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 1815 · Entry 7229

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French Page · Branch 3448 of 4529

YEAR 1815 · Entry 7229

Translator notesBook Mode

French

p. 6895

2 janvier.

« Délit où la volonté n’a pas eu part. — Faillibles mais non coupables. Déchus (diminués, minorati), mais non punissables. Masse altérée, mais non odieuse. Ceppendant pour rendre cette nature plus agréable, Jésus Christ s’en est revêtu; il l’a ornée, il l’a instruite. Il a donné, par son humanité et par son amour pour les hommes, à nos actions le mérite qui y manquoit; et en laissant à jamais son corps dans l’eucharistie et son esprit ou ses paroles dans l’évangile, il a rendu à perpétuité le ciel présent à la terre et la terre agréable au ciel. » C’est ainsi qu’il disoit et il charmoit.

« Mais, lui disoit-on, Dieu pour l’homme, l’innocent pour le coupable; une telle substitution est-elle admissible? — Je cherche, répondoit-il, à me persuader plus qu’à me convaincre. Il s’agit de choses subtiles, où rien ne peut être palpable. Il suffit d’idées légères qui pénètrent dans les esprits. Je pense donc qu’en sanctifiant notre face, notre apparence, il a attaché à la nature humaine et même à tous ses crimes (dont sa mort a été le plus grand), un souvenir et un trait qui force à la miséricorde. »

The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II: YEAR 1815

p. 6896

January 2.

“An offense in which the will had no part. — Fallible but not guilty. Fallen (diminished, made less), but not punishable. A mass altered, but not hateful. Yet to make this nature more pleasing, Jesus Christ clothed himself in it; he adorned it, he instructed it. Through his humanity and his love for men, he gave our actions the merit they lacked; and, forever leaving his body in the eucharist and his spirit or his words in the gospel, he made heaven perpetually present to earth and earth pleasing to heaven.” This is how he spoke, and he charmed.

“But, they said to him, God in place of man, the innocent in place of the guilty; is such a substitution admissible? — I seek, he replied, more to persuade myself than to convince myself. These are subtle things, in which nothing can be palpable. Light ideas that penetrate minds are enough. I think, then, that by sanctifying our face, our appearance, he attached to human nature and even to all its crimes (of which his death was the greatest), a memory and a feature that compels mercy.”

T10.All paired distinctions and the clothed/adorned/instructed sequence remain. Made less freshly renders the Latin minorati after the French diminished, retaining both near-synonymous terms; only made less corresponds to the italic Latin word; the source parentheses and following comma remain roman. Altered does not become necessarily evil, and hateful preserves odieuse rather than mere fault. Both eternal-time expressions and the heaven/earth reversal remain. The unnamed quoted speaker is not identified with Joubert or another author, and the final narrative remains outside the quotation. The source’s Ceppendant retains its doubled p without English spelling imitation.

T415.Two separately indented paragraphs remain in one dated unit. In the French source, the first quotation closes after ciel. before the reporting sentence; the second quotation spans the question and reply across 812–813 and closes only after miséricorde. The page break falls within répondoit-il, joined without a lexical loss or new paragraph. The complete date 2 janvier is retained. Faillibles has ai; Ceppendant has pp; Jésus Christ is spaced without an inserted name hyphen. Minorati alone is italic within roman parentheses, with the following close and comma roman. All other quoted text remains roman. The first paragraph retains its successive negative distinctions, perfect verbs and repeated earth/heaven relation. The second keeps persuader/convaincre, negative rien, donc/même/tous and the complete death parenthesis. The final singular force after un souvenir et un trait remains literal, without agreement repair. Original-size color 813 retains the initial d of doit-il and subtiles/pénètrent/notre/crimes/force beginnings as qualified identifiable foreground; surrounding show-through does not establish lost initials. The bounded independent comparison agrees with these named spelling/style/continuation limits; all contour qualifications remain.

T11.The quoted exchange remains a single source paragraph across 812–813; its unnamed speakers are not identified. In place of renders pour in the explicitly named substitution, without adding an independent doctrinal explanation. Persuade/convince remain distinct, and more-than is not converted into a refusal of conviction. Subtle/palpable/light/penetrate retain their physical metaphor. Face and appearance preserve both source nouns, with no invented race reading; feature renders trait contextually, without ruling out another shade of the image. The memory/feature pair, even, crimes and parenthetic superlative remain. The subject of attached stays he, contextually Jesus Christ, rather than becoming the unnamed respondent. The source’s singular force after the two-noun subject is retained in French; singular compels follows the nearest noun in this English formulation.

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.