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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 1807 · Entry 5243

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Facing Pages · Branch 1462 of 4529

YEAR 1807 · Entry 5243

Translator notesBook Mode

French

p. 2923

12 avril.

C’est que les artistes supposent tous que l’homme est beau, et ils se trompent : l’homme nud est affreux. Le ciel n’a pas fait l’homme beau, mais capable de s’embélir.

Divisées en tronçons, chaque partie est belle; mais l’ensemble sans vêtemens ou ornemens, offrait partout une peau uniforme et des emmanchements peu ménagés... Au reste, il suffit à l’homme, pour être beau, d’être vêtu à demi.

Deux brasselets, un diadème, une ceinture à franges ou demi-tablier, et que dis-je? une feuille de figuier bien placée, sont un ornement suffisant.

On peut rompre les uniformités par les attitudes, et dissimuler la disgrâce des emmanchemens par les poses. L’homme est alors vêtu ou, pour mieux dire, enveloppé de lui même (et ipso involutus). Tête : la nature a bien vêtu la tête; tête sans cheveux est difforme. L’homme nud ou à demi nud est laid s’il n’a la tête vêtue. La tête nue si l’homme est vêtu tout entier, et surtout s’il est amplement vêtu, peut être belle, même razée.

La pudeur a inventé les ornemens. L’homme seul a connu sa difformité. Il scait naturellement distinguer le laid du beau comme le bien du mal.

Les animaux naissent vêtus (et impudens). L’homme et le ver seuls naissent nuds. Jointures, aneaux, brasselets, colliers, ceintures ou plaques aux doigts, au col, aux bras, aux reins, enfin à tout ce qui est emmanchemens.

Trop de beauté auroit donné trop d’impudence.

Le ventre beau dans les torses, seulement.

La tête belle par elle même et seule, si ses cheveux raïonnent. (Voyez les têtes d’anges.)

Le Méléagre et l’Appollon ont des habits ouverts par la chlamide rejettée. L’art leur a ôté la nudité, mais leur a laissé l’impudence. Les Gémeaux ont leurs bonnets; ils ont d’ailleurs une jeunesse pleine de candeur. Le soldat mourant est ramené sur lui même. L’Atlas est colossal. Les Vénus se cachent de leurs propres mains. Les Laocoons sont grouppés et d’ailleurs l’attention se porte aux têtes.

Il y a de l’épaule au bout de la main, et du menton à l’extrémité du pubis, une uniformité trop longue; du siège au talon l’uniformité est plus variée par la sinuosité des lignes, dont le pli du genou et les renflemens de la jambe sont dessinés. La tête et le col se continuent avec grâce, mais le col et le tronc sont en général mal emmanchés; il y a ressault par les salières des épaules.

Lignes ornées. Car la vie est dans les « contours » ou du moins la santé, qui est une plénitude de la vie. Traits décharnés...

Les vêtemens doivent entrer dans l’idée de la beauté; ils font la grâce. Comme un coussin où l’attention repose mieux, plus mollement, plus à son aise, sans la crainte d’embarrasser.

Ils parlent de nature; et qu’il faut l’imiter. Qu’ils l’imitent donc, qu’ils l’imitent; et qu’ils songent qu’ils n’en imitent pas les mœurs en imitant et étalant toutes nos formes.

The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II: YEAR 1807

p. 2924

April 12.

That is because all artists suppose man is beautiful, and they are mistaken: naked man is dreadful. Heaven did not make man beautiful, but capable of making himself beautiful.

Divided into sections, each part is beautiful; but the whole without clothes or ornaments presented everywhere a uniform skin and ill-managed joints... Besides, to be beautiful, it is enough for man to be half clothed.

Two bracelets, a diadem, a fringed belt or half-apron, and what am I saying? a well-placed fig leaf, are ornament enough.

One can break the uniformities with attitudes and conceal the ungracefulness of the joints with poses. Man is then clothed or, better said, wrapped in himself (et ipso involutus). Head: nature has clothed the head well; a head without hair is deformed. Naked or half-naked man is ugly if his head is not clothed. The bare head, if man is fully clothed, and especially if he is amply clothed, can be beautiful, even shaved.

Modesty invented ornaments. Man alone has known his deformity. He naturally knows how to distinguish the ugly from the beautiful as he does good from evil.

Animals are born clothed (and shameless). Man and the worm alone are born naked. Joints, rings, bracelets, necklaces, belts or plates at the fingers, neck, arms, loins, finally at everything that is a joining.

Too much beauty would have given too much shamelessness.

The belly beautiful in torsos, only.

The head beautiful in itself and alone, if its hair radiates. (See angels’ heads.)

The Méléagre and the Appollon have garments open with the chlamys thrown back. Art has taken away their nakedness but left them their shamelessness. The Twins have their caps; they also have a youth full of candor. The dying soldier is drawn back upon himself. The Atlas is colossal. The Venuses hide themselves with their own hands. The Laocoons are grouped, and besides, attention goes to the heads.

From the shoulder to the end of the hand, and from the chin to the extremity of the pubis, there is too long a uniformity; from the seat to the heel, the uniformity is more varied by the sinuosity of the lines with which the fold of the knee and the swellings of the leg are drawn. The head and neck continue into one another gracefully, but the neck and trunk are generally badly joined; there is an offset at the hollows of the shoulders.

Adorned lines. For life is in the “contours,” or at least health, which is a fullness of life. Fleshless features...

Clothes must enter into the idea of beauty; they make grace. Like a cushion on which attention rests better, more softly, more at ease, without fear of embarrassing.

They speak of nature; and that one must imitate her. Let them imitate her, then, let them imitate her; and let them consider that they do not imitate her mores by imitating and displaying all our forms.

T231.All fourteen source paragraphs remain one dated entry, each with its own French–English pairing. The opening That is because preserves the explanatory connection to an unexpressed preceding proposition. The distinction between being made beautiful and capable of making oneself beautiful remains Joubert’s claim.

T448.Fourteen physical paragraphs remain one dated source block. Divisées is plural feminine before singular chaque partie; no grammatical repair is made. S’embélir, brasselets, aneaux, razée, scait, raïonnent, rejettée, grouppés and ressault retain their printed forms. The first emmanchements has a t, whereas the later emmanchemens does not. Enlarged facsimiles confirm Méléagre, Appollon with double p, and chlamide with i. The source’s lui même and elle même are unhyphenated. The compound demi-tablier retains its hyphen at the line break. Right-edge damage partly clips word endings, including ils, l’homme, sans, être, demi-, ornement, la, vêtu, Tête, difformité, seuls, qui, chlamide, Les, est, continuent and en; the restored readings follow surviving letters and syntax. The colon after Tête is partly damaged and retained with qualification. The nominal fragments and comparative/adverbial commas remain; no finite verbs are supplied.

T232.The plural feminine Divisées precedes singular chaque partie in the source. English does not reproduce that grammatical mismatch, but retains the division into sections and the shift from present is to past presented. Joints conveys the bodily emmanchements as points at which parts are fitted together; the later examples elaborate this mechanical image.

T233.The sequence reaches and what am I saying? before a single fig leaf. The fragmentary self-correction and following plural verb remain without a rewritten list or an added explanatory conclusion.

T234.The Latin et ipso involutus remains in the paragraph as source text. The compressed Latin is read here, in light of the preceding French, as “and wrapped in himself”; no source or missing Latin word is supplied. Attitudes and poses remain paired means of changing the body’s appearance. The separate Head prompt, clothed and unclothed head, and the final even shaved retain the source’s distinctions without reconciliation.

T235.The source attributes the invention of ornaments to pudeur, rendered modesty, and contrasts it with impudence, rendered shamelessness, in the following paragraphs. Man alone and the comparison of beauty with moral good remain Joubert’s assertions.

T236.The opening biological comparison and its parentheses are retained as source text. The succeeding nominal list is not made into a complete instruction. Loins renders reins in the body rather than kidneys; joining keeps the mechanical sense of emmanchemens beside joints.

T237.The belly and head paragraphs remain nominal, without added is. The final only in the belly paragraph and the conditions on the head’s radiating hair remain. Angels’ heads is the source’s own parenthetical visual reference, not a supplied image or title.

T238.Méléagre and Appollon retain the source’s labels, including the double p in Appollon. Chlamys is the ancient cloak named by chlamide. The Twins, dying soldier, Atlas, Venuses, and Laocoons remain as the text identifies them; no particular museum object or catalogue attribution is supplied. Plural Venuses and Laocoons are not reduced to singulars. Candor keeps candeur as innocence, and drawn back upon himself preserves the soldier’s physical folding. Littré’s later Chlamyde entry corroborates the cloak sense; it does not identify the sculptures.

T239.Seat renders siège as the lower posterior body. Offset conveys ressault as an abrupt change of level; hollows of the shoulders renders salières without adding an anatomical diagnosis. The head continuing into the neck and the neck’s poor joining to the trunk remain different relations. Académie française (1798), Salière, II, 532, records bodily hollows; Ressaut, II, 484, describes a projection from a straight line. Its 1835 Ressaut entry, II, 642, also gives an abrupt change between levels, as later lexical corroboration.

T240.The quotation marks around contours are retained. Health is introduced as at least, followed by fullness of life; it is not simply equated with all life. The closing Fleshless features remains an unfinished nominal fragment.

T241.The cushion is a comparison without an added main clause. Better, more softly, and more at ease preserve the repeated gradation. Embarrassing keeps embarrasser with no specified object; the source does not say explicitly whom or what attention fears embarrassing.

T242.The opening and that remains compressed; the repeated let them imitate her is preserved. Nature’s mores, or ways of conduct, remain distinct from the bodily forms displayed by artists. No new speaker or named group is inserted.

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.