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JOUBERT, JOSEPH (1754–1824)

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Originally appearing in Volume V15, Page 522 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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JOUBERT, See also:JOSEPH (1754–1824) , See also:French moralist, was See also:born at Montignac (See also:Correze) on the 6th of May 1754. After completing his studies at See also:Toulouse he spent some years there as a teacher. His delicate See also:health proved unequal to the task, and after two years spent at See also:home in study Joubert went to See also:Paris at the be-ginning of 1778. He allied himself with the chiefs of the philosophic party, especially with See also:Diderot, of whom he was in some sort a See also:disciple, but his closest friendship was with the See also:abbe de See also:Fontanes. In 1790 he was recalled to his native See also:place to See also:act as See also:juge de paix, and carried out the duties of his See also:office with See also:great fidelity. He had made the acquaintance of Mme de See also:Beaumont in a Burgundian cottage where she had taken See also:refuge from the Terror, and it was under her See also:inspiration that Joubert's See also:genius was at its best. The See also:atmosphere of serenity and See also:affection with which she surrounded him seemed necessary to the development of what Sainte-Beuve calls his " esprit aile, ami du ciel et See also:des hauteurs." Her See also:death in 1803 was a great See also:blow to him, and his See also:literary activity, never great, declined from that See also:time. In 1809, at the solicitation of Joseph de See also:Bonald, he was made an inspector-See also:general of See also:education, and his professional duties practically absorbed his interests during the See also:rest of his See also:life. He died on the 3rd of May 1824. His See also:manuscripts were entrusted by his widow to See also:Chateaubriand, who published a selection of Pensees from them in 1838 for private circulation. A more See also:complete edition was published by Joubert's See also:nephew, See also:Paul de See also:Raynal, under the See also:title Pensees, essais, maximes et correspondance (2 vols. 1842).

A selection of letters addressed to Joubert was published in 1883. Joubert constantly strove after perfection, and the small quantity of his See also:

work was partly due to his See also:desire to find adequate and luminous expression for his discriminating See also:criticism of literature and morals. If Joubert's readers in See also:England are not numerous, he is well known at second See also:hand through the sympathetic See also:essay devoted to him in See also:Matthew See also:Arnold's Essays in Criticism (1st See also:series). See Sainte-Beuve, Causeries du lundi, vol. i. ; Portraits litteraires, vol. ii. ; Ind a See also:notice by Paul de Raynal, prefixed to the edition of 1842.

End of Article: JOUBERT, JOSEPH (1754–1824)

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