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 1860 of 4529
YEAR 1808 · Entry 5641
French
p. 3719Si l’œil n’étoit pas facile à éblouir et à séduire (c’est à dire à séparer des autres sens dans les opérations qui lui sont propres) les plaisirs que donne l’art de la peinture ne pourroient pas exister pour nous. Nous ne pourrions prendre ce qui est plane ni pour saillant ni pour enfoncé. Le dessin même de Raphaël ne nous offriroit que des hachures et un griffonnage insignifiant. Il en est ainsi de l’art d’écrire : Si le lecteur n’a pas une imagination qui ait le caractère de l’œil, Virgile n’a plus de beauté.
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II: YEAR 1808
p. 3720If the eye were not easy to dazzle and seduce (that is to say to separate from the other senses in the operations proper to it), the pleasures given by the art of painting could not exist for us. We could take what is flat neither for projecting nor for recessed. Even Raphael’s drawing would offer us only hatching and meaningless scribbling. So it is with the art of writing: If the reader does not have an imagination with the character of the eye, Virgil no longer has beauty.
Socrates
Reading The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II · YEAR 1808 · Entry 5641
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.