LAVATER, JOHANN KASPAR. - Protestant writer and pastor, b. in Zurich on 15 Nov. 1741, d. there on 2 Jan. 1801. He formed his philosophical and religious culture on the texts of Zwingli, Leibniz, and Rousseau. The influence of Enlightenment rationalism was subsequently gradually tempered by his overall Pietist mysticism. Appointed deacon of the Zurich orphanage, and later pastor of the church of St. Peter, he was a highly distinguished orator.
His best-known works are: Geheimes Tagebuch von einem Beobachter seiner selbst (1771-73); Physiognomische Fragmente zur Beförderung der Menschenkenntnis und Menschenliebe (1775-78). He applied the psychological method to physiognomic investigation, seeking to grasp, together with the characteristics of man, the grounds for the elevation of the human creature to God. He also composed lyric and epic poems of little importance; taken as a whole, his literary work remains fragmentary, partly contradictory, and of uncertain scientific foundation, as is attested, among other things, by L.'s interest in occultism.