From the book
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volumes I–II
Joseph Joubert · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Fortune and chance
fortune; hasard
Fortune can signify a power distributing outcomes, social circumstances or success.
Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordFortune can signify a power distributing outcomes, social circumstances or success.
- In JoubertThe personified fortune gives virtues to make a person worthy of esteem and successes to make that person esteemed.
- In this editionThe English translation varies fortune, station and success according to these constructions, using chance for hazard.
- A place to beginFortune distributes virtue and success differently.
- English renderings
- fortune; station; success; chance
Meaning
Fortune can signify a power distributing outcomes, social circumstances or success. Hazard, a historical spelling of hasard, explicitly names chance.
Use in the book
The personified fortune gives virtues to make a person worthy of esteem and successes to make that person esteemed. Social station then restricts familiarity, while the fortune enjoyed by mediocre people among the witty means favorable reception rather than wealth. The educational note gives chance a different role: appetites, passions, companions and reading mold a shapeless soul when a certain formation is missing. The unnamed sort of education remains unspecified.
Places to read
- I, p. 156, entry 1, ¶1Fortune distributes virtue and success differently.
- II, p. 508, entry 2, ¶1Fortune denotes social station.
- II, p. 585, entry 4, ¶1A person’s fortune can mean success in reception.
- II, p. 760, entry 5, ¶1Chance directs unsystematic inward formation.
Translation in this edition
The English translation varies fortune, station and success according to these constructions, using chance for hazard. It preserves the esteem/worthy-of-esteem distinction and does not automatically render fortune as financial wealth. Chance here concerns the contingent shaping of life, not a developed metaphysical account of causation.
Source note
Beaunier 1938, I, pp. 156; II, pp. 508, 585, 760.
From the book
Centuries of Meditations
Thomas Traherne · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Fortune
fortune; worldly circumstances; portion of outward means
Fortune here means a person’s material circumstances or outward lot.
Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordFortune here means a person’s material circumstances or outward lot.
- In TraherneThe child reasons that a good God should provide great riches, then finds an apparent contradiction in his father’s poor house and his own narrow fortune.
- In this editionKeep the economic and circumstantial sense in view.
- A place to beginThe child’s scanty fortune appears to contradict divine goodness until wider gifts are recognised.
Meaning
Fortune here means a person’s material circumstances or outward lot. It does not name a goddess or establish a theory of random events.
Use in the book
The child reasons that a good God should provide great riches, then finds an apparent contradiction in his father’s poor house and his own narrow fortune. The contradiction depends on an incomplete inventory: soul, body, earth, rivers, and stars have not been counted. Recognising these does not retrospectively make the household affluent; it changes what can be understood as the child’s endowment.
Places to read
- III.16The child’s scanty fortune appears to contradict divine goodness until wider gifts are recognised.
In this edition
Keep the economic and circumstantial sense in view. “Fortune” in this occurrence is not synonymous with providence, fate, or successful luck.
Source note
Primary text: III.16.