From the book
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volumes I–II
Joseph Joubert · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Echo
écho
Echo relates a returned sound to its source, but it can signify resonant space, illuminating correspondence, or dependence mistaken for originality.
Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordEcho relates a returned sound to its source, but it can signify resonant space, illuminating correspondence, or dependence mistaken for originality.
- In JoubertThe analogy with reflected color pairs two kinds of return without making them the same physical event.
- In this editionThe English translation retains echo and the linked vibration, resounding, and buzzing.
- A place to beginReflected color and echo occupy analogous relations.
- English renderings
- echo
Meaning
Echo relates a returned sound to its source, but it can signify resonant space, illuminating correspondence, or dependence mistaken for originality.
Use in the book
The analogy with reflected color pairs two kinds of return without making them the same physical event. The account of resonant endings gives echo a positive force: it makes space and measure sensible together. The critique of D[elalot], however, treats the speaker as an echo of Bonald’s ideas who mistakes himself for a voice. Even here the image is not simply a claim that the imitator is quieter or less distinct: this echo speaks more loudly and distinctly than the voice that animated it. The quality of the return and its independence must therefore be judged separately.
Places to read
- II, p. 621, entry 5, ¶1Reflected color and echo occupy analogous relations.
- I, p. 399, entry 3, ¶1Resonance makes space and measure sensible.
- II, p. 593–594, entry 11, ¶1An echo can be clearer and louder while remaining dependent.
Translation in this edition
The English translation retains echo and the linked vibration, resounding, and buzzing. D[elalot] preserves the source’s bracketed expansion; Z. stays unexplained. The initial all in the I.399 fragment receives no invented subject.
Source note
Beaunier 1938, I, pp. 399; II, pp. 593, 594, 621.
From the book
Heinrich Khunrath’s Magnesia Catholica Philosophorum
Heinrich Khunrath · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Echo
Echo; Guth gruss / gute antwort
The echo closes Khunrath's answer to the imagined Zedekiah at pp. 180–1812.
Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordThe echo closes Khunrath's answer to the imagined Zedekiah at pp. 180–1812.
- In KhunrathThe preceding challenge asks whether Khunrath alone possesses the Art and can presume to teach someone of longer standing.
- In this editionKeep the page-spanning comparison together.
- A reading distinctionThe source says the opponent may cry or let fly into the wood; the proverb’s continuation, not an independently supplied scene, establishes the meaning.
Meaning
The echo closes Khunrath's answer to the imagined Zedekiah at pp. 180–1812. As the opponent cries into the wood, so the echo will return. The marginal proverb gives the compact version: a good greeting, a good answer.
Use in the book
The preceding challenge asks whether Khunrath alone possesses the Art and can presume to teach someone of longer standing. He first commends the matter to God and time while maintaining his doctrine. The echo then adds a warning about the conduct of the exchange: the form of address will shape the answer.
This is not the same claim as truth's consonance with itself. The latter concerns agreement of valid doctrine; the echo concerns reciprocity in controversy. Nor does the figure promise passive silence. It follows an appeal to eventual vindication but reserves a responsive voice in the present.
Its location helps explain the closing turn to speaking despite hatred: the author will neither relinquish the doctrine nor allow another's tone to control him without reply.
Places to read
- 1599 p. 180The forest cry begins after the Zedekiah-style challenge
- 1599 p. 181The echo completes the warning of a corresponding answer
- 1599 p. 181 · marginThe greeting-and-answer proverb glosses the figure
Translation in this edition
Keep the page-spanning comparison together. The forest proverb is not an instruction about an acoustic experiment or evidence of a named woodland setting.
Source note
The source says the opponent may cry or let fly into the wood; the proverb’s continuation, not an independently supplied scene, establishes the meaning.