From the book
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volumes I–II
Joseph Joubert · Diotimos Editions · 2026
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At a Glance
- The wordDryness and moisture are physical qualities used in physiological summaries and compact material comparisons.
- In JoubertThe early summary of Platonic physiology sets the dry and moist beside cold and hot: health depends on their balance rather than the absolute excellence of one.
- In this editionThe English translation retains repeated dry and the separate hard and arid.
- A place to beginDry and moist are balanced physiological qualities.
- English renderings
- dry; moist; moisture
Meaning
Dryness and moisture are physical qualities used in physiological summaries and compact material comparisons. The bread fragment distinguishes dryness from hardness and aridity while preserving its capacity to nourish.
Use in the book
The early summary of Platonic physiology sets the dry and moist beside cold and hot: health depends on their balance rather than the absolute excellence of one. The later compressed distinction between dry wood and dry bread separates dryness from lack of nourishment and from hardness. It gives no subject whose style or character the reader may safely supply. Elsewhere an unfinished bee comparison makes moisture and dust hinder flight, leaving its application open. These settings keep the bodily property recognizable while varying what it makes possible.
Places to read
- I, p. 35–36, entry 1, ¶10Dry and moist are balanced physiological qualities.
- II, p. 653, entry 7, ¶1Bread distinguishes nourishing dryness from hardness and aridity.
- II, p. 630, entry 10, ¶1Moisture and dust hinder a bee’s flight in an unfinished comparison.
Translation in this edition
The English translation retains repeated dry and the separate hard and arid. The Platonic material is explicitly a summary, not a claim of original or modern physiology. No unnamed style, author, or moral fault is supplied to complete the bread fragment.
Siccity
French: siccité.
Siccité is rendered dryness in the account of the lungs beside the heart. It appears with softness and natural coolness, all given roles in receiving and tempering the heart’s excess. Beaunier identifies this material as Joubert’s summary of Platonic physiology. Siccity names the historical quality without making the proposed anatomy a modern explanation.
Places to read: I, p. 35–36, entry 1, ¶5.
Source note
Beaunier 1938, I, pp. 35, 36; II, pp. 630, 653.