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← ExitThe Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II

Reading language

YEAR 1805

Addison, the wisest of critics and the most useful of censors.

The true poet has words that show his thought, thoughts that let his soul be seen, and a soul in which everything is pictured (distinctly). — They have a mind full of very clear images, while ours are filled only with confused descriptions.

January 31.

We think in haste and express ourselves with care, with study, with effort. It is a fault of the age.

In poetry, harmony is made through clarities, as in music through movements.

The breast struck. Blood is called to the heart. A mechanical gathering inward takes place. Feeling begins, concentrates itself. Its redoubling is excited.

Farewell, month of January 1805!

February 1.

To be better or to be worse depends on us. All the rest depends on God! such as glory, old age, and every kind of success.

When wit and charm are attached to some insult, one forgives (Mlle A... used to say) the pincushion for the sake of the pin; but insults without wit...

— coarse organs, obtuse attention, which need to be spoken to for a whole volume in order to be awakened. Those have declared war on beautiful pages.

... who, unable to make their own reputation, amuse themselves by making that of others.

Those conversations in which people of society come to exercise their talent, and men of letters to rest from theirs.

Those who bring into literature coarse senses or a rigid constitution.

T108.Censeurs here names evaluators or correctors of conduct and writing, rather than necessarily officials suppressing publication. Critics and censors remain distinct nouns.

T109.The source shifts from the singular true poet to plural They after the dash. Ours is plural in French and refers to minds. Signalemens means identifying descriptions rather than the images themselves; the Académie’s 1798 definition gives a description of outward appearance intended for recognition.

T110.The plural clartés is kept as clarities, parallel to the plural movements. The English does not turn either term into a single abstract quality or an explanatory theory of musical harmony.

T111.The opening is a nominal fragment. Gathering inward renders recueillement as inward attention, not recollection of a memory. Machinal remains mechanical, and the passive calling of blood and exciting of redoubled feeling preserve the stated sequence without adding a medical explanation.

T112.This is Joubert’s own sentence, not an editorial date heading. The year is retained inside the text; no particular day is inferred for it.

T333.This farewell is author text, not a separately printed day heading; no day is inferred for the block.

T113.Pelotte is read as a pincushion in the presence of épingle, a sense documented by the Académie in 1798. The unexpected direction of forgiveness is preserved: the pincushion is forgiven for the pin’s sake. The English does not reverse those objects to make the image seem more obvious. Mlle A... remains abbreviated and the final contrast unfinished.

T114.The opening coarse organs and obtuse attention remain the grammatical subjects requiring prolonged address. The subsequent Those is not replaced by an invented class of readers. The full volume contrasts with individual beautiful pages.

T115.People of society and men of letters name two groups using conversation differently. The latter rest from the exercise of their literary talent rather than abandoning it. The nominal sentence remains unfinished.

T116.Organisation denotes bodily or sensory constitution here, in parallel with coarse senses, not an institution or administrative arrangement.