Diotimos Library · Journals, Notebooks & Fragments Collection · Bilingual Edition

Joseph Joubert

The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II

Name: The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II
Author: Joseph Joubert

Complete Notebooks · French with an independent English translation.

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The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume IIYEAR 1814 · Entry 7218

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French Page · Branch 3437 of 4529

YEAR 1814 · Entry 7218

Translator notesBook Mode

French

p. 6873

L’aveu est l’instrument de l’expiation. Aux crimes publics, la pénitence publique; aux secrets, la confession. — On manifestait alors son repentir, on révèle aujourd’hui son délire. On étoit puni par une exclusion publique, on l’est par une honte qui est secrète, mais intime, mais poignante.

In aquæ et spiritu. C’est à dire l’extérieur et l’intérieur. C’est l’esprit qui lave l’esprit comme l’eau lave le corps.

Pauci electi. Peu sont ministres, coopérateurs ou parfaits; mais heureux encore les simples appelés, les introduits, les soufferts, les pardonnés.

Entre les « vases d’élection », comme ils disent, et les ustensiles communs admis dans les festins du père de famille, il n’y a pas d’opposition.

Réprouvés, peut être pour ne pas s’en servir, mais non pas pour être détruits, jettés dehors.

The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II: YEAR 1814

p. 6874

Avowal is the instrument of expiation. For public crimes, public penance; for secret ones, confession. — Then one showed one’s repentance; today one reveals one’s delirium. One was punished by a public exclusion; one is punished by a shame that is secret, but intimate, but piercing.

In water and spirit. That is to say, the exterior and the interior. It is spirit that washes spirit as water washes the body.

Few are chosen. Few are ministers, cooperators or perfect; but happy still are those merely called, those brought in, those tolerated, those forgiven.

Between the “vessels of election,” as they say, and the common utensils admitted to the feasts of the father of the household, there is no opposition.

Rejected, perhaps so as not to be used; but not to be destroyed, cast out.

T147.Avowal keeps aveu distinct from the later confession. Public/secret, then/today, repentance/delirium and the two punishment modes remain. Both final but clauses preserve the emotional progression. English semicolons articulate the contrasting clauses; no medical diagnosis or specific penitential practice is independently asserted. French manifestait and étoit retain their different spellings. This undated unit is not given the preceding entry’s 31 December date.

T248.Five paragraphs remain in this undated unit: the first ends on 810 and the next four are separately indented on 811 before its first star. The page break does not create a new entry, and the date 31 is not reprinted here. The first paragraph preserves the public/secret relations, dash, then/now tense contrast and repeated mais qualifications. Manifestait literally has ai, distinct from the printed étoit. No spelling is harmonized. The second paragraph begins with italic In aquæ et spiritu. The native/color glyph is the æ ligature, not plain a, so the Latin form is retained without normalization; its grammatical relation is not repaired. The following French explanation is roman and has spaced C’est à dire, both exterior/interior and spirit/body comparisons. The third begins with italic Pauci electi. Both Latin runs include their terminal periods. In the French source, the three finite predicate nouns, following nominal happiness clause and four admitted/tolerated/pardoned terms remain, with no added finite verb in the latter. The fourth keeps only vases d’élection in quotation marks and the non-opposition formulation. The fifth preserves the nominal Réprouvés, spaced peut être, both negative constructions and literal jettés with tt. Original-size color/native 811 margins leave qui/heureux/pardonnés/communs/position/être identifiable at a qualified level, without restoring lost initials or inventing new gaps.

T148.The opening Latin is freshly interpreted in its water/spirit context. The source explicitly prints the æ ligature in In aquæ et spiritu.; that irregular form after in remains unchanged, rather than being normalized to aqua. The complete Latin sentence and the complete English counterpart are italic through their periods. The following explanation is roman. Both washing formulations and the exterior/interior pair remain; no external biblical witness is identified. This paragraph starts on 811 within the preceding unit.

T149.The opening Latin is freshly rendered with an ordinary English copula. Few repeats; the three selected roles and four subsequent groups remain. Happy still preserves heureux encore without making an unqualified promise. Cooperators and perfect retain their technical possibilities. Pauci electi. and Few are chosen. alone are italic through their periods; the remaining paragraph stays roman.

T150.The quotation, as-they-say qualification and negative relation remain. Election preserves the theological selection term; common utensils, plural feasts and father of the household retain the domestic image. No precise scriptural locus or group is identified.

T151.The nominal/participial opening, perhaps, both negative purposes and final two participles remain. Rejected takes réprouvés in the theological reprobation discussion without making destruction the meaning the sentence explicitly denies. The pronoun’s referents are left open between the preceding vessels and the people figured by them; no new subject is supplied. The source’s negative s’en servir is recast passively as not to be used, with its unnamed user unexpanded. Literal peut être and jettés remain unchanged in French.

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.