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 IIThoughts of Plato, in the Theaetetus. · Entry 4421

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Thoughts of Plato, in the Theaetetus. · Entry 4421

Translator notesBook Mode

French

p. 1279

Pensées de Platon, dans le Théétète.

« La beauté de son naturel ». Les anciens prenoient grandement garde à cette qualité. Par ces anciens, j’entends les Grecs, les Athéniens; car les Latins en parloient peu.

« Pénétration d’esprit, douceur, courage ». C’étoit là ce qui fesoit la perfection de l’homme aux yeux du Socrate de Platon. La douceur qui rend l’homme pacifique dans la cité et agréable aux citoyens, le courage qui le rend ferme dans les maux, modéré dans les plaisirs même et redoutable aux ennemis, la pénétration d’esprit qui le rend délicieux à ses amis dans la conversation et parfait dans sa propre vie en lui faisant toujours appercevoir et faire ce qui est le mieux. C’étoit là surtout le bonheur de la vie privée selon Platon : converser et connoître. Il penchoit à croire que les vertus sont des sciences. — Il loue ailleurs comme le plus beau des naturels dans un jeune homme la vivacité unie à la docilité. — La vivacité vient de la nature. On ne l’acquiert guères; mais la docilité s’apprend par le pli qui peut donner de la souplesse à ce qui n’en a pas. La vivacité use de peu de temps et en consomme peu. Elle le laisse à la lenteur qui peut, si elle en scait bien user, tout faire avec de grands espaces.

The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II: Thoughts of Plato, in the Theaetetus.

p. 1280

Thoughts of Plato, in the Theaetetus.

“The beauty of his disposition.” The ancients paid great attention to this quality. By these ancients I mean the Greeks, the Athenians; for the Latins spoke little of it.

“Penetration of mind, gentleness, courage.” This was what made a man perfect in the eyes of Plato’s Socrates. The gentleness that makes a man peaceful in the city and agreeable to its citizens, the courage that makes him steadfast in misfortunes, moderate even in pleasures, and formidable to enemies, the penetration of mind that makes him delightful to his friends in conversation and perfect in his own life by always making him perceive and do what is best. This above all was the happiness of private life according to Plato: to converse and to know. He inclined to believe that the virtues are sciences. — Elsewhere he praises vivacity united with docility as the most beautiful of dispositions in a young man. — Vivacity comes from nature. One scarcely acquires it; but docility is learned through the fold that can give suppleness to what has none. Vivacity uses little time and consumes little of it. It leaves it to slowness, which can, if it knows how to use it well, do everything with great stretches of it.

T1.This printed heading and the following entries belong to the undated exercise book described in Beaunier’s note on page 530. Its approximate placement at the end of 1805 is the source editor’s inference. No individual entry dates are supplied. References to Plato remain Joubert’s quotations and comments, not a replacement translation of the dialogue.

T17.The printed heading is separate from the two body paragraphs. The first paragraph crosses pages 531–532; no separator precedes Pénétration d’esprit. The description beginning La douceur retains its extended verbless coordination; no governing assertion is supplied.

T2.Disposition renders naturel; docility retains the capacity to learn and be guided, not merely passive obedience. The fold and suppleness preserve the image of habituation. The extended sentence beginning The gentleness remains without a governing main clause, as in the French.

T3.Sciences retains Joubert’s term for branches or forms of knowledge, which is broader than modern experimental science. His later qualification that Plato is not precisely of this opinion remains in its own entry. Great stretches of it makes explicit that the final espaces are stretches of time.

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.