that must be set forth in such a way that their error and absurdity are visible on the surface and that the public is led to condemn them by their appearance.

T245.All, the reflexive opening, impossibility of otherwise, both lower fields and three concluding nouns remain. Subordinate natures keeps the source’s hierarchy without adding named beings or doctrines. English omits the two French commas enclosing dans la religion and supplies a comma after human language before and.

T246.The two where clauses, repeated no/without and three physical or active verbs remain. Both instances of goodness follow the printed bonté; justice is not substituted to make the sequence match the preceding list. The comma after introductory Thus is supplied English punctuation; the French Donc has no following comma.

T247.The four displayed lines remain one paragraph. Rises, the purchase, dying/dissection and skeleton image remain; operator carries the surgical implication without replacing the source’s term. The translation does not invent a rhyme at the expense of meaning. No council appointment or authorship beyond the printed entry is independently asserted. Clearly gives bien its adverbial sense with explain; an emphatic reading such as indeed remains possible. English we supplies a general subject for impersonal il faut in the first line; they renders indefinite on in the third. Neither choice identifies a particular group. The four lines remain roman and centered within one paragraph.

T455.The complete 27 governs four centered roman verse lines in one paragraph. Their capitals, first/third-line semicolons, third-line colon and final period remain. Bien can qualify expliquer or supply emphasis; the source does not identify an appointment or external author. No rhyme is reconstructed.

T248.The complete reported quotation and parenthetic locator remain. Arbitrary will consistently renders the three substantive uses of arbitraire; therefore, wherever, unlimited and the final conditional remain. The embedded December 29 stays distinct from the entry’s date. The abbreviated periodical locator and historical claim are not independently expanded. French retains historical loix and double-b abbandonner. Said is the neutral English reporting equivalent for disoit, without adding a claim of habitual speech.

T249.The prohibition, useful purpose, conditional result and full water image remain. Only makes the not/but contrast natural in English without adding a new restriction to the source. The final self-qualification ends with the collated source period; the following paragraph remains separate. French fonds retains final s. English we renders indefinite on without identifying a particular group. English omits the comma before French mais but retains the following separations after skimmed and usefully; if they are to be treated usefully renders the purpose phrase pour les traiter utilement.

T457.Two separate indented paragraphs remain. The first ends with a baseline period after exprimer, supported by color/native 419; it is not a trailing comma. Literal fonds retains final s. The negative obligation, contrasting infinitives, purpose, conditional and water comparison remain. The second nominal opening retains obligation, both exposed qualities and the final passive/subjunctive relation. Complete trai-/ter and con-/damner wraps and abraded left eaux/en/damner remain readable without added gaps. No names for the doctrines are supplied. All new 887 units before ANNÉE 1819 are roman, with no apparatus. The source specialist’s facsimile collation records the first partial day, later complete days, qualified readable left starts, literal abbandonner/loix/fonds, four-line verse and terminal period, with all stated individual reading qualifications retained. The subsequent year heading and notebook apparatus belong to the next batch.

T250.The nominal opening, obligation, both visible faults, surface and appearance remain. The doctrines are not identified, and the sentence is not silently recast as approval or disapproval of such a method.