Diotimos Reading Desk

Tap the page, move to the top or bottom edge, swipe down, or press Tab to reveal reading controls. Use the arrow keys or swipe sideways to turn pages.

← ExitThe Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II

Reading language

Mr. Hochet and Mme de Sévigné.

June 27.

Immortality of the soul. To impress the idea of it strongly upon us is to prove it. It [is] the same with God.

“Probabilities prove nothing,” someone has said.

June 29.

[…] Mr. Z. (Delalot) adds that Mme de Maintenon’s style is more classical than Mme de Sévigné’s. If by classical he means correct and methodical, he is right, and so right that this style can be learned and can be taught. Thus he is a thousand times wrong when he adds that the same style is more natural... Classical, or what can be taught. Classical, and what ought to be taught. These are the two qualities of the classical: transmissible and irreproachable. The latter quality does not always admit the other.

Wound and scourge. — “Their memory was a wound,” Chateaubriand used to tell me. — My imagination is a wound.

Thought and image. It is the difference between a single stroke and a figure.

July 1.

Dream. — Teaches one to endure pains.

July 2.

Dream. — To use letters wisely. The heart...

Wound. A balm may flow from it... The tree of Arabia.

July 3.

Mr. Dubuth said of gaiety that it was “the merit of rascals.” Although it is an advantage for everyone, it is indeed a merit only for those who have no other.

July 5.

There are many things that can make a man happy for an hour, for a day.

July 6.

Naturally, the mind refrains from judging what it does not know. It is vanity that forces it to pronounce when it would wish to be silent.

July 7.

Give cold minds, heavy minds, subtle and delicate doctrines, and you will see the strange misuse they will make of them. Cast a few vivid lights into a naturally dark mind, and you will see how far it will obscure them. Certain ideas in certain heads are like lighted candles that serve only to show the thickness and darkness of the lantern that contains them. Saint-Martin had his head in the heavens, but in cloudy and black heavens where the flashes escaping from them revealed only clouds. One makes a horrible mixture when one brings certain ideas into certain brains. One only makes their darkness more palpable. One makes chaos follow night there.

T226.The sentence equates strongly impressing the idea on us with proving it. The translation does not weaken proves into makes plausible or convert the claim into an added argument. [Is] follows Beaunier’s supplied [est]; the English uses lowercase [is] in its sentence.

T227.Classical is defined here through what can be taught and what ought to be taught, not restricted to Greek and Roman antiquity. The change from or to and remains, as do transmissible and irreproachable. The final claim that the latter quality does not always admit the other preserves the distinction rather than treating the two as equivalent. The opening bracketed ellipsis and the single paragraph’s continuation on the next page remain.

T1.Wound is repeated for plaie, distinct from fléau, scourge. The quotation’s possessive does not identify whose memory is meant; the English singular their leaves the person unnamed and does not assign a gender. My imagination is Joubert’s ensuing first-person statement, not part of the quotation. The later Their hope likewise leaves the possessor’s gender unassigned; French son before espérance does not establish a masculine owner.

T2.A single stroke and a figure preserve the visual contrast between thought and image. Trait is not replaced by a character trait or by a completed argument.

T3.The source prints Apprend without the final s of the regular imperative. The finite verb can mean learns to endure or teaches one to endure, with its subject unexpressed. The English adopts the teaching possibility without supplying a subject. Learn would instead interpret the form as an irregularly written imperative. The short dream record does not establish a speaker or settle the construction.

T226.The source prints Apprend without a final s, leaving a finite verb with no expressed subject or an irregular imperative form; no letter is silently added.

T4.To use retains the infinitive. Letters leaves lettres broad enough to include writing or literature without assigning a particular alphabet, correspondence, or book. The final heart fragment remains unfinished.

T227.The left edge partially damages the day digit, read as 2 from its visible outline. The final heart fragment is unfinished.

T5.A balm may flow from the wound: the possibility remains, and the tree of Arabia remains an incomplete image. No botanical species is supplied.

T6.The distinction is between an advantage for everyone and a merit only for those without another. Rascals renders polissons without assigning a specific age or act of misconduct. Dubuth follows the spelling printed here.

T7.Cold, heavy, dark, and palpable retain the distinct qualities of minds in the comparison. The lantern becomes more visibly opaque when lit. Saint-Martin’s head remains in dark heavens, and the final image makes chaos follow night rather than dispelling the darkness.