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 1814 · Entry 6935

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Facing Pages · Branch 3154 of 4529

YEAR 1814 · Entry 6935

Translator notesBook Mode

French

p. 6307

6 mars.

Le soin des morts chez les Egyptiens annonce un haut degré de ce que [nous] appellons civilisation.

Si des morts, donc des vivans.

Les vivans le prenoient pour eux... Sans doute ils craignoient d’être tourmentés par des âmes errantes si les corps étoient négligés. Animam condere sepulito.

Comprenant le sens de ce vers, ils croyoient obliger les mânes à rester attachés au corps.

The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II: YEAR 1814

p. 6308

March 6.

The care of the dead among the Egyptians indicates a high degree of what [we] call civilization.

If of the dead, then of the living.

The living took it for themselves... No doubt they feared being tormented by wandering souls if the bodies were neglected. To lay the soul to rest [for the buried one].

Understanding the meaning of this verse, they thought they compelled the shades to remain attached to the body.

S1.Source editor’s annotationOn an undated leaf one reads: “Charon, an Egyptian word meaning boatman. 1° The tombs of the Egyptians were enclosed in pyramids or in the sand at great depths. Above all things this people sought to shelter its dead bodies from water. 2° To go and lay the dead in the pyramids, one had in most places to cross the canals of the Nile. It is from there (so it is said, and it is probable) that Orpheus brought to Greece the allegory of the underworld, simple belief in which was subsequently regarded as an article of religion. Thus it is from Egypt that the ferryman of the dead and the fateful boat have come to us.

T81.[We] corresponds to the source editor’s [nous]. The historical inference remains Joubert’s; no newly verified account of Egyptian practices is added. Source note 1 belongs separately after civilization.

T94.The separate apparatus quotes an explicitly undated leaf; internal labels 1° and 2° stay in its one paragraph. The opening quotation has no printed closing mark, and English leaves it open too. Source Egiptiens, Egipte, piramides and faloit remain literal in French; conventional English spelling changes no source letters. The Egyptian etymology and account of Orpheus are the quoted text’s claims. So it is said and it is probable retain their qualifications. Fateful renders fatale without replacing the boat with a different mythological object. The source call follows civilization before its terminal period; no composition date is assigned to this leaf.

T403.The four distinct paragraphs remain in one dated unit. The source’s [nous] is a printed editorial bracket, not a newly supplied reproduction loss. Egyptiens has y and appellons has two l. The second paragraph remains a short nominal conditional/inferential fragment. The third paragraph retains its printed three-dot pause and literal italic Animam condere sepulito. The last Latin word shows the sequence sepulito, including an i with a separate raised dot and a following t-like cross stroke; no familiar Latin wording is substituted. The fourth paragraph literally has mânes, with its circumflex, unlike anges on the earlier page 774. The analogy is not used to repair either source. The raised main call after civilisation has a hooked top and vertical stem supporting a qualified 1 and comes before the baseline period. Independent native comparison confirms the call’s 1 shape and literal sepulito, while retaining the printed Latin without correction.

T82.The separate conditional fragment remains without supplying the repeated noun care or a completed argument.

T83.The care remains pronominal, with the printed ellipsis and conditional fear preserved. The source prints italic Animam condere sepulito. The bracketed for the buried one provisionally interprets sepulito as sepulto, then takes that conjectured form as dative; neither the emendation nor its compressed relation is certain. The brackets mark this English interpretation of an irregular printed word, not a source gap or recovered Latin. Compare Aeneid III.67–68, animamque sepulcro / condimus, a related burial passage with a different final word, a finite plural verb and a conjunction. That bounded parallel also suggests an in-the-tomb alternative but does not establish Joubert’s intended wording. The printed Latin and its infinitive remain unchanged.

T84.The separate paragraph, their belief and the attachment remain. Shades renders mânes without substituting a particular Egyptian conception of the soul or claiming the belief as established fact.

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.