Essays on physiognomy. ... for the promotion and the love of mankind / written in the German language by John Caspar Lavater ; tr. by Thomas Holcroft.
- Johann Kaspar Lavater
- Date:
- 1806
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Essays on physiognomy. ... for the promotion and the love of mankind / written in the German language by John Caspar Lavater ; tr. by Thomas Holcroft. Source: Wellcome Collection.
18/326 page 6
![a t-omc opinion of hiin ? and say, This man lias an honest Jook—this man has a pleasing or l’or- *' bidding comitenanec.” VVdiat is it to thc pur- posc whelhcr his jiidgnicnt be right or wrong ? ilejndges; und, thongh not wholly, he depends, in pari, iipon thecxierior form, andthencc draws ijiferenccs conccrning the inind. The farmer, walking through his grounds, re- gulates liis futiirc expeetations by the colour, the size, the growlh, thc exterior ; tliat is to say, by the physiognomy of the hioom, thc stalk or thcear of his corn, thc stem and slioots of his vine tree.— “ This ear of corn is bliglited—ihat vvood is full ofsa])—this will grow, that not,” affirms he at the first or second glance.—Thoiigh these vine- shoots look well, they will bear biit few grapes.” And whcreforc ? He remarks in their appearance, as the physiognomist in the countenances of shal- low men, thc want of native cnergy. l)oes he not judge by the exterior ? l)oes not the physician pay more attention to the physiognoniy of the sick, than to all the ac- counts that are bronght hini concerning his pa- tient ? Zinimermann, ainong the living, may bc bronght as a proof of the great perTeetion at whicn this kind of judgment is arrived; and, among the dead, Kempf, whoseson has written a treatise on temperainent. I will say nothing of the painter, as his art too evidently reproves the childish and arrogant pre- judices of tnose whopretend to disbelieve physio- gnomy. The traveller, the philanthropist, the inisanthropist, the lover (and who not?), all act according to their fcelings and decisions, true or false, confusedor clcar, concerning physiognomy. These fcelings, these decisions, excite compassion, disirust.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22029734_0018.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
