[3891] Those who tell us that the things of this life, glory, riches, and the other human illusions, benefits or evils, etc., count for nothing, would do better to show us other things which really do count. Until they do this, we, in spite of their arguments, and our experience, will always attach ourselves to things which do not count, precisely because nothing counts, and therefore there is nothing which merits our attachment more than they do and is more worthy to occupy us. And by acting thus, we will always be right, even, indeed precisely, philosophically speaking. (18 Nov. 1823.)
The character, etc. etc., of men varies, and receives notable differences not only from climate to climate, but even from town to town, from district to district, from mile to mile; and that is only talking of natural differences. In places where the air is thin, intellects are usually greater and more awake and capable, and particularly sharper and more inclined and prone to cunning. The most cunning by habit and the most ingenious by nature of all Italians are those from the Marche, which without doubt is linked to the thinness, etc., of their air. The same with Italians in general in comparison with other nations. The moment one sets foot on the soil of the Marche, one recognizes visibly a physiognomy which is more lively, more animated, a glance more penetrating and sharper than that of their neighbors, or the Romans themselves though they live in the ways and society of a great capital.1 The same can be argued of the other differences, [3892] etc. Mountain dwellers differ notably, if not in body, certainly in temperament, character, disposition, etc., from those who live in the very plains and valleys which are below them, shore dwellers from the inland people who border on them, etc. etc., even if we speak only of the differences caused by the natural differences between places, etc. The number of even simply natural causes which produce differences between people is infinite. These causes, though sometimes greater and sometimes smaller, are always notable, and much more notable than in any other species of living creatures, because of man’s extreme capacity to adapt and modify and therefore his being liable to be influenced by even the slightest causes of variety, modification, etc., which in other beings either produce no variety, or very little, etc. The causes of this variety intersect so to say with each other, because the heat of the climate produces one effect, the thickness of the air another contrary one, and the two causes very often, and so on and so forth. They mutually temper, modify, alter, vary, weaken, strengthen each other in a thousand ways according to their infinite diversities, and their diversities of degree and those of their mutual combinations, etc. etc., and as many diversities, an infinity that is to say, and diversities of diversities, all notable, follow from them in men’s characters. These observations should be applied to those on pp. 3806–10 and to those [→Z 1553, 1819–22, 3197–206, 3344–47] on the true, that is natural differences of talents, differences which are either innate, or acquired and contracted [3893] naturally, and through causes and circumstances which are natural and independent of social causes and circumstances or of events, etc., differences which would have operated and do operate proportionately on their own account also in primitive men, in savages, etc., and operate also, though infinitely less, in animals, plants, etc. etc., in proportion, and according to their susceptibility, and the quality and level and combinations, etc., of those causes and circumstances, etc. etc.1 (18 Nov. 1823.)
Tio Spanish. Zio Italian. θεῖος [uncle] Greek.2 (19 Nov. 1823.)
On the subject of the damage caused to valor by the invention of firearms, see Archidamus’s phrase in Vettori’s commentary on Aristotle, Politics, bk. 7, Florence 1576, p. 602,3 which phrase is reported by Xenophon, if I am not mistaken, in his Agesilaus, and perhaps attributed to him; or else in his Constitution of Sparta.4 As well as Ariosto’s invectives against firearms in one of the first ten cantos of the Furioso, talking about Cimosco, etc.5 (19 Nov. 1823.)
Americans considered Europeans’ beards a monstrosity since those peoples were naturally beardless, like the moors and other peoples of Africa, etc. This is to be applied to the observations on the beautiful. Solís, Historia de Mexico; Cieça, Chronica del Peru, etc.6 (19 Nov. 1823.)
Positivized diminutives. Gesticulor [to gesticulate], etc. However this, if it does not come from gesticulus [gesticulation] (which is a modern word and only in Tertullian) could be a frequentative rather than a diminutive, or a mixture of the two, like so many other of our Italian verbs, about which elsewhere [→Z 1116–17, 1240–42] ex professo. See Forcellini. French gesticuler. We also say gesticolare in common parlance. [3894] See Alberti, etc. (19 Nov. 1823.) Corbeau from corvus [raven].
Gero–gestum [to bear], gesto, gestito [to bear]. (19 Nov. 1823.)
For p. 3883. Superstition whether speculative or practical is the daughter of society, and is inseparable from that society, however civilized it may be, as all histories show. In fact it appears that differently from other nuisances and barbarities of primitive society it increases in proportion with the increase in civilization. Certainly, there have been and there are some savage peoples who have no superstition, or at least no effective one having any influence in any way on life, or which causes any exterior or interior unhappiness. But there has never been, there is not, and there never will be any civilized people in which superstition to a greater or lesser degree, and in one way or another, does not hold sway, no matter how great its level of civilization was, or is, or will be. See the Letters of Frederick II and D’Alembert, Letter 49, pp. 125–26, comparing it with letter 45, p. 117, and letter 47, pp. 120, end–121, and letter 53, p. 135, end, and letter 70, p. 185, end.1 Now it does not need a lengthy discussion to show, or even to recall, the number or the magnitude of evils which superstition has caused by its nature both to peoples and to individuals, equally to themselves and to others, troubling them externally and internally, with respect to customs, institutions, actions, opinions, etc., or the number and magnitude of benefits it has hindered and hinders by its nature, etc., since it is already proven and well known. (19 Nov. 1823.) Certainly superstition has no place in even the most social animals. Therefore man by nature is less social than any other species, etc. See p. 3896.
Positivized diminutives. Faisceau from fascis and for fascis. Similarly fastello, virtually fascettello [bundle]. Gocciola, gocciolare sgocciolare, etc., diminutives equivalent to the positive goccia, gocciare, sgocciare, etc., from gutta [drop]. These diminutives, that is gocciola (and so frombola [3895] on which p. 3636, margin, although fromba [sling] is not a Latin noun), etc., and other similar ones in short olo, etc., are Latin in fashion; which should be noted. (20 Nov. 1823.)
Sleep and everything which induces sleep, etc., is in itself pleasurable, according to my theory of pleasure, etc. There is no greater pleasure (nor greater happiness) in life, than not to feel life. (20 Nov. 1823.)
For p. 3876. Venio [to come] has already lost its i in veni and this i is not radical, but belongs to the ending of the perfect, if in fact it does not include both i’s as in ancient manuscripts and monuments one very often finds audi for audii, Tulli for Tullii, etc., on which see Niebuhr’s Conspectus orthographiae codicis Vaticani de republica.1 In any case it is certain that the i for example of Tulli, contains virtually two i’s like our modern (and Latin) j. Besides, anomalies which cause the loss of the root i in stems of the fourth conjugation are very frequent. E.g., vincio–vinxi [to bind] (where the second i is not the radical) sentio–sensi [to feel], etc. Likewise a large number of contractions, such as saltum from salio [to leap] for salitum, etc. etc. etc. Audisti audistis, etc., are contractions, not, I believe, of audiistis, etc., but of audivisti, like amasti is of amavisti; hence in audisti audistis, etc., the radical i would not have been lost, but only the interposed syllable, vi. (20 Nov. 1823.)
[3896] D’emblée [straightaway] evidently comes from the Greek ἐμβάλλω [to throw in]. For Gredisms in Vulgar Italian see in Vettori, Commentarius on Aristotle’s Politics, Bk. 7, end, Florence 1576, pp. 646, end–647, beginning. The passage of Aristotle quoted here is i
bid., p. 641, end.1 (21 Nov. 1823.)
Positivized diminutives: pocillator from pocillum, instead of saying poculator from poculum, but with the same meaning, that is οἰνοχόος [cupbearer]. (21 Nov. 1823.) Gemellus with its derivatives, diminutive of geminus [twin], like pagella of pagina [written page]. Gemello, jumeau, see Spanish. Femelle from femella for femina, femme, passed into French with the simple meaning of woman. So favellare from fabella, in place of and in the sense of fabulare from fabula, on which see p. 3844. (21 Nov. 1823.)
Latin monosyllables. See Forcellini under Leo es. (21 Nov. 1823.)
For p. 3894, margin. As reason with which man alone is provided (or that level of intellectual faculty which is called reason, and which only the intellect of man reaches and can reach)2 is useful in a thousand ways, necessary in a thousand ways to society, and is its origin and effective cause, so in a thousand other ways (as for example through superstition which would not exist without the level of mental faculty which we have, and which beasts do not have, and through a hundred thousand other effects) it is by its nature harmful and in fact directly contrary to the society of men, and to their well-being and their perfection in the social state, etc. etc. I am speaking here of that faculty of reason which man has by nature, in the primitive state as well, and I assert that this very faculty demonstrates that man is less disposed by nature to society than the other animals, although on the other hand it seems a primary and invincible proof of the opposite, etc. etc. (21 Nov. 1823.)
[3897] The French negative ne is the very ancient negative of the Latins, who said ne and nec for non, Ne quidem for nec quidem, as I have discussed in relation to nihilum when talking about the word silva and its origin [→Z 2306–12], and have shown also that ne served in compounds as a privative particle, nequam, etc., where the ne is privative, etc., as in Greek νη, νε, ν, and consequently both it and the Greek ones mentioned must certainly have originally been negative particles, that is absolutely at the service of negation, etc. And see Forcellini under Ne, Nec, etc., and the Greek Lexicons under νη, etc. (22 Nov. 1823.)
Does febricito as [to have a fever] come perhaps from a febrico as atum, or ui itum (like applico [to connect with], explico [to unfold], etc., ui itum, etc., and similar, on which elsewhere [→Z 3716–17]), which might be cognate with febricosus? (22 Nov. 1823.)
Not only adjectives are formed from participles in us, as elsewhere several times [→Z 2291], but very frequently the participles themselves have become substantives, such as factum [deed], actum [transaction], jussum [order], etc. etc. Hence also from such substantives one can sometimes deduce the real participles, and the existence of unknown verbs, of which these substantives will have originally been the participles, even though we do not at present know, etc. etc. (22 Nov. 1823.)
For p. 3636. It is to be noted that when the positive of positivized diminutives (as of martello [hammer], etc.), whether they are Latin, or modern, Latin in origin, or modern in origin, etc., cannot be found, [3898] or at least its meaning is not known (whether in the same language, or in Latin, or in others, etc.), then it may be the case that this was different from that of their known diminutives, either completely different, or different insofar as it was more general, or belonged to a species of things of the same sort but in fact different from what is signified by the diminutive, etc. So such diminutives cannot with certainty be called positivized, although in their meaning one can see no cause, or vestige of diminution; since by positivized is meant those diminutives which have come to be used in place of their positives (which are either coexisting, or have become obsolete), and consequently in the same sense as the latter. And the diminutives whose examples I bring together here, have to be of this sort, and no other. (22 Nov. 1823.) See p. 3945.
For p. 3513. Since women naturally and speaking generally (and the effect is enough to show that it is so by nature) live somewhat less longer than men do, or are destined to a somewhat shorter span of life, and in fact their development, and the decline and extinction of their faculties and of their youth is certainly more speedy, and their physical career generally more rapid; so it is very likely that the given quantities of time appear somewhat greater to them than they do to men, in accordance with the small proportion which comes from the slight disadvantage in length which their lives naturally have compared with ours. It is no surprise if this effect is not taken note of, since the difference and proportion are very small, [3899] and if it seems imperceptible, being almost minimal, etc. Perhaps similar imperceptible differences could be assumed between different individuals of the same sex, nation, etc., as deriving from and proportionate to certain relative physical or moral differences, etc., that might be noticed in this context, and which are able to cause such an effect, etc. etc. (22 Nov. 1823.)
“Je me rappelle souvent ce vers anglais: ‘L’homme est fait pour agir, et tu prétends penser?’” [“I often remember this English line: ‘Man is made for action, and you claim to think?’”] Frédéric II, Lettres à d’Alembert, tome 13, p. 203.1 (22 Nov. 1823.) See p. 3931.
Word common to the three languages: Ciabatta, zapato, savate [slipper] (it is well known that our soft c, in Spanish is z, in French counts as s), savaterie, savetier, zapatero, ciabattino [cobbler], acciabattare [to cobble], etc. etc. The metaphorical meanings of such words, as of saveter and acciabattare [to botch, to bungle], of ciabattino and savetier for mauvais ouvrier [bad workman], etc. etc., are also in line with each other, at least between Italian and French, since the meaning of ciabatta, savate, zapato, although similar, is somewhat different in Spanish, etc. (23 Nov. 1823.)
For p. 3851. With us too, however, avvisato for prudente, could be a participle of avvisarsi, a reciprocal, or neuter passive verb, in the sense of avvedersi [to become aware of], etc., and in that case it would not be part of our discussion, any more in fact than avveduto from avvedersi (which means the same as avvisato) would be part of it, nor accorto from accorgersi (which likewise means the same: I am referring to accorto, avveduto, avvisato taken as adjectives), and the other participles of neuter passives or reciprocals. (23 Nov. 1823.)
[3900] For p. 3869, margin. From these observations it is clear that we should say vivisco and not vivesco, also by norm and analogy and general reason.—Example of an inchoative verb formed from a 4th-conjugation verb could be scisco [to inquire] from scio [to know]—Hisco [to open, to gape] from hio–hiatum [to open, to gape], is no more than a corruption of hiasco which also exists, and which is proper to the ancients; as hieto is a corruption of hiato, which also exists, on which elsewhere [→Z 2818–19]. (23 Nov. 1823.)
To what was said elsewhere [→Z 2818–19] about the continuative hietare [to open the mouth wide, to gape], add what you can see in the previous thought. (23 Nov. 1823.)
For p. 3869, margin, beginning. Arcesso [to send for],—Capesso [to seize],—Facesso [to accomplish] (see Forcellini under Facesso beginning and end)—is īvi ītum. And I believe that the other similar verbs, frequentative or desiderative or whatever they are called (see Forcellini under Facesso, beginning), if there are any, behave in the same way, that is a mixture of the 3rd and 4th conjugation. Arcesso too in the passive infinitive forms arcessi and arcessiri. And see Forcellini under arcesso, beginning. (23 Nov. 1823.) See p. 3904.
For p. 3884. If the quality of Tasso’s style, considered in general, errs in anything, it is more than anything in its delicacy. And certainly not infrequently it leads to weakness, even indeed to coldness, and to that low point which arises from weakness, from a lack of sinew and strength to keep itself tall and upright, etc. etc., and to a lack of robustness, etc. This is much more frequent in Tasso than in either Dante or Petrarch, and more even than in many 2nd-rank poets. (23 Nov. 1823.)
For p. 2843. I am also persuaded to accept that inceptare [to undertake] in this sense of incettare, that is [3901] as a compound of capto [to strive after], is not foreign to ancient Latinity, in accordance with what I said in one of the pages cited on the one to which this thought
belongs [→Z 3350–51], when I see that this sense is wholly Latin, and in the Latin manner, etc., and is almost the same as the meaning of the simple captare, except that it is determined in a certain way to do what is indicated by the verb captare. Besides the fact that the mutation of the a to e in the compounds, and other similar mutations, in regular use in ancient and good Latin, were overlooked in the compounds of later times and of modern languages, can be proved precisely by accattare [to beg] (acheter [to buy]). See Glossary, under accaptare. We also have accettare (accepter, etc.) from acceptare [to accept], but not from capto, but from accipio–acceptus, etc.
A similar example to that of traer sometimes used by the Spanish in the sense of tractare [to drag], as in the first principle of my theory of continuatives [→Z 1104–105], is the example of affecter often used by the French with the same meaning (or similar) as afficere [to affect]. See Forcellini under affecto, end and under affector aris; the Glossary, the Spanish, etc. (23 Nov. 1823.)
For p. 3753, margin—as perhaps those diminutives on which see p. 3844, etc., are also contractions, that is to say pagella for paginella [written page], asellus for asinellus [ass], which is what we say, fabella for fabulella [story], etc. (23 Nov. 1823.) See p. 3992.
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