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← ExitThe Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II

Reading language

YEAR 1821

The “will-o’-the-wisps” and the wise fires; the guiding or conducting fires, whose direction is sure. They have not been noticed. That is because they are in the traveler, and not in the path.

(Voyageur comes from voye, as if one said wayfarer, runner of paths.)

The fire called electrical acts without showing itself. One can compel it to appear; but it is chiefly by means of a transparent substance like a clear word.

Entrevoir is to see entre or through. (Entre or within. Introspicit, says the Latin.)

The mind born for discoveries: it scents truth as the [dog] scents game. The mind born for discoveries differs from the [mind] born for systems. The former sees by inspection, and the other [by] combination, weaves osiers, by interweaving, by intertexture.

Systems. Spiderwebs. At least, when the threads are silk... (Spiderwebs made with silk threads.)

Diamond, marble, iron. A little sand, a little sediment ([or] mud, which is a sediment or deposit of water), and a little impalpable [ash] whose grains are coagulated, agglomerated, glued [together] by a little gum or glue of unknown nature.

Everything is little and nothing is much when one looks at all [things] either from on high or from very close.

Buffon, a man [of a mind] thought great, [secretly] attributed an omnipotence to this shadow, this phenomenon, this phantom, this almost nothing or almost naught that we call matter, [the] great whole.

— And on this subject, the force of monosyllables. All the energy [and] [all] the concisions of our language lie in the skillful use [of] words of three or four letters and of one, two or three syllables: [everything], nothing, little, much.

T40.Will-o’-the-wisps gives feux follets its familiar English sense; the note preserves its wordplay with wise fires. Both guiding/conducting terms, sure, the negative and traveler/path contrast remain.

T125.All four indented paragraphs remain one unit; the parenthetic etymology is body text. Literal voye/chemineur and the attribution dit le latin are not expanded or independently authenticated. Source quotation marks surround only feux follets; the printed contrast and repeated fire terms remain. Paragraph 2 italicizes Voyageur and voye only; its parentheses, comma and connecting prose are roman. French paragraph 4 leaves initial Entrevoir roman, then italicizes entre, à travers., the parenthetic Entre, dedans. and Introspicit, through their stated punctuation. The intervening ou, parentheses and dit le latin are roman. The Intro-/spicit wrap is complete and joined without retaining the line-break hyphen. Original-size color confirms the qualified circumflex in paroître and the complete lower words/line endings. The source specialist directly read complete color 905 and the named original-size color/native 437 comparisons; no independent peer comparison is asserted.

T41.The parenthetic etymology remains a separate body paragraph. The French word-mentions voyageur and voye are retained so the asserted relationship is not falsely presented as an English derivation; they mean traveler and way here. Wayfarer and runner of paths freshly render chemineur/coureur de chemins. The etymology remains Joubert’s claim, not a verified derivation. Only retained Voyageur and voye are italic in both languages; the connecting prose, parentheses and comma are roman.

T42.The source’s electrical fire designation remains, with without, can, chiefly and the unexpected clear-word comparison. The claim is not rewritten in modern scientific terms.

T43.The wordplay requires the French word-mentions entrevoir and entre, meaning glimpse and between; they are retained in the body, with through translating à travers and within translating dedans. Introspicit remains the discussed Latin word and means looks within. No external Latin quotation is identified. Initial Entrevoir is roman. The italic English spans are entre, through with its period, parenthetic Entre, within with its period, and Introspicit with its comma. These correspond to the source italic entre, à travers with its period, Entre, dedans with its period, and Introspicit with its comma. The intervening or words, parentheses and final says the Latin are roman. The source line-wrap within Introspicit creates no lexical gap.

T44.The repeated mind-born and scent analogy remain, with the former/other distinction. [Dog], the later [mind] and [by] are contextual whole-word readings of chie[…], espri[…] and pa[…]; the visible preceding articles remain outside the English brackets, and no lost French ending is certified. Weaves osiers freshly translates vimina texit in the surrounding present-tense context; no external Latin source is used. Only weaves osiers and its following comma are italic, corresponding to vimina texit, including the source comma. Interweaving/intertexture retain the sequence rather than reducing it to combination. French preserves literal systhèmes and entremetement.

T126.The right edge retains chie, espri, pa and d, followed by incomplete or absent foreground contours; no full missing ending is certified. Both color and native 438 retain these limits. The discovery/system contrast, repeated scent relation and uncompleted quand construction remain. Literal systhèmes/Systhèmes, entremetement and soye remain. In the French source, only vimina texit, is italic, through the comma. The three points after soye are printed ellipsis, distinct from current loss markers; the complete parenthesis is roman.

T45.All nominal fragments, the dependent at-least condition, ellipsis and full parenthetic reformulation remain. No missing consequence is supplied. French d[…] before soye is incomplete. Its contextual relation is integrated into threads are silk, so it has no separate English word to bracket; this does not certify a lost French ending. Literal Systhèmes and soye remain in French. The three points after soye are printed ellipsis, not a reproduction gap, and the parenthesis is entirely roman.

T46.The three materials, four little terms, full explanatory parenthesis and three forms of joining remain. Impalpable and unknown preserve limits of perception/knowledge. The description remains the source’s, not a modern chemical account. [Or], [ash] and [together] are contextual whole-word readings of o[…], cendr[…] and ensembl[…], without certifying their missing letters. French aglomérés retains its literal spelling. English supplies the comma after the closing parenthesis and omits the source comma after impalpable as part of its reordered noun phrase.

T127.The clipped right ends retain o, cendr, ensembl, chose, secre, l, d and tou only. The small left-curved remnant after énergie does not certify a complete e or a whole conjunction, so that slot is wholly unresolved. The possible punctuation after tou is also lost; no comma is silently inserted into the French. Printed [d’un esprit] and suffix toute[s] are roman editorial supplements, distinct from the present reproduction gaps. Literal aglomérés has one g after the initial a; phantôme, appellons and singular est remain. No missing à is invented before the intact ce presque rien. The complete parenthesis, four un peu phrases, two numerical series and final examples remain.

T47.Everything/nothing/all and either/or remain, along with the two scales of looking. The apparent paradox is not explained away. [Things] contextually renders chose[…]; the broad English brackets cover the whole plural noun although the visible French stem remains intact and only its ending is lost.

T48.[Of a mind] corresponds to printed editorial [d’un esprit]. The indefinite omnipotence, repeated this, shadow/phenomenon/phantom progression and two almost terms remain. The assessment of Buffon is not externally certified. [Secretly] broadly renders intact en together with damaged secre[…]; it is not a claim that the whole French expression is lost. [The] before great whole interprets l[…] contextually. These loss brackets remain distinct from the printed editor supplement [of a mind]. French phantôme and appellons remain literal. The unprepositioned ce presque rien is retained in French rather than supplied with an invented à.

T49.The initial dash/And, nominal opening, both numerical series and final examples remain. [All] broadly represents printed toute[s], whose bracket supplies only a French agreement suffix; English has no separate suffix counterpart. The examples are translated for meaning, so their English lengths do not reproduce the French count; no claim of exact English syllable matching is made. The source’s tension between monosyllables and later three syllables is retained. [And] is a contextual reading of the wholly unresolved slot after énergie; no surviving conjunction is certified. [Of] renders damaged d[…] before mots, and [everything] contextually renders tou[…]. The comma after [everything] is English punctuation supplied where the damaged edge does not establish the source mark. English plural lie adapts the source singular est. The reproduction-loss brackets and printed editorial [all] remain distinct in origin.