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Dromo's Den
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[Up] [Dromo's Den] Johann Lavater Biography LAVATER, Johann Kaspar (1741–1801). A Swiss mystic, founder of what is known as the "art of physiognomy." He was born in Zurich, the son of a physician. As a boy, he showed no remarkable aptitudes, though in youth he gave proof of power by coming forward in 1762 with the artist Henri Fuseli to accuse the Landvogt Grebel of oppression and injustice, under which others had groaned without daring to complain. A volume of poems entitled Schweizerlieder (1767) early gained for Lavater a great reputation. Aussichten in die Ewigkeit (3 vols., 1768–73), his next publication, speedily ran through several editions. The tone of his work is one of exalted religious enthusiasm, mingled with asceticism; for Lavater was a mystic both in theology and philosophy. This gave to his opponents an opportunity to accuse him of all manner of heresy. Possessing the keenest powers of observation and the most delicate discrimination of human traits, Lavater came to believe that the character of men could be discovered in their countenances. He labored to form a system of physiognomy, hoping thus to promote the welfare of mankind, and at last published the work upon which his fame chiefly rests, Physiognomische Fragments zur Beförderung der Menschenkenntniss und Menschenliebe (4 vols., 1775–78). Lavater at first hailed the French Revolution with joy, but after the murder of the King he regarded the whole movement with religious abhorrence. At the capture of Zurich by Masséna, while aiding the wounded in the street, Lavater himself received a wound, from the effects of which he died. The New International Encyclopaedia, Vol. XIII (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1920) 637. |