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 1808 · Entry 5833

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Facing Pages · Branch 2052 of 4529

YEAR 1808 · Entry 5833

Translator notesBook Mode

French

p. 4103

Quiquonque va à l’opéra et ne veut pas souffrir la messe n’est qu’un esprit à préventions, à petites vues et à petits raisonnemens.

— Quiquonque va à l’opéra et ne peut pas souffrir la messe n’est (au moment où il opère ainsi) qu’un esprit à petites vues et à petits raisonnemens. Il a plus de volonté que d’intelligence, plus de passions que de lumières. En cherchant la vérité, il s’est arrêté sur la route, à l’auberge et dans le cul-de sac des préventions. Mieux lui auroit vallu continuer à suivre le grand chemin des préjugés.

La poësie n’est utile qu’aux plaisirs de notre âme; la religion a des enchantemens utiles à nos mœurs; elle nous donne et le bonheur et la vertu.

The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II: YEAR 1808

p. 4104

Anyone who goes to the opera and will not tolerate Mass is only a mind given to prepossessions, to narrow views, and to petty reasoning.

— Anyone who goes to the opera and cannot tolerate Mass is (at the moment when he acts this way) only a mind given to narrow views and petty reasoning. He has more will than intelligence, more passions than lights. In seeking truth, he has stopped along the road, at the inn and in the dead end of prepossessions. It would have been better for him to keep following the highway of prejudices.

Poetry is useful only for the pleasures of our soul; religion has enchantments useful for our conduct; it gives us both happiness and virtue.

T385.Will not tolerate preserves the volition in ne veut pas souffrir, distinct from cannot in the next paragraph. Prepossessions renders préventions here; narrow views and petty reasoning retain the separate criticisms. The Mass is not named as a particular service.

T708.Three physical paragraphs remain in a single block across 666–667; no asterisk separates the two page 667 paragraphs. Both Quiquonque forms retain qu in the second syllable. The first formulation has veut, the second peut. Vallu has double l, cul-de sac has only the first hyphen, and poësie retains its diaeresis. The repeated et in the final clause remains.

T386.This revision is a separate paragraph within the same entry and begins on page 667. Cannot preserves peut, and the parenthesis limits the judgment to the moment of acting this way. Lights retains lumières as intellectual illumination. Inn, road, dead end, and highway preserve the extended journey image. Prepossessions for préventions is distinguished from prejudices for préjugés; the text’s different valuations are not reconciled.

T387.This third paragraph remains in the same source block. Conduct renders mœurs, distinct from the soul’s pleasures. Both happiness and virtue represents the French repeated et… et, preserving the two benefits.

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.