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← ExitThe Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II

Reading language

YEAR 1819

January.

Of rights and duties. Rights of the Church, rights of the provinces.

Rights are subordinate powers (they need this for their preservation). Duties belong to inferiors and are indispensable to maintaining rights and preserving the whole. The supreme power has authority, that is to say, more than rights, for it has honored force.

January 7.

And mark well that our soul is always fully alive. It is so in the infirm, it is so in the unconscious, it is so even in the dying, it is still more so after death.

January 20.

The wretch who said: “This youth thinks, it acts, it is numerous, it wants enjoyment; the way to it must be prepared for it.”

January 25.

“To see everything in God” in order to find everything beautiful. For, to find beautiful objects beautiful, the sun must be behind them and light around them. And to find men’s works beautiful, the soul of those who made them must be behind them, so to speak, must show itself all around, and the works must be seen contained within it.

That is the sun and the light that must illuminate objects.

January 27.

The landowner who said: “I think like my land.” Some, then, think like their land, others like their shop, some like their hammer, and some others, finally, like their empty purses that long to fill themselves.

People thought then that justice should not be born of law, but law of justice. They judged the work and actions by the rule, and did not judge the rule and actions by the work.

Tell me, Muse; Sing, goddess. What one has been unable to learn from men, what is missing from history, what renown has not said, one asks of some muse, of one’s own genius, of one’s mind, of one’s reason or one’s imagination, which one lets speak and listens to.

The tell me, Muse is missing from Bocace’s tales; he adds nothing to what he has been told, he invents only the details. His narrative ends where the common tale ended. His inventions never go beyond the field supplied by his memory. He respects the adopted tale as he would respect truth, without adding anything to it.

Man. The most perfect is most a man. He has more of his nature. He more closely resembles his type. Thus, when you say: “It is in such a nature to...” that means: it is in the perfection of such or such a nature; it is natural (for example) to the excellent or perfect man.

S1.Source editor’s annotationGreen pocket notebook: “January 2, 1819. Mrs. de Vintimille, rue d’Anjou, no. 42.” And, from 1819, but without a precise date, a list of books, then: Air. Between indoor and outdoor air, only ten degrees of difference, to avoid colds. (Meded. dom. vol. I, p. 253.) Speak to Mr. Guéneau about Messrs. Maisonneuve, Gremeret, Mr. d’Eymar, Mr. Gratepain.”

T1.The three nominal formulations and repeated rights remain. The year heading and month-only January date stay separate; the apparatus’s January 2 does not become the main entry date. French Eglise begins with plain capital E. The raised 1 after Janvier is the annotation call before the baseline period, not a day numeral.

T13.The source-editor framing, first closed quotation, separate date precision, address, book list and practical notes remain one apparatus paragraph. There is no source opening guillemet before Air., although a closing mark follows Gratepain; English retains that later unmatched close without supplying an opening. The month-only main entry does not acquire January 2. Printed baseline Mme and Mrs are conventionally rendered Mrs. and Messrs.; baseline M. becomes Mr., and nᵒ with raised o becomes no. Meded. dom. remains an unexpanded abbreviated title; printed tom I, with no period after tom and Roman I, becomes conventional English vol. I. The source names Vintimille, Guéneau, Maisonneuve, Gremeret, d’Eymar and Gratepain remain without identification. English moves seulement to only before ten degrees and omits the comma immediately before seulement; the comma before pour remains before to avoid colds. English also supplies a comma after precise date. No temperature scale, medical endorsement or unseen book expansion is supplied.

T114.The printed ANNÉE 1819 heading is separate after the rule. Janvier. gives a month only; its raised 1 is an apparatus call after the month and before the baseline period, not a day numeral. The first paragraph ends on 887; the second continues through the four complete opening lines of 888 without inserted punctuation or a paragraph break. Eglise retains a plain capital E and c’est à dire has no hyphens. The feminine elles refers grammatically to puissances; en remains context-dependent without a new French complement. Puissance/pouvoir/force remain distinct printed terms. Both main paragraphs are roman. The source specialist’s facsimile collation records the page 887 month/call, baseline titles and exact notebook abbreviations/names, unmatched later quotation close, and complete 888 continuation, with all stated individual reading qualifications retained.

T115.In the French source, one continuous roman apparatus paragraph. The explicit January 2 1819 date belongs to its notebook quotation and is not assigned to the month-only main entry. The first quotation closes after 42.; later Air. has no printed opening guillemet after puis:, although a closing guillemet follows Gratepain. The unmatched closing mark is retained without conjecturing an omitted opening. Mme and Mrs are baseline forms; nᵒ has a raised small o. The literal Vintimille, Guéneau, Maisonneuve, Gremeret, d’Eymar and Gratepain remain, along with Meded. dom. tom I, p. 253. The I has Roman numeral form. The two dots after Meded./dom. and absence of a dot after tom remain. Small glyph contours are qualified to the reproduction; no title, identity, book or temperature scale is expanded.

T2.The parenthesis, preservation, inferiors, indispensable and whole remain. This leaves en’s reference implicit rather than inserting an explanation of what the powers require. Authority contextually distinguishes pouvoir from the surrounding puissance and force; it does not add a legal institution. The paragraph continues across pages 887–888. The feminine elles grammatically refers to puissances; the English plural they preserves that connection without assigning en a new complement. French c’est à dire remains unhyphenated.

T3.The opening And, direct exhortation, always/fully and four repeated it-is-so formulations remain. The final comparative remains despite its relation to fully; the source’s spiritual assertion is not paraphrased as a medical claim.

T116.The complete 7, initial Et, direct exhortation and four elle l’est repetitions remain. Toujours/pleinement/même/plus encore are distinct; the final comparative is not normalized away.

T4.The reporting fragment and four successive predicates remain. Youth remains a collective singular. The two final it references distinguish enjoyment as the goal from the youth for whom its way is prepared; no speaker is identified. French voye retains y. Said is the neutral English reporting equivalent for disoit; habitual speech is not newly asserted.

T117.The complete 20, reporting-imperfect relative fragment and quoted collective feminine jeunesse remain. Voye retains y. The source period is inside the closing guillemet; no speaker or occasion is identified.

T5.Every beautiful repetition, both everything terms, sun/light distinction and full spatial image remain. The last the works makes the masculine plural les/ contenus explicit; it refers to the soul. So to speak remains a qualification, not an invitation to replace the image with an explanation. French voye retains y; English supplies a comma after initial For and explicit them after behind/around for the contextual objects.

T118.The complete 25 governs two distinct indented paragraphs. The first quoted infinitive has no punctuation between its closing guillemet and pour. Repeated beau/beaux, both tout, and all spatial relations remain. Voye retains y; the masculine plural contenus agrees with ouvrages, with y locating them in the soul. The second paragraph retains singular doit after le soleil et la lumière; no French agreement repair is made. Complete hom-/mes supplies no gap.

T6.The separate second paragraph, both sun and light and the obligation remain. The source’s singular doit after the paired nouns does not require ungrammatical English.

T7.The reporting fragment, repeated like, then/finally and all four possessions remain. The purses retain their personified longing. English supplies and before the last coordinated group and removes the French connective et before its relative clause for readable syntax. French retains vuides. Said is the neutral English reporting equivalent for disoit; no repeated or habitual utterance is asserted.

T119.The complete 27, quoted period before closing guillemet, reporting imperfect and four possessive comparisons remain. Vuides retains ui; French printed et before qui remains despite its syntactic awkwardness. Complete quel-/ques-uns preserves the lexical hyphen only.

T8.Then, the should restriction, reversed birth and both full work/actions/rule arrangements remain. The repeated actions is retained in both clauses, not removed to make a tidier reversal.

T120.Both imperfect reporting/judging clauses, negative obligation, reversed loi/justice and repeated actions remain. The compressed circumflex in naître is readable but reproduction-qualified; œuvre has the printed ligature.

T9.The opening Latin and Greek are freshly translated separately, without substituting an existing English epic. The three what clauses, inability, five possible sources and final speaking/listening remain. Renown retains renommée’s circulation of report without silently changing it to a named historian. The collated Latin Dic mihi, musa; is italic through its comma and semicolon, with the English Tell me, Muse; likewise italic. The following Greek Ἄειδε θεά. and its English Sing, goddess. remain roman. The compressed Greek upper marks remain qualified to the reproduction; no external epic wording or typography is substituted.

T10.The repeated Latin invocation is freshly translated as in the preceding paragraph; its metalinguistic use remains. The source name Bocace is retained. Nothing/only/never/without, narrative versus tale, the field image and conditional respect remain. No particular tale or external assessment is added. The second source dic mihi musa is separately italic, with lowercase d and no internal comma; its English tell me, Muse is italic with a supplied vocative comma. The preceding article remains roman.

T11.The nominal opening, comparative most/more, repeated nature, type, unfinished quotation and final alternatives remain. Most a man keeps the unusual construction rather than changing it to a claim of masculinity alone. The parenthetic example stays in the body.

T122.The nominal Homme., unusual le plus homme/plus sa nature, repeated nature and alternatives remain. The three points after de are printed inside the quotation, not a reproduction loss. Both colons, lowercase cela and the parenthetic example remain.