LAVATER, JOHANN KASPAR (1741-18o1), poet, the ologian, mystic, physiognomist, was born at ZUrich on Nov. 15, 1741, and died there on Jan. 2, 18O1. He was educated at the ZUrich Gymnasium; J. J. Bodmer and J. J. Breitinger were among his teachers. Lavater took orders in 1769 and for the rest of his life he was deacon or pastor in one or other of the Protestant churches of ZUrich. In 1767 he aroused great patriotic enthusiasm by his ardent Schweizerlieder, which quickly became popular. His ora torical fervour and genuine depth of conviction gave him an ex traordinary personal influence ; and he was consulted as a spiritual adviser by many thousands of Swiss and Germans, either in person or by correspondence. His mystical writings were also widely popular. Lavater's name, however, is now chiefly remem bered by a by-product of his genius-his work on physiognomy, Physiognomische Fragmente zur Beforderung der Menschen kenntnis und Menschenliebe (1775-78). This book found many enthusiastic admirers in France and England, as well as in Ger many. Goethe, who was long a warm friend of Lavater, con tributed a chapter to it. It left, however, the science of physi ognomy as desultory and unscientific as it found it. More char
acteristic of Lavater's genius and religious temperament are his somewhat mystical Aussichten in die Ewigkeit ( 1768-78) , which went through several editions; Geheimes Tagebuch von einem Beobachter seiner selbst (1772-73); and Pontius Pilatus, oder der Mensch in alien Gestalten On the capture of Zurich by Massena in 1799, Lavater was shot by a French grena dier. He lingered for more than a year and died on Jan. 2, 18or.
More or less complete collections of his works were published both in his lifetime and after, the last in 1841-44. Lives of him have been written by G. Gessner (1802-o3), F. W. Bodemann (2nd edt., 1877), F. Muncker (1883), P. I. Heisch (1842, in English), and A. Vomei (1923). See also the studies by V. Hegner (1836), F. D. Pestalozzi (1915), F. Behrend (1916), and C. Janentzsky (1916) ; also Goethe und Lavater (19oi), published by the Goethegesellschaft. The Physi ognomie and the Geheimes Tagebuch have been translated into English (the former by H. Hunter and Thos. Holcroft).