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← ExitThe Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II

Reading language

Mr. Hochet and Mme de Sévigné.

“At a time when the prevailing taste was not yet very pure, women who wrote in this way in the presence, so to speak, of so many listeners necessarily had to affect” why affect and not have “a certain refinement in their style, and often be witty with effort.” why with effort? they had more wit than the subject demanded, but not more than they could supply. “Mme de Sévigné herself had not been able entirely to escape this bad taste.” Why bad taste? it would at most have been a bad fashion. Mr. Hochet continues: “Those of her earliest letters that remain to us and date from her youth have something stiff and affected about them” that is strong, very strong, far too strong. Where did Mr. Hochet find that? “which one scarcely finds again” scarcely is too little “in the letters of Mme de Grignan. But when she had imposed on herself the happy rule of writing to her daughter every day” this rule would have been happy for us, but Mme de Sévigné never wrote to Mme de Grignan every day, “her first efforts have become, through this frequent and intimate correspondence, natural ways of moving.” It is certain that frequency brings facility, and that Mme de Sévigné must have written better once she had written much. That is what Mr. Hochet’s observations finally come down to. “The abundance and liveliness of her style increasing through habit, every appearance of labor has disappeared” that always happens “and the charming abandon, the extreme facility, has left only originality to be seen in many strokes which in themselves would seem bizarre or affected.” Mr. Hochet is severe. There is scarcely a stroke of wit that would not seem affected and bizarre if it were not skillfully put to use... “But this style, not being essentially simple and frank” only the style of the people is essentially simple and frank “would necessarily ruin all who wished to imitate it.” No, for the characteristics of this style are always boldness united with kindness, gaiety, moderation. “That is why, when in a certain class of society it was a general aspiration to write in imitation of Mme de Sévigné” when did this aspiration exist? “all letters of this kind, even those written by women of great wit” who were these women? and where are these letters? “had nothing in them but what was false and mannered.” That is because the imitation would have borne no resemblance. “Mme de Sévigné must be counted among the writers who stand apart” Mr. Hochet makes her an author by profession “who have created for themselves a very original manner, very different from that simple and natural style” one can be natural without being simple “which generally distinguishes great writers.” No great writer has ever had, throughout a whole book, a simply simple style. “Good taste condemns this manner” good taste would condemn what was in its place and suited to the subject, the time, the writer, and what charms everyone “unless genius has left its imprint on it,” it is certain that one must do nothing very striking unless one does [it] very well, “for genius causes everything to be absolved.” Because where there is genius there is naturalness, although simplicity is often lacking. Mr. Hochet, you whom one sometimes reads with pleasure, though a little long, are you natural and do you have genius? No, but you have sincerity, and in all sincerity there is a little naturalness, a little simplicity, and a little genius, because there is a little of the feelings and mind that are our own... (Erratum: sincerity, add literary.)

April 27 in the evening.

How are children made?

They are born of certain kisses that, to be innocent, need to be sanctified by marriage. Or else: they are born of certain embraces permitted only to married people, and performed with such force that merely thinking of them could bring death to those who have not yet reached their twenty-first year. Or else: my son, they are born […] certain embraces permitted only to married people and performed with such force that they could bring death to those who dared to indulge in them before reaching the age of 21. One cannot understand them and is not permitted to think of them. By force, they are called rape or violence. That is why you read in the authors, overpowered by force. These embraces dishonor those women who suffer them even against their will. Thus the authors say, he defiled a maiden: he has defiled this young girl.

These heaps of thoughts have precisely the effect on the mind that colors too dark and poorly diluted would have on the eyes. It is a chiaroscuro that is too somber.

Who thinks for the sole pleasure of thinking? who examines for the sole pleasure of knowing?

April 28.

What paints for the mind and not what paints for the eyes. For example, red paints for the eyes; the rose’s rosy red paints for the mind, because this name has in fact passed through the mind and has been, as it were, tinged by its reflection. It is therefore not so much from nature as from the soul that one must paint.

Youth loves every kind of imitation; but maturity wants them well chosen, and old age now wants only beautiful ones.

April 29.

Everything bright that passes before the eyes without giving one time to look at it dazzles. Shadow must follow the flash for it to be bearable.

April 30.

Regularity seems able to arise only from a design, a thought. When it is the effect of chance, that chance resembles foresight.

May 3.

In literary debates, “strike neither at the head nor at the heart”: an ancient law of chivalry recalled by Chateaubriand.

S1.Source editor’s annotationThis small essay of criticism comes from a separate notebook, which is undated but relates without any doubt to the date where I place it. It ends with this mention: “See the notice on Mme du Châtelet by Mr. Hochet, at the head of the letters to Mr. d’Argental. Paris, 1806.” Joubert read this notice and this collection in April 1806, for in the notebooks of that period he gives one or two extracts from the letters of Mme du Châtelet to Mr. d’Argental. And there, on April 27, he mentions Mr. Hochet’s remarks about Mme de Sévigné.

T134.The printed essay alternates Hochet’s quoted words with Joubert’s running objections inside one continuous paragraph. Quotation marks and corresponding italics distinguish those voices. No speaker label or new paragraph is inserted at each interruption.

T135.Affect means putting on a quality, opposed here to simply having it. Refinement renders recherche without deciding in advance that it is a fault. Wit, effort, taste, and fashion remain distinct in Joubert’s objections.

T136.The facsimile reads les lettres de Mme de Grignan; the English retains of rather than silently changing it to to. The next discussion explicitly concerns Sévigné’s writing to her daughter. The claims about frequency are Joubert’s argument and are not supplemented with an invented date or count.

T137.The style of the people renders populaire, rather than implying merely that a style is widely liked. Simple and natural remain distinct, and simply simple preserves the source’s repetition. Natural ways of moving retains the movement in allures naturelles.

T138.The imitation would have borne no resemblance preserves the conditional reply, rather than asserting a documented body of failed imitations. Writers who stand apart, an author by profession, and genius remain Hochet’s and Joubert’s contrasting categories. The supplied [it] corresponds to Beaunier’s [le].

T139.The repeated a little is retained for naturalness, simplicity, genius, and the writer’s own feelings and mind. Joubert’s closing Erratum instructs the addition of literary to sincerity. That instruction remains part of his paragraph rather than being silently implemented throughout it.

T140.Beaunier explicitly identifies a separate undated notebook and infers its placement from Joubert’s April 1806 reading and April 27 mention. His confidence is preserved in the translated apparatus, but the essay remains marked undated. The ending reference described by Beaunier is not inserted into the main paragraph where he does not print it.

T317.The single paragraph alternates italic quoted wording and roman commentary across pages 550–551. No new paragraph is created at the page break. The source’s punctuation after quotations and lowercase continuations are retained. The supplied [le] belongs to the printed source. The final Erratum and instruction to add littéraire are part of the author-text paragraph as printed; the addition is not silently inserted into earlier sincerity occurrences. The source annotation identifies an undated separate notebook and places it here by inference. It does not establish a new author-written day heading.

T318.The source editor’s confident date placement is an inference from reading circumstances and the carnet’s April 27 mention. The quoted 1806 and April 1806 remain bibliographical/contextual dates. The ending mention described in this note is not added to the main paragraph.

T319.The bracketed roman [carnet] follows the italic evening date and remains in that position. It marks return from the preceding separate critical essay. In the third formulation, the word between ils naissent and certains is heavily crossed or overwritten. Two independent inspections of the enlarged facsimile cannot securely establish its underlying printed letters; […] marks that loss. A handwritten de appears in the right margin, with authorship not established, and is not silently substituted as printed text. The three alternative explanations, both age formulations, the prohibition and the concluding Latin/French formulations are retained in the single second paragraph as historical source content.

T141.The repeated Or else introduces alternative formulations within one paragraph. The two age expressions differ in the French and remain twenty-first year and age of 21. The claims about mortal danger and dishonor are part of the explanation Joubert records, not statements supplied by the translator. My son is retained without identifying an actual addressee.

T142.Overpowered by force translates vi compressa, a feminine participial phrase; he defiled a maiden translates vitiavit virginem. Joubert then gives his own French gloss, rendered he has defiled this young girl. The change from Latin to French remains visible in the source and the two formulations are not collapsed in English. No particular ancient author is named here.

T143.The […] marks a word between they are born and certain embraces whose printed letters cannot be read securely beneath an intervention in the facsimile. A handwritten de appears in the margin, but its authorship is unestablished; it is not substituted for the illegible text. The resulting gap in the English is intentional.

T144.The Académie’s 1798 dictionary defines incarnat as a color between cherry color and rose color. Rosy red makes that specific color available in English while retaining the contrast between bare red and a color named through the rose. Reflection belongs to the mind; the phrase as it were preserves the qualification in s’est comme teinte.

T321.The initial Ce qui formulation remains a fragment.

T145.The source compresses the attachment of pour être supportable, for it to be bearable. The English keeps that attachment open rather than explicitly naming either the flash or the shadow as its subject.

T146.The attribution of this rule of chivalry to Chateaubriand’s recollection is Joubert’s. No particular work or historical law is identified by the entry. Head and heart remain the two targets in its literary application.