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 1818 · Entry 7932

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English Page · Branch 4151 of 4529

YEAR 1818 · Entry 7932

Translator notesBook Mode

French

p. 8301

[…]4 novembre.

Les mœurs poëtiques sont celles de l’âge d’or, les mœurs patriarcales sont celles de la bible. Les mœurs graves et austères sont celles de l’histoire. Les mœurs saintes ou religieuses sont celles des légendes. Si donc nous voulons tout connoître ou connoître tout ce qui est digne d’être imité, il faut lire aussi les légendes; il faut en faire une partie de nos études et de nos observations.

Saints. Les merveilles de leur vie ne sont pas leurs miracles, mais leurs mœurs.

Leurs mœurs sont plus merveilleuses que leurs miracles. Ne croyez donc pas à leurs miracles, si vous voulez, mais croyez à leurs mœurs. Rien n’est mieux attesté, et que dis-je? ces mœurs là subsistent encore, ici dans un couvent, là dans une chaumière, plus loin dans un palais et plus loin encore dans les déserts.

Les mœurs poëtiques sont celles de la vie humaine et de l’individu isolé. Les mœurs patriarcales doivent être celles de la famille. Les mœurs graves, celles de l’homme public; et les mœurs simples, celles du prêtre, du vieillard, du malade, du chrétien.

The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II: YEAR 1818

p. 8302

November […]4.

Poetic manners are those of the golden age, patriarchal manners those of the Bible. Grave and austere manners are those of history. Holy or religious manners are those of legends. If, then, we wish to know everything, or to know everything worthy of imitation, we must also read legends; we must make them part of our studies and our observations.

Saints. The wonders of their lives are not their miracles, but their manners.

Their manners are more wonderful than their miracles. Do not believe in their miracles, then, if you wish, but believe in their manners. Nothing is better attested, and what am I saying? Those manners still endure, here in a convent, there in a thatched cottage, farther on in a palace and farther still in the deserts.

Poetic manners are those of human life and of the solitary individual. Patriarchal manners should be those of the family. Grave manners, those of the public man; and simple manners, those of the priest, the old man, the sick man, the Christian.

T190.The repeated kinds of manners, alternative holy or religious, conditional wish, two forms of knowing and repeated must remain. Manners includes conduct and customs; legends retains the saints’ lives context without identifying a collection. The French retains poëtiques and connoître, with their small upper marks qualified to the reproduction, and lowercase bible; English Bible uses conventional capitalization. The four initial paragraphs share the damaged date […]4 novembre.; even the terminal 4 is provisional, and neither a preceding digit nor the presence or extent of a lost prefix is certified.

T408.The first day is damaged at the left. Only a provisional terminal 4 is retained from the slanted upper/right stroke and short cross-junction in color/native 415; its contour is incomplete. No preceding digit, or the presence/extent of any preceding day loss, is certified. The marker is not a calendar reconstruction. Four indented paragraphs share the date. Both poëtiques retain paired upper e components and both connoître retain compressed circumflex contours, qualified to the reproduction; bible remains lowercase. The abraded left starts in cales/de/des/digne/partie/donc/ici/isolé/du remain identifiable in color, with no additional words inferred from show-through. In the French source, the singular leur vie, repeated negative/positive belief imperatives, conditional concession, question followed by lowercase ces and unhyphenated ces mœurs là remain. The four-place progression and final nominal clauses remain roman.

T191.The nominal opening and wonders/miracles distinction remain. Manners continues the vocabulary of the surrounding paragraphs. English lives gives a distributive plural for the singular French leur vie.

T192.The comparative, conditional concession, imperatives, self-interruption and full four-part geographical progression remain. Thatched cottage preserves chaumière’s concrete image, while deserts is not replaced by an inferred monastic institution. French continues with lowercase ces after the question and prints ces mœurs là without hyphens; English begins the new sentence with capital Those.

T193.The separate paragraph keeps all four categories, the should obligation and the final nominal clauses. Public man does not narrow the source to a particular political office.

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.