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← ExitThe Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II

Reading language

YEAR 1821

Wednesday, October 17.

(At Villeneuve.) Leibnitz’s idea that “the soul is a mirror,” that is to say, no doubt, a substance in which everything is pictured. And this everything must be restricted to what is analogous to it, or of the same nature as it. (I had never noticed this.) And why indeed, when a mirror or a little polished matter, a little glass with a metal applied to it, can receive and reflect the whole world or all matter, with all its shapes or all its diversities, should a spiritual unity placed in the midst of everything not reflect God, who is supreme intelligence, and the ideas within him as a sort of shapes, and not see them by looking within itself? For this mirror, as intelligence, becomes an eye. Had Leibnitz said God instead of the universe, he would have been understood.

The sun pictured in a drop of dew.

It is in this way, it seems to me, that Leibnitz wished to explain Plato’s recollections and the innate ideas of the moderns. He did not explain himself clearly, nor even intelligibly.

By the nature of our [soul], God pictures himself with his ideas in this little intelligible roundness, just as, by the nature of a mirror, an entire room pictures itself in it with its furniture, its pictures, etc.

As the world is pictured in the eye, so God pictures himself in our soul. The mirror is unaware of the image: it cannot reflect upon itself; the soul can look within itself. But what is within us is obscure and can only make itself believed; what is outside can be seen, but does not make itself any better felt by consciousness. God is ceaselessly present to us; his image is always within us, even when it is not seen, because one looks outside.

Although an idea is obscure, it can suffice to guide us, because one can feel it well. It acts upon us from within.

Physical or visible truths, the facts of matter, are not pictured in our soul, but in our senses; and it is there that the soul sees them. Spiritual truths are pictured only in God, who is an intelligence, and it is there that we see them, we who are a mixed intelligence.

Note. Elaterium. This word is apt. — When one wishes to represent the action of this quality to oneself, one involuntarily pictures the play of an elastic spring that would be placed somewhere in the region of our flanks and linked, one knows not how, by its middle to our center, from which its movements would proceed; and whatever one does, one thinks this way if one wishes to be clear and to understand oneself. And it is upon this underlying idea that the mind secretly rests if it understands the following discourse, which everyone can understand: “It is the tendency toward the good, the promptness to grasp it and the constancy in willing it. It is the intensity, suppleness and firmness of the spring that sets this tendency in play; it is the liveliness, force and rightness of the impulses that this goal puts into exercise; it is, I say, all these elements that, like so many characters, form by their combinations the intrinsic rate of man and determine his value.”

In a single point. Here the underlying idea is different. Our bosom is a compass whose needle [is] our tendencies. Our end is the north point; and the needle’s deviations or right direction toward our end make our merit or our demerit, and that merit our worth.

Sunday, October 21.

(Unable to bear any more.)

T19.The nominal opening, place cue, quoted formula, no doubt, full first-person parenthesis, repeated And and extended question remain. All repeated everything/all and alternatives remain. Pictured keeps the image relation of se peint; the later mirror/eye change is not explained away. The literal plural-shaped verroit-elles, including its final s, is retained in French; English takes the singular spiritual unity as the shared subject contextually, without emending the source agreement. Spiritual unity placed in the midst grammatically integrates et placée without a separate English and. French c’est à dire is unhyphenated. English moves the comma inside the closing quotation after mirror. Only the final God and universe correspond to italic Dieu and univers; the preceding English the remains roman. No external Leibnitz doctrine is substituted. The complete Wednesday, October 17 date governs all nine separate paragraphs of this unit across 903–904, while the place cue stays in the first body paragraph.

T117.The complete weekday/date and body place cue govern nine distinct paragraphs, the first on 903 and the next eight on 904 before the following separator. No page-boundary punctuation or artificial entry split is inserted. The nominal opening, parenthetic first-person comment, long question and final counterfactual remain. Literal verroit-elles follows singular unité and ne réfléchiroit-elle; the complete color word shows the final s. No agreement emendation is made. C’est à dire has no supplied hyphens; the complete l’intelli-/gence wrap is joined. In the French source, the final Dieu and univers alone are italic; the preceding article in l’univers is roman. On 904, [âme] and [sont] are printed editorial supplements, not newly claimed image losses. The two upper components of vuë remain identifiable in the original-size color crop. Literal scait, mouvemens, s’appuye and élémens remain; complete wraps are joined. French paragraph 5 has a colon after image and another after lui; the second is not silently normalized to a semicolon. French paragraph 8 retains only Nota. L’élaterium. in italics, through both periods. The following explanation and full quotation are roman. French paragraph 9 begins with italic En un seul point., through its period; all remaining words are roman. The complete color 903/904 pages and listed original-size color/native 435 rectangles have been directly read. Native 435 confirms the code/date contours but is less complete than color at several left starts. No independent peer glyph comparison is claimed by this checkpoint.

T20.This is a separate nominal paragraph, not a continuation of the preceding sentence; the source date and owner continue across the page boundary.

T21.The first-person qualification, wish, two philosophical terms and escalating negative remain. Recollections renders réminiscences without importing a preexisting translation of Plato; the evaluation remains Joubert’s.

T22.[Soul] corresponds to printed editorial [âme], not a recovery from damaged reproduction. Both by-the-nature phrases, reflexive picturing, with, little/entire and the repeated picture relation remain. Roundness preserves the peculiar image rather than substituting sphere or mind.

T23.The repeated picturing, mirror/eye/soul distinction and reflection’s double sense remain. Only, any better, ceaselessly, always, even and the final because retain their scopes. Consciousness contextually renders conscience; the difficult make-itself-believed formulation is preserved. The French has a colon after image and another after lui; English retains the first and uses a semicolon after itself for the second. Literal vuë remains in French with its qualified paired upper marks; it is not an English reproduction-loss counterpart.

T24.The concession, two can terms, suffice, because and separate final sentence remain. Feel it well is kept rather than silently changing feeling into clear intellectual knowledge.

T25.Physical/visible alternative, negative versus only, repeated pictured/there/intelligence and final mixed remain. The appositional facts of matter is not recast as a modern theory of evidence.

T26.The historical sense of Elaterium remains unresolved here. The following elastic-spring comparison is the secure local context; no medicinal meaning is supplied. A bounded search yielded indexed primary context, but the complete entry and its edition could not be directly verified. The full spring/flanks/middle/center image, conditional verbs, indefinite somewhere, involuntary character and repeated understand remain. Underlying idea renders arrière-idée without a claim about unconscious psychology. Every quality in the quotation, repeated It is, I say and rate/value distinction remain; no external quotation source is authenticated. Intrinsic rate remains a marked contextual rendering of taux, supported by the 1798 Académie entry’s established commodity price, regulated interest rate and assessed tax amount senses; these provide a valuation or assessment range without uniquely determining Joubert’s metaphor, and the later value remains distinct. The complete opening Note. Elaterium., including both periods, corresponds to italic Nota. L’élaterium.; the explanation and full quotation remain roman. French scait, mouvemens, s’appuye and élémens remain literal. These source spellings do not resolve the historical lexical uncertainty.

T27.The opening emphasis, changed underlying image, bosom, compass and repeated end remain. English reverses the source’s our tendencies [are] the needle to give an idiomatic whose construction; [is] retains the printed editorial verb supplement rather than disguising it as ordinary added English. The last clause remains compressed; merit/demerit/worth are not merged. The complete opening In a single point., including its period, corresponds to italic En un seul point.; the rest of this paragraph is roman.

T28.The entire body stays parenthetical and fragmentary, without an invented I or object. It is a genuine main paragraph beneath its own date, not an empty date marker.