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 IIAccording to Plato · Entry 6730

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Facing Pages · Branch 2949 of 4529

According to Plato · Entry 6730

Translator notesBook Mode

French

p. 5897

Les idées ou les plans, les moules, les modèles et plus rarement les cachets.

Les êtres viennent des idées, et les images des objets.

Ce qu’ils appelloient « espèces » étoient une sorte d’images seulement intelligibles et propres à frapper l’esprit comme les images réelles frappent l’œil. Il se fait dans tous les corps visibles des effluvions et des dépouillemens d’images optiques qui frappent l’œil, comme il se fait dans toutes les substances odorantes des effluvions ou dépouillement de parties qui frappent l’odorat.

Le mot parfum. Combien il est beau; il peint et définit l’odeur ou sa cause qui est une espèce de fumée.

Le monde est sorti de l’esprit et de l’idée de Dieu comme une belle statuë de bronze ou de marbre sort du moule ou de la tête du sculpteur.

The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II: According to Plato

p. 5898

Ideas or plans, molds, models, and more rarely seals.

Beings come from ideas, and images from objects.

What they called “species” were a kind of images that were only intelligible and suited to strike the mind as real images strike the eye. In all visible bodies there occur effluences and sheddings of optical images that strike the eye, just as in all odorous substances there occur effluences or a shedding of parts that strike the sense of smell.

The word perfume. How beautiful it is; it pictures and defines the odor or its cause, which is a kind of smoke.

The world came out of God’s mind and idea as a beautiful statue of bronze or marble comes out of the mold or the sculptor’s head.

T245.The list remains nominal, with or followed by successive objects and the rarity qualification. Seals preserves the impression-making sense of cachets without specifying an object’s material.

T246.The paired origins remain with the second repeated verb omitted. Beings and objects retain their distinct nouns.

T247.Species retains the quoted technical word without reducing it to biological classification. The Académie’s 1798 entry records a scholastic image or representation sense. The unnamed they, intelligible/real images, both bodily comparisons and changing and/or remain. Sheddings keeps the first plural dépouillemens distinct from the later singular dépouillement. No modern theory of vision or scent replaces Joubert’s formulation.

T248.The metalinguistic opening, pictures/defines and odor-or-cause relation remain. Perfume preserves the French word’s echo, but the smoke association is Joubert’s explanation, not an independently established English etymology.

T249.Both came out/comes out images and the two or alternatives remain. God’s mind and idea are not reduced to a single faculty, nor are mold and head harmonized into one physical process.

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.