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 IIUNDATED · Entry 8266

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Facing Pages · Branch 4485 of 4529

UNDATED · Entry 8266

Translator notesBook Mode

French

p. 8969

26 (Verso du même feuillet.)

Agésilas ordonna que les loix dormiroient un jour.

C’est la manière de vivre des Lacédémoniens qui donnoit à leur style tant de poids et tant de bon goût. Sans cela, il eût été ridicule.

The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II: UNDATED

p. 8970

26 (Reverse of the same leaf.)

Agesilaus ordered that the laws should sleep for a day.

It was the Lacedaemonians’ way of life that gave their style so much weight and so much good taste. Without that, it would have been ridiculous.

T43.The completed order, law/sleep personification and one-day duration remain; the historical anecdote is not expanded or externally authenticated. Should sleep renders conditional dormiroient within a past reported order. English Agesilaus gives Agésilas its conventional name; French retains loix. This is the first of two separate roman paragraphs under the italic Verso du même feuillet. relation, which supplies no date or newly identified manuscript.

T198.In the French source, printed item 26 owns two separate roman paragraphs under italic Verso du même feuillet. with its printed relation to item 25; no date is inferred. Literal loix has final x, and Agésilas/Lacédémoniens keep their printed accents. Original-size color and corrective native support the intact final conditional form eût été. The first native final crop began inside the second paragraph; its corrective wider crop includes both full sentences and loix. Both tant constructions and the final counterfactual are retained. No external anecdote or source wording is imported.

T44.The causal cleft, repeated so-much, weight/taste pair and counterfactual remain. It refers contextually to style; no further account of Lacedaemonian institutions is supplied.

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.