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 7141

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English Page · Branch 3360 of 4529

YEAR 1814 · Entry 7141

Translator notesBook Mode

French

p. 6719

30 novembre.

La foy (la simple foy, ce qu’ils appellent la foy du charbon[…] Elle est comme l’honneur (ou plutôt comme l’innocence) : ...une île escarpée et sans bords, où l’on ne rentre plus quand on est en dehors. Mais, de même que quand l’innocence est perduë on a la cha[…] par l’innocence vouluë des plaisirs, de même après l’incrédulité […]vertie on a la foi par l’abstinence de tout examen et la suppre[…] volontaire de tous les doutes.

Après une incrédulité raisonnée, on a la foi comme après la […] de l’innocence on a la chasteté par choix et par la volonté. […] prive des plaisirs, non qu’on les craigne, non qu’on ne les d[…] non qu’on ne les trouve agréables; et on détourne son attention de[…]ficultés, non qu’on ne les trouve fortes, non qu’on n’y ait senti […] difficulté, non qu’elles n’offrent quelque apparence à notre esprit.[…] on s’éloigne d’eux et on éloigne de soi les unes et les autres, […] qu’on se trouve à Dieu et au bonheur et au repos plus sûremen[…] la chasteté et la foi que par les désirs et l’irréligion.

The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II: YEAR 1814

p. 6720

November 30.

Faith (simple faith, what they call the [charcoal burner’s] faith[…] It is like honor (or rather like innocence): ...a steep island without shores, which one never reenters once one is outside. But just as, when innocence is lost, one has [chastity] through willed innocence of pleasures, so, after unbelief has been [converted], one has faith through abstaining from all examination and voluntarily [suppressing] all doubts.

After reasoned unbelief, one has faith as, after the [loss] of innocence, one has chastity by choice and by the will. [One] denies [oneself] pleasures, not because one fears them, not because one does not [desire] them, not because one does not find them agreeable; and one turns one’s attention away from [difficulties], not because one does not find them strong, not because one has not felt […] difficulty in them, not because they offer no appearance to our mind. […] one draws away from them and keeps both the one and the other away, [because] one finds oneself with God and in happiness and repose more [surely through] chastity and faith than through desires and irreligion.

T24.The two embedded roman verse lines remain inside the first prose paragraph, with their initial printed ellipsis and return to prose. Rather corrects honor to innocence; steep and without shores preserve the unusual image. Willed innocence of pleasures follows l’innocence vouluë des plaisirs without changing innocence to ignorance. [Charcoal burner’s], [chastity], [converted] and [suppressing] are contextual whole-word or phrase renderings of charbon[…], cha[…], […]vertie and suppre[…]. Suppressing gives a verbal counterpart to the damaged French nominal form. The first source gap also leaves the initial parenthesis’s closure unknown: the extra […] after faith exposes that unresolved punctuation rather than silently closing it. Both English marks correspond to this one French gap; the separate innocence parenthesis is intact. A bounded direct French comparison supports a modified echo of Boileau’s Satire X, but not restoration of his longer wording; the source’s altered second line remains. The complete local source-control scope is recorded separately.

T171.Two physical paragraphs remain. Paragraph 1 includes the two centered roman verse lines and the unindented return Mais within the same paragraph; internal line breaks preserve this display without inventing a third paragraph. The printed leading ellipsis, comma after bords and period after dehors remain, with no added quotation marks. The first parenthesis is opened before la simple foy; any closing punctuation after charbon is lost and is not supplied. The second parenthesis around ou plutôt comme l’innocence is intact. The first paragraph retains foy three times, later foi, the literal phrase l’innocence vouluë des plaisirs and the repeated comparison. It is not silently changed to ignorance or another expected noun. Perduë and vouluë have distinct paired upper e components. Right-edge losses remain after charbon and cha, before next-line vertie and after suppre; no charbonnier, chasteté, con or ssion is supplied. The last complete letters remain qualified where their contours meet the fold. Paragraph 2 retains all repeated non clauses and printed ne forms. After la before de l’innocence and after volonté the folded words are wholly uncertified. Only d is complete after les; no missing verb ending or punctuation is restored. The gap in de[…]ficultés spans the unreadable right-edge remainder and wrapped beginning; it may cover more than one word component and an intervening boundary, so neither des nor dif is certified. After senti the missing object qualifier is left wholly unknown. The lost word after esprit.’s visible period and that after les autres, are not supplied from the contrast or causal syntax. Sûremen remains before an unreadable ending and possibly following preposition. The switch between pleasures and difficulties, eux/unes/autres and the final comparative faith/chastity opposition stays literal, including ambiguous pronoun attachment. All prose and verse are roman. Complete color 800 and original-size central/right bands plus native DjVu 332 strips have been individually read; independent bounded comparison agrees with the listed losses, named diaereses and internal roman verse placement.

T25.The analogy, choice/will pair and all six negative explanations remain. [Loss] supplies a contextual noun in a wholly lost slot. [One] denies [oneself] jointly interprets the wholly lost opening before intact prive; no French subject or reflexive is restored. [Desire] gives damaged d[…] while them corresponds to intact les. [Difficulties] interprets de[…]ficultés, whose gap may span an article, word boundary and noun beginning; from preserves the relation without certifying des or dif. The qualifier after senti and the opener after esprit’s period remain wholly unknown and are shown as […]; no any or But is supplied. [Because] interprets the lost opener plus intact qu’; [surely through] spans the incomplete sûremen and a possible following preposition. The masculine/feminine pronoun changes stay unresolved. Appearance retains the compressed appearance-to-the-mind formulation, and with God interprets à Dieu without making it an attained proof.

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.