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← ExitThe Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II

Reading language

UNDATED

48. (Bundle 26.)

1. It seems that among the ancients the letters they called humane were indeed more humane than among us. Their art of criticism was more indulgent, gentler, more favorable than ours. They were more inclined to approve.

2. They admitted three kinds: the sublime (or the great), the simple (or the small, the slight), and the middle (the temperate or the mediocre). All those, says Cicero, who distinguished themselves among the Greeks in any one of these three kinds “acquired great renown.”

3. These men who did such great things with speech, and for whom the art of speaking was a great power, held no work in low esteem in which speech was employed with skill. They admired art above all. And every work of which they could say to themselves art in it surpasses the material was in their eyes a masterpiece. They put [it] below nothing and placed it beside everything. In their judgments they seemed to have this maxim as their law: everything that excels must be put in the first rank.

4. And indeed, for practice and for utility, the art in a work is far above its subject. It is art that instructs. It is from art that one can enrich oneself. One can take its beauties away and place them elsewhere without taking anything from the works in which they are. Whether a painter has painted on canvas or on wood, the ground is nothing; drawing and colors are everything. (The Etruscans’ earthenware pots taught us to model gold and silver.

49. (Same leaf.)

Talent goes where the voice of praise is... It is the siren that leads it astray.

Excel and you will live.

— He has not been praised enough. True men of letters have seemed to think judging him beneath them. Treating him in a way with disdainful benevolence, they recommended him to the public and abandoned him to it.

No select library has had room for him on its shelves (or in its shelving). To avenge this unrecognized talent, I would like to tear from his poems the gold of engraving and the large paper lavished on them, and adorn the little tales with it...

Phaedrus is no more elegant, and N himself is no more true.

S1.Source editor’s annotationThis leaf bears this incomplete date: “March 21.”

T67.The numbered paragraph, seems, indeed, humane repetition, three comparisons and approving disposition remain. Humane letters preserves the play between literary studies and humane judgment rather than silently replacing the first term with humanities. All four Arabic paragraph numbers under item 48 are baseline main text, distinct from its raised heading annotation call. French retains appelloient and nôtre. The incomplete March 21 date belongs to the separate source annotation, not a new main date heading.

T76.The source editor’s date is retained with no year. It remains apparatus attached to item 48 rather than a newly invented main date heading; English places the period inside the quotation.

T220.In the French source, printed item 48 owns four Arabic-numbered paragraphs; the numbers are baseline main text. The heading call and incomplete-date annotation are separate from this main sequence. Literal appelloient, nôtre, jugemens, unhyphenated chef d’œuvre/au dessous/au dessus and plain Etrusques are retained. Only l’art y surpasse la matière in paragraph 3 is italic; it has no added quotation marks. The later [le] is a printed roman source-editor supplement. The unusual n’accordoient peu d’estime à aucun remains literal, without adding pas. Paragraph 4 opens a parenthesis before Les pots and reaches a terminal period after l’argent without any printed closing parenthesis. No close is supplied. The native target clips outer line ends; the complete full color page and adjacent color crop establish the complete text and unclosed boundary.

T221.In the French source, raised call 1 follows the printed item number 48 and precedes its separate baseline period. The annotation is one roman paragraph. Its incomplete date gives day 21/month March but no year and remains apparatus, not a main date heading. The final period follows the closing guillemet.

T68.The number, all three categories and every parenthetic alternative remain. Mediocre contextually retains the middle-range relation made explicit by moyen and tempéré here, without implying that the ancients praised bad writing or claiming a separately authenticated rhetorical classification. The reported Cicero quotation is translated from the French, not externally authenticated. English moves its terminal period inside the closing quotation mark; the entire source paragraph, including the quotation, is roman.

T69.Great things/power, every/no-work, skill and above-all remain. Held no work in low esteem is the contextual negative reading of the unusual n’accordoient peu d’estime à aucun; French remains literal and receives no inserted pas. Printed roman [le] becomes roman [it], a source-editor supplement rather than a reproduction loss. The below-nothing/beside-everything paradox and first-rank maxim remain. Only art in it surpasses the material corresponds to italic l’art y surpasse la matière; no quotation marks or adjacent punctuation are added to that emphasis. French retains jugemens and unhyphenated chef d’œuvre, au dessous and au dessus.

T70.The numbered And-indeed, practice/utility pair, far-above, enrichment and taking-without-taking paradox remain. Ground gives fonds its material painting-support sense in the canvas/wood context. The source opens the final parenthesis but prints no close after its terminal period; English retains that unfinished boundary. French has plain Etrusques. The body is roman, and no archaeology or modern materials account is supplied.

S2.Source editor’s annotationHere: “Room and an opportunity.” This perhaps relates, and is perhaps what was lacking, to the mysterious writer whose obscurity Joubert laments.

T71.The voice, printed three-point ellipsis, siren and astray relation remain. It refers to talent in the last clause; no specific writer is named. French retains syrène. The ellipsis is printed punctuation, not a reproduction loss; the body is roman.

T77.Both perhaps qualifications and the unidentified writer remain source-editor voice. Room is a provisional rendering of place, whose opportunity/space sense remains open; no identity or placement is invented. English moves the short quotation’s terminal period inside its closing mark. This complete roman annotation is attached to item 49’s heading and supplies no main date.

T223.In the French source, raised call 2 follows item 49 and precedes its baseline period. The complete annotation is roman, with period outside its short quotation and both peut-être qualifications. No writer is identified.

S3.Source editor’s annotationAnd: “And then the wit one wishes to have would no longer harm the wit one has.”

T72.The command and promised future remain without identifying a speaker or adding forever. The physical raised call after vivras has a qualified 8-like contour, while the attached printed annotation is numbered 3. Its attachment to that annotation is contextual, based on position and content; the call is not silently normalized and no annotation 8 is invented. The call precedes the existing main period; the source annotation stays separate.

T78.Both initial And terms, then, wishes/has and conditional no-longer-harm remain. Wit renders both occurrences of esprit consistently in this contrast, not as two different faculties. This is printed annotation 3, contextually attached to the qualified 8-like raised call after vivras; no missing annotation 8 or corrected call glyph is invented. The full annotation is roman, and its quoted terminal period already stands inside the French guillemet.

T74.No library, room, parenthetic alternative, first-person conditional wish, avenging and tear/adorn relation remain. The complete 1798 Académie Tablette and Rayon entries, directly read by the literary reviewer, give overlapping book-shelf senses. Shelves/shelving preserves the parenthetic variation without introducing a whole bookcase or asserting distinct kinds of furniture. The English collective shelving is a contextual choice, not a technical distinction established by the source. The possessive his and little tales remain unidentified; the difficult relation of the decorated poems to the tales is not repaired. French retains poësies with its diaeresis; the terminal three points are printed, not a reproduction loss. The body is roman.

S1.Source editor’s annotationHere: “Destroying a bird’s nest is not a crime, etc. What you show me in this way, I [disbelieve] and hate.”

T75.Both no-more comparisons and himself remain. Bare N matches the source capital without a following period and stays opaque; no particular author or work is inferred. Phaedrus is the conventional English name for Phèdre. English supplies the comma before and. The final raised source annotation call precedes the existing terminal period; the complete body is roman.

T79.The source editor’s quoted note stays separate from the main comparison. The printed italic Latin is Quod mihi ostendis sic innedatus odi. English [disbelieve] is a conjectural contextual emendation of anomalous innedatus through incredulus, recast as a finite verb coordinated with hate. It is not a translation of a certified incredulus spelling, a reproduction-loss restoration or a recovered French/Latin letter. The remaining Latin is freshly translated from this printed clause. The entire English Latin counterpart through its terminal period is italic, while the preceding French-derived sentence and enclosing quotation marks are roman. No published Horace translation, newly retrieved outside Latin witness or inferred relation to the unidentified N is supplied.

T225.In the French source, the raised call 1 follows vrai before its baseline period. This complete one-paragraph annotation prints roman French followed by italic Quod mihi ostendis sic innedatus odi. through the Latin period; enclosing guillemets are roman. Original-size color and native 458 support literal innedatus, not the preliminary contextual incredulus. No Latin letter is restored from an external witness and no reproduction loss is indicated. English [disbelieve] is explicitly disclosed as a conjectural contextual rendering through incredulus.