YEAR 1820 Saturday, January 1.
Condillac. It is as though one substituted an artificial and mechanical brain for a living and natural brain. — I despise this man by synthesis; do not therefore question me by analysis.
Thursday, January 6.
Gaiety clarifies the mind (Fontanes). And above all literary gaiety. Boredom entangles it. Extreme tension distorts it. The sublime rejuvenates it.
One may be content with oneself through conscience, and not through reflection.
January 20.
Mr. de Talleyrand’s remark: “I like Bonnald, because he takes the mind where it is, in metaphysical ideas. That is where it is, provided one does not abuse it.”
You mean that he cannot make the idea of a triangle be a square, that the idea of black be the idea of white. Explain yourself.
February […] ᵉʳ .
Voltaire. A French Momus, a Christian Euhemerus. A modern Lucian. [Herostratus] of all temples. — He had his own jargon, his [contrivances], his follies and even his stupidities. — A mountebank of reason, a [buffoon] of philosophy, a Bobèche of irreligion. — An ape in morals, [in] poetry, in politics, etc.
February […].
What books are “remedies for the soul,” and what others, causes of [diseases] and poison.
Is “corruption of the good” the progress of the good? The progress of life is death.
To prolong childhood, youth and manhood, to revive them within oneself: great means of longevity.
February 3.
We are governed by errors and enchantments (errors in opinions, enchantments in men). Liberty, the jury, the supposed usefulness of national representations are errors. Napoleon himself was an enchantment, and Mirabeau was another. The former, however, had some ideas and spoke some words that betoken greatness, or at least personal power. Mirabeau had learned his; Napoleon’s were born of him. Even his exploits were worth less.
It pleased heaven to send enchantment to the seal of error. (And note the double enchantment, the one that raises what is small in our eyes and the one that makes what is great small; and the double error, the one that makes what is false appear true and what is true appear false.)
March 1.
Mr. de Maistre’s vintage and Mr. de Bonnald’s winepress. (The former in a way exhales his thoughts, and the other expresses them . )
This world needs to be governed by the ideas of the other.
T1. The hypothetical comparison and all four paired qualities remain. The first-person judgment, therefore and negative command keep the sharp synthesis/analysis opposition without softening despise. French retains historical méchanique . The complete Saturday, January 1 date belongs to this entry; the source ordinal has a raised er .
T44. The complete weekday and first-day numeral with raised er are visible; the separate ANNÉE 1820 heading applies. Méchanique retains ch and its acute. The hypothetical imperfect, four paired qualities, dash, semicolon, donc and negative imperative remain.
T2. The parenthetic attribution remains a source claim. The separate fragment, above all, extreme and all four distinct effects remain; pronouns continue to refer to mind. The source prints gaîté twice and extrême with qualified upper marks in the reproduction. The attribution and body are roman. The complete date is Thursday, January 6.
T45. Both gaîté forms retain compact circumflex/acute contours; extrême has its circumflex at the qualified color level. The parenthetic attribution, dependent Et fragment and four distinct predicates remain roman. Complete 6 is printed.
T3. The permission, reflexive contentment and repeated through relation remain. Conscience is retained in its moral/inner-awareness range; no explanatory distinction is inserted into the aphorism. English supplies a comma before and not; French has none before et .
T4. The framing, printed name spelling, because, repeated where and final proviso remain. Mind is a contextual rendering of esprit rather than an asserted unique reading of wit/spirit. The final it stays open as in the French en ; no external quotation source is authenticated. The source title has a raised r , rendered by conventional Mr.; Bonnald retains its doubled n . The complete quotation is roman, and January 20 is the entry date.
T5. The second-person challenge, cannot, repeated idea and direct command remain. The first comparison deliberately says be a square, rather than silently repairing it to be the idea of a square. He remains unassigned.
T48. The undated independent paragraph retains the unidentified il , both subjunctive comparisons, negative modal and final imperative. The first predicate is literally un carré , without adding idée before it. The source-specialist facsimile collation records readable margins and endings, the named dates, upper marks and raised title; all individual contour qualifications remain.
T6. The name, nominal comparisons, three dashes, all and even remain. The separate modern Lucian fragment follows the source period after Evhémère chrétien . Conventional English classical names are used; Bobèche remains unexpanded, and no specific external allusion is authenticated. [Herostratus] gives the contextual classical-name reading of […]rostrate ; [contrivances], [buffoon] and [in] contextually interpret indus[…]ries , […]ouffon and […]n . These whole-word English brackets do not recover the missing French letters. Contrivances renders the contextual device-or-expedient sense rather than modern industrial production. The first February date retains only raised er , with no complete numeral certified. French retains literal Evhémère , qualified Bobèche and poësie .
T49. The raised er survives before février , but no complete numeral is certified. Color and original native 431 preserve only rostrate , ries after indus- , ouffon and n at the four damaged left openings. Detached parts of the preceding letters do not recover complete initials. Evhémère has a plain capital E and literal vh ; Bobèche retains its grave, and poësie its two upper e components. All four nominal comparisons, three dashes, repeated possessives, even and final etc. remain; the names are not expanded in French.
T7. The question-shaped expression retains its terminal period. English supplies are for the French nominal compression, while the second clause stays compressed. Plural diseases and singular poison remain. [Diseases] contextually interprets mala[…]ies without recovering the incomplete d . The second February day remains wholly unresolved. The supplied are is ordinary English syntax, not a recovered French verb; English also supplies the comma inside the closing quotation.
T50. The second February day has only a broken rightward remnant; no complete digit is certified. The wrapped mala- continuation retains ies after an incomplete tall-stem/bowl component; the next paragraph retains a without a complete preceding l . Neither missing letter is supplied. The two indented paragraphs have no intervening separator. The first remains a nominal, question-shaped expression with terminal period, quoted remèdes phrase, plural damaged noun and singular poison. The second retains its separate quotation, question and repeated progrès .
T8. The separate second paragraph retains the quotation, both good terms and repeated progress. No answer is supplied to the initial question. Before vie , […]a retains only complete a ; the missing initial is not recovered. Interpreting the damaged article contextually as la has no separate lexical counterpart before generic English life, so no extra English article or empty bracket is supplied.
T9. The two infinitives, three life stages, within oneself and concluding nominal phrase remain. Manhood renders âge viril as a life stage, without a modern medical claim.
T51. The two infinitives, three ages and concluding nominal phrase remain in one undated unit. The initial of grands is abraded but its bowl/descender is identifiable in color; no extra loss marker is inserted.
T10. Prestiges is rendered enchantments in its contextual illusory sense, not modern prestige. The full parenthesis, three political objects, supposed, himself, some, however and at least remain. His keeps the reference open between the preceding ideas and words. Napoleon is the conventional English form of Napoléon ; no historical assessment is supplied by the editor. French retains doubled-l vallu . English had and spoke give idiomatic simple-past wording to the shared perfect a eu…et dit ; the relative annoncent remains present as betoken.
T11. Seal follows literal au sceau , however unusual; no conjectural secours is silently substituted. The full parenthesis, two double formulations and all four reversals remain. Only note corresponds to italic nota ; And and the surrounding parenthesis remain roman. Both source paroître forms retain their qualified circumflex contours. Our in in our eyes makes the ordinary implicit possessor of aux yeux explicit; it is not a recovered source pronoun. The qualified left starts in this paragraph are complete, with no new loss inserted.
T12. The nominal comparison, full parenthesis, in-a-way qualification and exhale/express contrast remain. Expresses preserves exprime ’s verbal form and its contextual pressing-out pun. Both raised-r titles use conventional Mr.; Bonnald keeps its doubled n , and names are not expanded. The date retains its complete first-day numeral and raised er . French italic exprime. includes the period; its English counterpart is expresses plus the terminal period, with them (rendering intact roman les ) and the closing parenthesis roman.
T53. The complete first-day numeral and raised er , both raised-r titles and literal Bonnald remain. In the French source, only exprime. is italic, through its period; the closing parenthesis is roman. The full parenthesis preserves en quelque sorte . A centered star follows this paragraph and precedes Ce monde ; no date or paragraph continuation is assigned to the following independently bounded unit.
T13. This and the other remain opposed without replacing the other with a named realm. Printed separators before and after establish an independent undated entry; it does not inherit March 1 from the preceding entry.