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 II1812 · Entry 6367

Swipe or use the arrow keys.

Facing Pages · Branch 2586 of 4529

1812 · Entry 6367

Translator notesBook Mode

French

p. 5171

(Article A.) « Flatteurs à gages » (plus nombreux au nord qu’au midi). C’est qu’apparemment les habitans du midi scavent mieux se […]latter eux mêmes. Ils ont une vanité qui se suffit.

Chez les Indiens et dans certaines fêtes religieuses, les voleurs punissent leurs mains, les menteurs punissent leurs langues, les […]ébauchés se déchirent les reins ou se découpent le front pour se punir de leurs plaisirs ou de leurs mauvaises pensées. Tout cela est […]ien respectable. Mais il fait rire des supplices de ces faquirs qui se […]ervent à eux mêmes de persécuteurs et de bourreaux « pour exciter […] vénération » par « la commisération ». Il n’y a rien de céleste ici. L’orgueil de la bassesse et l’ambition de la nullité ne méritent que le mépris et l’infamie. On fait bien de les décrier. Et ceppendant que […]le prudence est nécessaire en pareille matière! car si l’extravagance du faux prêtre entretient la sagesse du vrai dévot... Et puis l’injure faite imprudemment à une religion est une injure faite à toutes, car toutes ont entre elles quelque ressemblance légère, nécessaire et inévitable.

The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II: 1812

p. 5172

(Article A.) “Paid flatterers” (more numerous in the north than in the south). Apparently this is because the inhabitants of the south know better how to [flatter] themselves. They have a vanity that suffices for itself.

Among the Indians and at certain religious festivals, thieves punish their hands, liars punish their tongues, the [debauched] tear their loins or cut their foreheads to punish themselves for their pleasures or their evil thoughts. All this is [quite] respectable. But he makes one laugh at the torments of these fakirs who [serve] as their own persecutors and executioners “to arouse veneration” through “commiseration.” There is nothing celestial here. The pride of baseness and the ambition of nullity deserve only contempt and infamy. It is right to decry them. And yet [how much] prudence is necessary in such a matter! for if the extravagance of the false priest sustains the wisdom of the true devotee... And then an insult rashly offered to one religion is an insult offered to all, for all have among them some slight, necessary and inevitable resemblance.

T150.The article cue, quoted phrase and parenthetic comparison remain. Apparently keeps the claim qualified; the last sentence preserves vanity’s self-sufficiency. [Flatter] renders contextual flatter from […]latter; the subject and reflexive relation remain intact.

T474.Two paragraphs remain under Article A.; the quoted phrase and parenthetic north/south comparison belong to the first. The margin interrupts flatter after se, and the source prints habitans, scavent and eux mêmes. The first midi remains readable with its first m qualified for clipping. The second paragraph has explicit losses before ébauchés, ien and ervent, before vénération, and in the opening of the phrase before prudence. Débauchés, bien, servent, la and quelle are contextual possibilities only. The retained l before e in […]le is itself qualified for the damaged upright; no full quelle is claimed. The initial letters in punissent, punir, L’orgueil, le mépris, faite, toutes and the wrapped inévitable remain identifiable but abraded; no word is restored from the description’s expected sequence. Ceppendant has two p descenders. The printed Mais il fait rire is retained without regularization to faut. The ordered body parts, alternatives of act and motive, separate quoted phrases, unfinished si clause and final qualification remain as the source’s voice. No general account of a religion or practice is added.

T151.Joubert’s reported practices, changing judgments, two quoted phrases and caution remain within one paragraph. Indians is retained without inserting a modern location; no independent ethnographic confirmation is claimed. [Debauched], [quite] and [serve] interpret the source residues as débauchés, bien and servent. The lost article before vénération is contextually read as la but has no separate counterpart in the idiomatic English arouse veneration. The broader [how much] expresses the exclamatory reading of que […]le before prudence, without certifying a complete French quelle. The source prints fait, not faut: he makes one laugh preserves that causative wording and leaves il’s referent unnamed rather than silently imposing one must. The conditional after for if remains unfinished, and the final claim does not say that all religions are identical.

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.