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 wordTalent is an ability that can be exercised, conserved or given a determinate form.
- In JoubertThe instruction to husband talent treats excessive energy as damaging: art teaches how to use strength, voice and mind with restraint.
- In this editionThe English translation uses husband in the sense of careful use.
- A place to beginArt teaches conservation and restraint in exercising talent.
- English renderings
- talent
Meaning
Talent is an ability that can be exercised, conserved or given a determinate form. It is distinguishable from undetermined intelligence and from a finished work’s perfection.
Use in the book
The instruction to husband talent treats excessive energy as damaging: art teaches how to use strength, voice and mind with restraint. Talent is not simply maximal force. The shepherd’s dog supplies a nonliterary application, in which Joubert adds pleasure in establishing conceived order to his earlier account of exercising talent. The instrument/work comparison makes another distinction: a finished work depends partly on its instrument or language, while a strong talent has something independent in its vigor. The indefinite “something” leaves the precise extent of that independence open.
Places to read
- I, p. 212, entry 2, ¶1Art teaches conservation and restraint in exercising talent.
- II, p. 502, entry 13, ¶1Talent extends to the shepherd’s dog and its pleasure in order.
- II, p. 816, entry 5, ¶1Talent’s vigor differs from a work’s dependence on instrument and language.
- II, p. 541, entry 13, ¶1Intelligence need not be fixed into a particular talent.
Translation in this edition
The English translation uses husband in the sense of careful use. The II.816 second clause remains elliptical; it does not name every thing from which talent is independent.
Source note
Beaunier 1938, I, pp. 212; II, pp. 502, 541, 816.