Volume 2

Essays on physiognomy; designed to promote the knowledge and the love of mankind / written in the German language by John Caspar Lavater, and translated [from the German] into English by Thomas Holcroft; to which are added One hundred physiognomonical rules, a posthumous work by Mr. Lavater; and memoirs of the life of the author, comp. principally from the life of Lavater, by G. Gessner.

  • Lavater, Johann Caspar, 1741-1801
Date:
1840
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Essays on physiognomy; designed to promote the knowledge and the love of mankind / written in the German language by John Caspar Lavater, and translated [from the German] into English by Thomas Holcroft; to which are added One hundred physiognomonical rules, a posthumous work by Mr. Lavater; and memoirs of the life of the author, comp. principally from the life of Lavater, by G. Gessner. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    all his companions burst into a loud laugh,—“ I, 1 Ei He answered thus without the least consideration, or indeed any particular inclination. But. scarcely had the word passed. his lips, than he began to feel a desire, which soon became. a wish, and that wish so firm a resolution, that he seemed to himself already a minister. He went home, and the moment he opened the door, exclaimed,—‘“I will be a minister. There has been a gentleman in the school to-day who has asked us all what we would be. I know what I will be.” His mother checked him, and_ said,— “Surely that does not depend on your will alone; you will, I hope, ask the advice and permission of your father and myself.” His father made more objections, though ina less hasty manner, and young Caspar knew not what to answer. His mother at length put an end to the discourse, by saying,—‘ It will be time enough several years hence to decide this question, in the mean time let events take their course; it is very possible this may not have hap- pened merely by chance.” The parents of Lavater had, in. fact, never enter- tained an idea of educating their son for the church ; they had intended him for the practice of medicine, the profession of his father. He had likewise an. uncle, Matthias Lavater, who was an apothecary, and an elder brother, John Conrad. His uncle had no chil- dren, and was very fond of him. It was proposed, therefore, to educate him for a physician, and make his brother an apothecary. But the incident of young Lavater’s declaring he would be a minister appears to