Fruit

Use in the book

Desire satisfied is a tree whose fruit is joy; in the divine case this fruit is never absent. Human goodness likewise becomes productive in actions whose results the agent can enjoy. Freedom gives this productivity moral consequence: the seeds one chooses bear a corresponding kind of life. At the same time, an injured world bears bitter clusters of vice. Fruit is therefore not inherently favourable as a metaphor; its character depends on the source and cultivation that produce it.

Places to read

1. I.43Satisfied desire is figured as a tree continually bearing the fruit of joy.
2. IV.39Faith and repentance bear fruits within the world as a theatre of virtues.
3. IV.51A good person is made to rejoice in the fruits of his own actions.
4. IV.77In the quotation from Pico, chosen seeds produce corresponding forms of life.

In this edition

“Fruits” can mean effects rather than edible produce. IV.77 belongs to the quoted Pico passage and is interpreted and qualified in the following meditations.

Use in the book

The early description of friendship makes maturity a positive temporal process. After youthful extravagance, the relationship becomes serious with time and sweet like ripening fruit. Development is neither mere decline nor the abrupt arrival of perfection; sweetness comes through change.

The May 1833 orchard offers a larger account. Flowers have died after their reproductive work, fruits have set, and the energy within them is directed toward new individuals. The visible fruit is therefore less an end to be consumed than a carrier of future life. Guérin looks beyond present appearance to the countless generation suspended among the branches.

A September 1834 comparison reverses the protected ripening image. Thoughts exposed through inadequate speech return bruised like fruits fallen onto stones. Their vulnerability depends on having a substance that can be damaged by impact; bringing them into public contact need not complete or improve them. Fruit joins growth, sweetness, futurity, and injury, with the particular stage determining the force of each use.

Places to read

1. 13 August 1832 · ¶3Ripening fruit describes a friendship becoming sweeter and more serious
2. 22 May 1833 · ¶1Fruit-setting redirects attention from vanished blossom to future generations
3. 7 September 1834 · ¶1Bruised fallen fruit models the damage done to cherished thoughts in conversation

Translation in this edition

Les fruits ont noué is rendered the fruits have set. This avoids the misleading literal sense have knotted and keeps the early reproductive stage distinct from the maturité of the friendship comparison.

Use in the book

Aëtius says that fruits are the surplus of water and fire within plants. This places fruit formation within the economy of material intake and growth: constituents present in a plant yield a further product. The notice does not specify proportions, a ripening sequence, or a distinction between edible flesh and seed. It therefore cannot be treated as a complete account of plant reproduction, although it stands beside the statement that plants contain male and female principles. The term surplus is also conceptually useful for comparison with A722, where condensed nourishment participates in the advent of sexual generation. That is a comparison between reported explanatory patterns, not proof that the two passages use an identical physiological mechanism. Fruit remains its own material outcome in the botanical notice.

Places to read

1. A 70 (testimony)2Aëtius. Defines fruits as surpluses of the water and fire in plants.
2. A 72 (testimony)2Aëtius. Associates one route to generation through one another with condensed nourishment, a qualified comparison.

Translation in this edition

The edition translates perittōmata straightforwardly as “surplus.” “Excrement,” “seed,” and modern reproductive tissue would each narrow or redirect the term beyond this report.