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← ExitThe Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II

Reading language

YEAR 1823

July 18.

Continuous elegance. Must elegance absolutely be continuous? It must be dominant. But must one not sometimes break it in discourse to bring out its value, as one breaks it in sounds, in colors, in the lines of architecture.

“But (he says) that produces feelings...” The rest produces ideas; and what produces ideas, etc. Add: — And what produces dispositions —. Greatness of mind is the constant disposition in which Corneille’s works place the soul of his readers.

Does one not sometimes grow bored oneself with one’s own elegance; can one not bore others with it? Would a continuous elegance not arise from care, attention, ambition and artifice that are too continual? A great question!

And note well that V.’s elegance is often only pomp.

One must put care where care is needed, and an appearance of negligence where negligence is needed. “Negligence, so necessary to my taste,” says Lafontaine. And indeed negligence is sometimes necessary.

This “continuous elegance” is only an agreed-upon elegance, an elegance one has prescribed for oneself, that one aspires to. Nature ceases to be there.

Even Fontanes’s elegance became too continuous.

In this continuous elegance, the ear is consulted more than thought.

“An enlightened mind.” Enlightened! One must be so, and feel that one is so, to understand fully the force of this expression.

August 8.

I had seen rightly 37 years ago: some do indeed paint or write to rid their minds of what torments them, and others to bring to light what has long been their delight. — I have said all this better elsewhere. (See the Pigal...)

August 16.

Those were not new dogmas; but a new and, if one wishes, a bad explanation of the old dogmas.

August 18.

Of Mme de Staël’s “strike-at-once.” In actors, in paintings, in music, in style. The “strike-at-once” is an exordium that precedes all exordiums.

August 24.

Write: of agriculture, with good nature; of law, with simplicity and probity; of politics, with gravity; of finances, with solidity; of morals, etc., with greatness; and of spiritual things, with spirit. Or rather, write of everything that is matter with solidity, and of everything that is spiritual with spirit.

T51.The repeated elegance/continuous terms, absolutely, dominant, sometimes and three final fields remain. Break preserves the repeated physical metaphor. The second question-shaped sentence keeps its source final period. French retains plain initial Elégance and distinguishes opening continue from the later continuë with its qualified paired upper e marks. All text is roman; July 18 is complete.

T52.The unspecified he/that, quoted fragment with printed ellipsis, ideas/dispositions distinction, manuscript Add instruction and dashes remain. His readers renders singular-owner ses lecteurs in relation to Corneille, rather than shifting possession to the plural works. The singular soul with plural readers preserves the collective phrasing. Literal sentimens remains in French; no omitted clause is supplied and the instruction stays inside the body.

T128.The printed quotation ellipsis, semicolon, etc., inline Ajouter and paired revision dashes followed by a period remain. Sentimens is literal; no omitted clause is supplied. All complete ordinary wraps remain roman. The source has singular-owner ses lecteurs after les ouvrages de Corneille, alongside singular l’âme and plural lecteurs. The construction is preserved rather than silently changing the possessive to leurs.

T53.The reflexive and own emphasis, possibility, conditional question, four causes and continuous/continual echo remain. English places a semicolon between the first two coordinated questions for readability, where the source has a comma. French retains s’ennuye-t-on, unhyphenated soi même, and the qualified paired upper e marks in continuë and continuëls. The six opening paragraphs remain one undated unit.

T54.Note well freshly translates nota bene; the introductory And, often-only restriction and opaque V. remain. The abbreviation is not expanded to an identity. Only note well is italic, corresponding to nota bene; the opening And and the surrounding English, including V., remain roman.

T55.The repeated care and negligence, appearance qualification, quoted nominal phrase and final sometimes remain. Necessary provisionally renders requise in context; no external poem wording is substituted. English moves the quotation’s following comma inside its closing mark.

T56.The quoted phrase, only restriction, repeated elegance, reflexive prescription and absence of nature remain. Agreed-upon contextually renders convenuë without reducing it to elegance in general. French retains continuë and convenuë with qualified paired upper e marks; the quotation and all other text in this paragraph are roman.

T57.Even, completed became and excess remain. English attaches even to the named example contextually; no date or work is inferred.

T58.The repeated phrase and more-than comparison remain. Consulted keeps the personified act rather than turning it into an abstract dominance claim.

T59.The quoted phrase, repeated exclamation, requirement both to be and feel oneself so, and force remain. English places the quoted period inside its closing mark.

T60.The past-perfect recollection, literal 37 years, paint/write alternative, torment/delight contrast, long duration and elsewhere self-reference remain. Pigal stays the source’s opaque title, with no guessed identity or link. The relative interval is not converted into a date. Canonical French has plain vu, without a certified circumflex. Only Pigal... is italic, including its attached printed ellipsis; See the and the enclosing parentheses remain roman. August 8 is the entry date, distinct from the 37-year interval.

T131.The complete 8 août and body interval 37 ans remain distinct; no calendar date is calculated from the interval. Original-size color and native 446 support plain vu, without a certified circumflex. The colon, comma and separate self-reference after the dash remain. Pigal remains opaque and italic with its attached printed three-point ellipsis; the enclosing Voir le and parentheses are roman. The small points have compressed reproduction contours, without a claim of a distinct authorial mark. No title expansion or cross-reference destination is invented.

T61.The negative contrast, two new terms, qualifying if-one-wishes and singular explanation remain. No unnamed dogma or historical dispute is identified. English plural Those were grammatically adapts source singular Ce n’étoit before plural dogmes; the French construction is not corrected. August 16 is complete.

T62.The nominal topic, repeated coined phrase, all four domains and exordium repetition remain. Strike-at-once provisionally renders frappe-d’abord as an initial impact, not an instruction to physical violence. Mme remains an abbreviated title; no additional attribution is authenticated. The source Mme is baseline, not raised; English retains that baseline abbreviation. English an supplies an ordinary grammatical article for literal est exorde, not a lost source word. Both coined quotations and all surrounding text are roman; August 18 is complete.

T63.All six subjects and corresponding manners remain, along with repeated of/with, the corrective Or-rather, all/everything and matter/spirit distinction. Good nature provisionally renders bonhomie; the spiritual/spirit echo retains more than mere wit. English uses semicolons consistently to separate the initial pairs. The first source list boundary is a comma, while the later list semicolons are already printed. English also supplies commas before etc., after spiritual things and before the final corrective and. French retains plain initial Ecrire, bonhomie and the qualified paired upper e marks in spirituëlles and spirituël. August 24 is complete; all text is roman.