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 1806 · Entry 4453

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French Page · Branch 672 of 4529

YEAR 1806 · Entry 4453

Translator notesBook Mode

French

p. 1343

12 janvier.

Chercher quelles figures dans la diction conviennent encore plus à la prose qu’aux vers. Celles sans doute qui ont de la force, une prompte efficacité; car la prose est plus employée pour l’utilité que pour le plaisir : elle est d’un usage nécessaire et civil. Hors des cérémonies et de la pompe religieuse ou politique, la perstriction lui est donc plus convenable que l’amplification. Elle a besoin plus que le vers de tout ce qui peut lui donner une brièveté ornée. — Comme un couteau de fer et un habit court conviennent mieux aux fonctions de la vie... Une épée à lame d’or ne seroit bonne qu’à être une épée de parade. « L’amplification n’est pas simple », dit Scaliger. Elle est cependant naturelle. C’est [l’]exercice et l’expérience qui apprennent la brièveté. Les esprits scavent l’orner. Insistons; car c’est une question importante que celle-ci. Répétons la : quelles figures (et quels ornemens de diction) conviennent à la prose plus encore qu’à la poësie?

The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II: YEAR 1806

p. 1344

January 12.

To inquire which figures in diction suit prose even more than verse. Those, no doubt, that have force, a prompt efficacy; for prose is used more for utility than for pleasure: its use is necessary and civil. Outside ceremonies and religious or political pomp, compression therefore suits it better than amplification. More than verse, it needs everything that can give it an adorned brevity. — As an iron knife and a short coat better suit the functions of life... A sword with a blade of gold would be good only as a sword for show. “Amplification is not simple,” says Scaliger. It is natural, however. Practice and experience teach brevity. Minds know how to adorn it. Let us insist; for this is an important question. Let us repeat it: which figures (and which ornaments of diction) suit prose even more than poetry?

T18.Compression renders perstriction as a rhetorical form of figured brevity, in opposition to amplification. Scaliger’s Poetices, book III, chapter XLVI, page 125 of the 1561 edition, opposes amplification to perstrictio and characterizes the latter as brevitas figurata. This supplies a technical parallel rather than a medical sense of the French word.

T19.The English preserves the distinction between simple and natural. The statement attributed to Scaliger has a close parallel in the same chapter’s statement that amplification is most opposed to simplicity. Beaunier supplies [l’] before exercice; English requires no corresponding article before practice, so that bracket cannot be reproduced naturally. The iron-knife comparison remains unfinished.

T240.An enlarged facsimile confirms perstriction; the printed word is retained. The source-supplied [l’] before exercice is printed and retained. The comparative Comme clause trails off; no missing assertion is supplied. Répétons la has no printed hyphen. Poësie has a diaeresis.

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.