From the book
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volumes I–II
Joseph Joubert · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Fidelity
fidélité
Fidélité names continuance in custom, admiration or feeling; it is not restricted to literal accuracy in a copy or translation.
Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordFidélité names continuance in custom, admiration or feeling; it is not restricted to literal accuracy in a copy or translation.
- In JoubertThe fidelity to one’s fathers’ customs, even their religion, is called a social virtue.
- In this editionThe English translation preserves the friendship fragment instead of supplying how fidelity calms or is calmed.
- A place to beginInherited customs and religion receive the designation social virtue.
- English renderings
- fidelity
Meaning
Fidélité names continuance in custom, admiration or feeling; it is not restricted to literal accuracy in a copy or translation.
Use in the book
The fidelity to one’s fathers’ customs, even their religion, is called a social virtue. The description concerns the bond of transmission and does not itself demonstrate the inherited beliefs. The friendship fragment places long fidelity to first admirations beside the calming action of time, but leaves its second sentence without a verb. Finally, the interpretation of Petrarch and Laura explains fidelity through the easier preservation of feelings than sensations: devotion can endure toward an image. These witnesses describe different forms of constancy without certifying the history of knights or prescribing one unchanging attitude toward every inherited practice.
Places to read
- I, p. 351, entry 2, ¶1Inherited customs and religion receive the designation social virtue.
- II, p. 489, entry 5, ¶2Friendship’s first admirations are associated with long fidelity.
- II, p. 834, entry 12, ¶1Preserved feelings explain an idealized account of chivalric fidelity.
Translation in this edition
The English translation preserves the friendship fragment instead of supplying how fidelity calms or is calmed. The thirty years in the Petrarch example belongs to Joubert’s interpretation, not to an independently verified biography. Feelings and sensations remain distinct.
Source note
Beaunier 1938, I, pp. 351; II, pp. 489, 834.
From the book
Centuries of Meditations
Thomas Traherne · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Fidelity
fidelity; unfaithful
Fidelity is steadfast faithfulness: love or allegiance maintained in conduct.
Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordFidelity is steadfast faithfulness: love or allegiance maintained in conduct.
- In TraherneIn the prayer following contemplation of Christ’s death, fidelity must become visible in care and suffering.
- In this editionFaithfulness here is active and relational.
- A place to beginThe prayer asks that care and suffering display love’s fidelity and efficacy.
Meaning
Fidelity is steadfast faithfulness: love or allegiance maintained in conduct. Here its emphasis falls on loyal performance and endurance, rather than solely on accepting a proposition as true.
Use in the book
In the prayer following contemplation of Christ’s death, fidelity must become visible in care and suffering. The speaker asks to love others through divine assistance and to find life in the pattern of Christ’s self-giving. Faithfulness is paired with efficacy: love must be both constant and effective. Later, awareness of divine goodness and communion supplies courage for duty, producing zeal, fidelity, and praise. Ignorance has the opposite practical effects, leaving the person fearful, barren, indifferent, and unfaithful. Knowing and loving are therefore joined by what they enable the believer to do and sustain.
Places to read
In this edition
Faithfulness here is active and relational. Traherne’s claim concerns the practical fruit of understanding, not bare verbal profession.