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 7271

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English Page · Branch 3490 of 4529

YEAR 1815 · Entry 7271

Translator notesBook Mode

French

p. 6979

Les pâtes colorées ou cires. On imite les pierres précieuses avec des verres préparés. Et ces verres en offrent l’éclat, les couleurs, les facettes et toutes les scintillations, mais n’en offrent jamais le naturel.

Et c’est ainsi qu’aux Gobelins des ouvriers industrieux mais sans aucun génie reproduisent dans leurs tapisseries toutes les couleurs des tableaux avec des laines qu’ils employent, mais qu’ils n’ont pas teintes.

Il ne manque à toutes [ces] fausses pierreries blanches, bleues, jaunes ou vertes que l’essence de l’émeraude, de la topaze, du saphir ou du diamant. Tous leurs dehors y sont, mais non « la configuration des parties intérieures », comme disent les Carthésiens.

N. fait des vers comme Delile et Villemain de la prose comme Fontanes; mais ni l’un ni l’autre ne sont des Fontanes et des Delile.

The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II: YEAR 1815

p. 6980

The colored pastes or waxes. Precious stones are imitated with prepared glasses. And these glasses offer their brilliance, their colors, their facets and all their scintillations, but never their naturalness.

And so it is that at the Gobelins, workers, industrious but without any genius, reproduce in their tapestries all the colors of paintings with wools they use but have not dyed.

All [these] false gems, white, blue, yellow or green, lack only the essence of the emerald, the topaz, the sapphire or the diamond. All their outward features are there, but not “the configuration of the inner parts,” as the Cartesians say.

N. writes verse like Delile, and Villemain prose like Fontanes; but neither is a Fontanes or a Delile.

T66.Glasses here means prepared glass materials, not drinking vessels. The initial fragment, And, all four visible qualities and never remain. Naturalness continues the prior aesthetic vocabulary; no additional mineralogical explanation replaces the comparison.

T457.Four separately indented paragraphs remain one unit. The first retains its opening fragment, ou alternative, repeated verres/en offrent, four outward features and negative jamais. The second retains initial Et, sans aucun génie, toutes, employent and the negative relative about dyeing. The third [ces] is a printed roman editorial supplement. The four color descriptions and four named gems retain their order, the restrictive construction and Tous...mais non remain, and in the French source the quotation closes before the comma. Carthésiens literally has th, confirmed by the original-size color band; no philosophical spelling normalization is made in the French source. Both occurrences literally read Delile, with a single l after i, in the original-size color band. N. remains an unexpanded baseline initial. The Fon-/tanes wrap is complete, and the final ni...ni...ne construction retains its plural sont and both des forms. The whole unit, including the quotation, is roman.

T67.The initial And, industrious/no-genius contrast, all the colors and use/have-not-dyed distinction remain. Wools keeps the source’s plural material word. No history of the Gobelins or particular tapestry is added.

T68.[These] follows the printed source-editor [ces]. The four colors and four stones remain in their different original orders, with the restrictive only and all retained. The quotation is translated freshly as printed; no Cartesian work is identified. Its comma moves inside the closing quotation under American style. Cartesians is the ordinary English name for the source’s literal Carthésiens; its historical th remains in French.

T69.N. remains opaque. The crossed ordering of Delile/Fontanes and Fontanes/Delile is preserved. The French plural class-names become ordinary singular class predicates under neither in English, without treating the comparison as literal identity or supplying a name for N. Both source forms read Delile with one l after i; the English retains that spelling rather than regularizing the name.

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.