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.

Explore the Lexicon

The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume IIYEAR 1807 · Entry 5398

Swipe or use the arrow keys.

English Page · Branch 1617 of 4529

YEAR 1807 · Entry 5398

Translator notesBook Mode

French

p. 3233

14-20 septembre.

14, départ; retour le 20. — Le 16, Ancy le franc. — Le 17, Mlle Blesseau — Semur, etc. Le 18, Alyse et le château de Bussy. — Le 19. Epoisses. Mme de Guitaud et ce charmant Bourbilly. Le 20, recoputulation.

Eh! que de maux! Les Anglois sont élevés dans le respect des choses sérieuses et les François dans l’habitude de s’en moquer.

A Flogny. La haye tondue et la charmille sont la clôture convenable du jardin. La haute haye et la futaye conviennent mieux autour du champ.

Mme de Guitaud. — Le fonds de toutes les âmes est le même. Mais le fonds de tous les esprits ne l’est pas.

Il faut scavoir se passer de son imagination. Mais quand elle suffit pour opérer, il faut scavoir aussi se passer de sa raison, c’est à dire que... C’est à dire qu’il y a des matières, des études, des affaires, des plaisirs où il faut n’employer que la raison ou que son imagination, l’un sans l’autre : bien entendu que ce qui est fait sans raison ne se fera pas contre la raison.

The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II: YEAR 1807

p. 3234

September 14–20.

14, departure; return on the 20th. — On the 16th, Ancy le franc. — On the 17th, Mlle Blesseau — Semur, etc. On the 18th, Alyse and the château de Bussy. — On the 19th. Epoisses. Mme de Guitaud and that charming Bourbilly. On the 20th, recapitulation.

Ah! What evils! The English are brought up to respect serious things and the French to make a habit of mocking them.

At Flogny. The clipped hedge and the hornbeam hedge are the fitting enclosure for the garden. The high hedge and the stand of tall trees are better suited to the borders of the field.

Mme de Guitaud. — The ground of all souls is the same. But the ground of all minds is not.

One must know how to do without one’s imagination. But when it suffices to act, one must also know how to do without one’s reason, that is to say that... That is to say that there are subjects, studies, affairs, pleasures in which one must use only reason or only one’s imagination, the one without the other: it being understood that what is done without reason will not be done against reason.

T118.The individual days stay inside the one source date-range entry. Place and personal names retain their printed forms. Recapitulation interprets the qualified nonstandard recoputulation contextually; the French is not silently regularized. No unstated travel event is added.

T293.The source gives a date range followed by individual travel days inside paragraph 1; none becomes a new unit. The first printed Le 19 ends with a period, not a comma. Ancy le franc, Alyse, Epoisses and Bourbilly retain their spellings; Mlle and Mme are baseline type. The line-wrapped recoputulation is a qualified reading of the printed nonstandard spelling: the glyph after c is a closed o-like oval, and u follows p; no acute is visible over the first e. Paragraph 3 continues onto page 627, followed by two more physical paragraphs before the next source asterisk. A in A Flogny is unaccented; haye and futaye retain y. The masculine l’un sans l’autre remains after the two feminine faculty names. The source annotation call follows the final raison before its period.

T119.Hornbeam hedge translates charmille in the garden context, and stand of tall trees translates futaye. The Académie’s 1798 definitions (I, pp. 225 and 624) distinguish young hornbeams, with a palisade as an example, from woodland composed of large trees without specifying a species. Hedge is a contextual rendering, not the only possible form of charmille. The clipped garden enclosure is distinguished from the taller growth around the field. The sentence continues across the printed page without a new paragraph.

T120.Ground renders fonds as an underlying substance or foundation and repeats for both faculties. The source’s distinction is retained without attributing a full metaphysical doctrine to the named interlocutor.

S1.Source editor’s annotationA sheet of quotations entitled “Letters from the prince de Condé to M. de Guitaud. Manuscript.” relates to Joubert’s stay at Epoisses with Mme de Guitaud.

T121.The source repeats that is to say across an unfinished clause. The one without the other is applied to the two faculties; the masculine French pronouns do not create a new person. The closing qualification distinguishes doing without reason from acting against it.

T122.The translated title remains part of Beaunier’s apparatus. It names a manuscript sheet of quotations; no shelfmark, date, or location is supplied beyond the printed statement.

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.