From the book
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volumes I–II
Joseph Joubert · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Joy
joie
Joie, with historical variants joye and joië elsewhere in the corpus, names glad feeling but does not invariably certify moral goodness.
Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordJoie, with historical variants joye and joië elsewhere in the corpus, names glad feeling but does not invariably certify moral goodness.
- In JoubertThe instruction following the Latin saying about the cheerful giver makes joy a manner of giving.
- In this editionThe English translation uses “joyfully” for avec joie and retains joy in the sun passage, alongside happiness where bonheur appears as an alternative.
- A place to beginGiving should be cheerful and smiling.
- English renderings
- joy; joyfully
Meaning
Joie, with historical variants joye and joië elsewhere in the corpus, names glad feeling but does not invariably certify moral goodness.
Use in the book
The instruction following the Latin saying about the cheerful giver makes joy a manner of giving. The literary note’s “guilty joys of the heart,” by contrast, permits sinful joy. The long image of an intelligible sun culminates in a person’s own joy urging play within its rays. That movement gives joy an intellectual and imaginative setting. Its preceding pronouns are unresolved; the article can describe the stated joy without deciding the missing agent of the transformations.
Places to read
- I, p. 114, entry 3, ¶1Giving should be cheerful and smiling.
- I, p. 341, entry 6, ¶1The heart can possess guilty joys.
- II, p. 904, entry 2, ¶1Joy prompts play in an intelligible sun’s rays.
Translation in this edition
The English translation uses “joyfully” for avec joie and retains joy in the sun passage, alongside happiness where bonheur appears as an alternative. It leaves the Latin separate from Joubert’s French instruction and does not add a new antecedent for the difficult feminine pronoun.
Source note
Beaunier 1938, I, pp. 114, 341; II, pp. 904. The agent of the dust/cloud/air transformations on II.904 is unresolved in the English translation; it is not silently identified here.
From the book
Centuries of Meditations
Thomas Traherne · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Joy
joy; joys; rejoicing
Joy names the pleased response to a good and the good as actively enjoyed.
Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordJoy names the pleased response to a good and the good as actively enjoyed.
- In TraherneJoy is neither a mere mood nor an automatic consequence of having things.
- In this editionJoys can denote enjoyed goods as well as feelings.
- A place to beginSatisfied wants produce joys and a further joy in their possession.
Meaning
Joy names the pleased response to a good and the good as actively enjoyed. Its plurality allows many relations and benefits to enter one happiness.
Use in the book
Joy is neither a mere mood nor an automatic consequence of having things. The world can be given while its owner remains joyless through failed esteem. IV.17 accordingly makes rejoicing a discipline of principle: continuance and commonness should increase the value of a good rather than wear it away. Malice can destroy an entire world of joys by altering the mind that receives it.
Desire gives joy its depth. Satisfied wants yield delight, and awareness of possessing that delight becomes a further joy. This reflective multiplication helps explain Traherne’s abundance of plurals. The same good is enjoyed as gift, fulfilment, shared benefit, and evidence of the giver’s love.
Places to read
In this edition
Joys can denote enjoyed goods as well as feelings. Reducing the plural to repeated emotional excitement obscures its relational and reflective force.