Diotimos Library · Journals, Notebooks & Fragments Collection · Bilingual Edition
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II
Complete Notebooks · French with an independent English translation.
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English Page · Branch 1849 of 4529
YEAR 1808 · Entry 5630
French
p. 3697Ce que nous appellons jardins anglois exige un soin journalier et presque de tous les momens. De larges et spacieuses allées s’embélissent par la négligence et l’abandon; leurs arbres en sont plus touffus. Et l’abandon qui est si souvent forcé peut toujours être volontaire.
Il n’y a qu’un labirinthe en maçonnerie qui fût un édifice assorti à ces jardins bizarres.
Si un édifice régulier est dominant, il doit rayonner de régularité pour ainsi dire en la jettant autour de lui à toutes les distances d’où l’on peut la voir aisément. Sans cet effet il paroit être déplacé et avoir une place indigne de lui.
A ces jardins irréguliers, un labirinthe pour habitation. Car un édifice est le centre. Or un centre doit être d’accord et en harmonie avec la circonférence qui n’est elle même qu’un point central développé. Dans le labirinthe de Crète aux jardins de * * *.
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II: YEAR 1808
p. 3698What we call English gardens requires daily and almost constant care. Wide and spacious avenues grow more beautiful through neglect and abandonment; their trees become thicker for it. And abandonment, which is so often forced, can always be voluntary.
Only a labyrinth of masonry would be a building suited to these strange gardens.
If a regular building dominates, it must radiate regularity, so to speak, casting it around itself to all the distances from which that regularity can easily be seen. Without this effect it seems out of place and to occupy a place unworthy of it.
For these irregular gardens, a labyrinth as a dwelling. For a building is the center. Now a center must be in accord and in harmony with the circumference, which is itself only a central point developed. In the labyrinth of Crete at the gardens of * * *.
Socrates
Reading The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II · YEAR 1808 · Entry 5630
Ask about a concept, passage, contradiction, or connection.
Socrates will begin with this book and its sources.About This Reading Edition
Joubert’s notebooks return to the work of thinking and writing, the demands of friendship, and questions of faith, beauty and conduct. This edition pairs the French with a new English translation, preserving the order of the chosen source and the unfinished character of its fragments. Dates and source references allow readers to follow a thought through time or return to its printed context.
Historical Text and Translation
The French text follows André Beaunier’s 1938 edition of Les Carnets de Joseph Joubert, published by Gallimard from Joubert’s autograph manuscripts. Volume II continues the notebooks and includes seventy undated pieces. French and English are aligned paragraph by paragraph, retaining the source order, printed dates and page references so readers can return to the facsimile.
About Diotimos Editions
Diotimos Editions prepared this new English translation directly from the French, preserving Joubert’s distinctions, recurring images, ambiguities and unfinished thoughts. Translator’s notes clarify wording, references and uncertain readings: Essential keeps notes that help explain a passage, while All includes technical detail. Annotations from the 1938 source edition remain distinct from the new translator’s notes.
Rights
The linked facsimile records identify the French source as public domain in the United States. The new English translation and editorial notes are © 2026 Diotimos, with source annotations and new editorial contributions credited separately. This edition pairs the complete French notebooks with an independent English translation, preserving the distinction between Joubert’s text and its accompanying notes.