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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Facing Pages · Branch 1332 of 4529
YEAR 1807 · Entry 5113
French
p. 2663Vid. Rivarol, Discours de la nature du langage et tout ce qu’il dit du sentiment. Les anciens s’exprimoient mieux et plus clairement en établissant entre le corps et l’âme immortelle (le νοῦς) une âme sensitive. — Et ce qu’il appelle le sentiment ne peut produire que des ardeurs. Il faut une autre faculté ou plutôt une autre substance pour opérer et pour répandre la lumière. — Et aussi, si le sentiment suffit pour se conduire et pour conduire les autres, [il] ne suffit pas pour les éclairer.
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II: YEAR 1807
p. 2664See Rivarol, Discourse on the Nature of Language, and everything he says about feeling. The ancients expressed themselves better and more clearly by placing between the body and the immortal soul (the intellect) a sensitive soul. — And what he calls feeling can produce only ardors. Another faculty, or rather another substance, is needed to produce and spread light. — And also, if feeling is enough to guide oneself and to guide others, [it] is not enough to enlighten them.
Socrates
Reading The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II · YEAR 1807 · Entry 5113
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.