Diotimos Library · Journals, Notebooks & Fragments Collection · Bilingual Edition
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II
Complete Notebooks · French with an independent English translation.
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Facing Pages · Branch 604 of 4529
YEAR 1805 · Entry 4385
French
p. 12074 décembre.
Au lieu de ce style poëtique et mathématique avec lequel il faut traiter des matières métaphysiques et dont les anciens nous ont laissé quelques exemples, nos idéologues modernes se sont fait une espèce de style géographique et catalogique avec lequel ils assignent à tout ce qui est spirituel une position et des dimensions fixes. Malheureux qui durcissent tout et changent l’âme même en pierre.
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II: YEAR 1805
p. 1208December 4.
Instead of the poetic and mathematical style in which metaphysical subjects must be treated, and of which the ancients left us some examples, our modern ideologists have made themselves a kind of geographical and catalogical style in which they assign a fixed position and dimensions to everything spiritual. Wretches who harden everything and turn the soul itself to stone.
Socrates
Reading The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II · YEAR 1805 · Entry 4385
Ask about a concept, passage, contradiction, or connection.
Socrates will begin with this book and its sources.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.