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← ExitThe Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II

Reading language

UNDATED

32 (id.)

The expression of public reason ought to be found in manners as in laws. “We have thought that it mattered to the people’s happiness,” so laws should [speak]. “We have thought that it was required for leading an agreeable and gentle life,” so manners should speak. Thus the regard a citizen gains from the neat and cheerful appearance of his house is legitimate regard. There is no less merit in knowing how to use things well than in knowing how to speak well of them, and I rightly esteem the man who knows how to surround himself with life’s conveniences.

33 (Bundle 8.)

Do not exaggerate life’s evils to yourself, and do not fail to recognize its goods, if you seek to live happily.

34 (Same leaf.)

To be virtuous, it is not useless to make one’s testimony of oneself as satisfying as one can.

35 (id.)

The beauty of style depends on so many things! on the things one says; on the way one says them; on the feeling that animates us as we say them; on the impression we wish to produce through them. And above all on these last two things.

36 (id.)

What has corrupted human intelligence is the chimeras that have occupied it. What has corrupted human sensibility is... That is what has diverted human nature from its course.

37 (id.)

It is astonishing how far the human mind has gone backward since Plato. Only with infinite pains does it return to the point of light to which that philosopher had brought it. The moral notions of even our greatest geniuses have rarely attained and never surpassed the ideas of that Athenian who lived more than two thousand years ago. It seems that all the great truths of this kind slept throughout that time in the writings of that extreme spiritualist who carried his metaphysical errors as far as his political discoveries. Fortunately error and truth are so separate that the same mind can make great advances and great deviations. And that is what we see in Plato’s works. It ordinarily happens that the errors of great minds are less harmful than their discoveries are useful, were it only for this one reason: that, teaching us to walk with their step, which is the right one, accustoming us in their works to truth (for if they fall, it is only at the end of the course, in a manner of speaking), they teach us to judge them and their productions, and to see what they saw better than they themselves did. What has happened, on the contrary, is that so far people have adopted only Plato’s reveries on —..... the theologians employed them in the edifice of their absurd doctrine; and that people have rejected as chimeras all those truths so beautiful and so palpable, so to speak, about government, justice, etc., etc. One thing Plato knew little of is the nature of the arts and their destination. Apart from that, he seems to me to have gathered and fixed in his works everything that one [has] been able to know thus far of the science of government. One finds in him almost everything that has been thought since. Long attention to this matter. (That is written very limply, very loosely.)

38 (id.)

His hatred is weary and asks only to end.

T50.The initial conditional obligation, two personified declarations, repeated thought/regard/knowing, less-than comparison and first-person esteem remain. The first printed quotation tag is qualified parier, while the second is parler. First [speak] transparently interprets parier through contextual parler; this is an English emendation of an anomalous printed reading, not a reproduction-loss restoration or a claim that French l has been recovered. The second speak renders intact parler without brackets. Should in the two tags expresses present obligation in doivent, distinct from initial conditional faudroit. Neat and cheerful renders propre et riant without taking propre as ownership. Conveniences retains practical comforts, not a modern consumer category. English moves the two following commas inside the quoted declarations and supplies a comma before and I rightly esteem. French retains loix, scavoir twice, scait and the second quotation’s était. The entire paragraph is roman.

T51.Both prohibitions, reflexive to-yourself, evils/goods and the condition for living happily remain. Goods renders plural biens in its broad sense, not necessarily material possessions. French retains the three literal és endings in exagérés, méconnoissés and cherchés; ordinary English grammar does not silently correct those French forms. English supplies a comma before and, absent from the source. The body is roman, and the separate italic Liasse 8. label supplies no date.

T205.In the French source, printed item 33 retains all three literal és verb endings: exagérés, méconnoissés, cherchés. They are not normalized to ez in French. Both prohibitions, plural biens and the condition remain complete; roman body, separate italic Liasse 8. and null date.

T52.The litotes not-useless, purpose, as-much-as-one-can and testimony image remain. Testimony of oneself preserves the reflexive moral judgment without reducing it to self-esteem or inventing an audience.

T206.In the French source, printed item 34 retains the complete roman litotes, enclosed purpose phrase, present peut and reflexive testimony. Its separate italic Même feuillet. relation supplies no date. No source loss.

T53.The exclamation followed by a lowercase continuation, all four dependencies, one/us shifts, purpose and final priority for the last two remain. No single criterion replaces the sequence. French retains stile. The body is roman; the separate italic id. relation supplies no date.

T207.In the French source, printed item 35 is one roman paragraph under the separate italic id. label and null date. Literal stile and the lowercase des following the exclamation are retained; four dependencies and the final priority for the last two remain. No missing source words.

T54.The repeated causal construction, intelligence/sensibility/nature distinction, chimeras and course image remain. The second explanation stays unfinished at its printed three-point ellipsis; no cause or reproduction gap is invented. French retains singular c’est before plural les chimères without grammatical normalization. The complete paragraph is roman.

T208.In the French source, printed item 36 is one complete roman paragraph. The second c’est is followed by a printed three-point ellipsis before Voilà; no missing cause is reconstructed. Literal singular c’est before plural les chimères remains without French grammatical normalization.

T55.All comparative degrees, rarely/never, seeming, infinite pains, sleeping truths, shared step/fall/course and edifice images remain. Spiritualist is used in the philosophical sense favoring spirit, not a claim about séances. And to see retains the explicit coordination et à mieux voir after the act of judging. The comparative ne before sont utiles adds no separate English negative. The broken on —..... construction retains the printed dash and five points, not a reproduction loss, and the following polemical claim is not supplied with an unstated theology. Printed roman [a] becomes [has], distinct from a reproduction gap. Destination preserves an open relation of the arts to their end or purpose. Both final nominal attention and parenthetic self-criticism remain. English supplies them after employed as a contextual object relation; French employèrent has no explicit lexical object there. No external Plato interpretation is endorsed. French retains génies mêmes, rejetté, conuë and conoître with one n each, molement with one l, and plain A in A cela. The entire paragraph is roman.

T209.In the French source, printed item 37 is one long roman paragraph, including its final nominal sentence and parenthetic comment. Literal génies mêmes, unhyphenated temps là, rejetté, conuë with one n and paired upper e marks, conoître with one n and circumflex, and molement with one l are supported by original-size color/native. A cela retains plain capital A; paroît has its circumflex. The broken clause prints sur followed by a dash and five baseline points before les théologiens. These are printed omission marks, not a newly inferred reproduction gap. Employèrent has no explicit lexical object before à l’édifice; no omitted French word is supplied. The later [a] is a visible roman source-editor supplement. Both conditional/exceptional ne fût-ce and comparative ne before sont remain intact, without inventing an additional negative meaning. All paired qualifications, rhetorical degrees and the unresolved doctrinal gap remain. No external Plato text or interpretation is substituted.

T56.The unspecified possessor, personified weariness and asks-only-to-end restriction remain. No person or object of hatred is identified. Weary renders literal lassée; the French ending is not silently replaced by the shorter provisional form. The complete sentence is roman.

T210.In the French source, printed item 38 reads lassée with final ée, not the provisional navigation incipit lasse. The entire body is roman; the possessor remains unidentified and the restriction is intact.