From the book
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volumes I–II
Joseph Joubert · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordDuctility concerns matter’s capacity to be extended or worked.
- In JoubertThe grain-of-matter image makes ductility, enclosed hollows, and the worker’s art explain apparent immensity.
- In this editionThe English translation retains ductility beside the distinct fusible and malleable.
- A place to beginDuctility helps a small material amount appear immense.
- English renderings
- ductility; ductile
Meaning
Ductility concerns matter’s capacity to be extended or worked. Joubert can transfer that capacity to verse while distinguishing it from life or soul.
Use in the book
The grain-of-matter image makes ductility, enclosed hollows, and the worker’s art explain apparent immensity. The unfinished reference to a grain of gold is offered as a further illustration, not supplied as a completed calculation. The later classification of verse places ductility and brilliance in the mineral kingdom, sap in the vegetable, and life in the animal or animate. Soul then marks the most beautiful verses. Being ductile is thus a real quality in the comparison, but cannot stand for every kind of excellence.
Places to read
- I, p. 146, entry 9, ¶1Ductility helps a small material amount appear immense.
- I, p. 236–237, entry 7, ¶1Ductile is distinguished from fusible and malleable in a series of material possibilities.
- II, p. 727, entry 1, ¶1Mineral qualities distinguish one kind of verse from living and ensouled verse.
Translation in this edition
The English translation retains ductility beside the distinct fusible and malleable. The damaged mineral-kingdom passage preserves contextual brackets and unexpanded Ch. and Mr. C.; it does not identify those writers or specify a modern metallurgy.
Source note
Beaunier 1938, I, pp. 146, 236, 237; II, pp. 727.