Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Essays on physiognomy / [Johann Caspar Lavater]. Source: Wellcome Collection.
![[ vi] He who wishes to be clearly understood, must write well. Fhe author ought to form his reader ; for to the former is always i im- puted the slightness of the impression made on the latter. If the only object to be obtained were to please the public, and to car- ry off the prizes of general approbation, perhaps means might be adopted to ensure success—but to produce effect, and precise- ly such an effect; is the end | prope to myself, and to suc- ceed therefore is not easy. How can aman flatter himself with being able to express fully and correctly what he thinks, and especially what he feels ? What 2 task for an author who sees and who feels, to procure for his rea-_ der a situation from whence he may see and feel as he dees him- self ! If this task is solaborious and difficult when Man is the ob- ject, how much more so must 11 be to the writer on physiogno- my? Andt the difficulty increases when I think of the age in which I write ; an age in which every one prides himself on his learn- Ing 5 in ‘which all those who are not authors themselves, set up for critics of authors ; an age in which Art stifles Nature, in which the pure and peaceful enjoyments which she procures are despised, and sacrificed to false and factitious pleasures ; 3; an age In which all his. artifice and trick, and in which, the tinsel of dress, and the affectation of ornament, are preferred t to native and simple beauty. aWhat age most ‘infavourable to the labours of the physiono~ mist; of the child’ of ‘nature, who professes to write net as an’ author, but in’ quatity of'a man ; not for the public, but for hu- manity ? What success can he’ promise ‘himself ? What paths has _he to clear in order to atfive.at the knowledge of the human heart, and to make hiitiself master of it? Is he sure of making: deep and lasting impressions, ‘counteracted, as ‘he is by the crowd of authors, and ct Mapes opposed byt the taste in wegue- There are certain happy moments proper for the dimtoamae ef his works, but what. are those he must choose | ? Must ‘he wait.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b28766738_0006.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
