SOURCE: Graham, John. “Lavater's Physiognomy in England.” Journal of the History of Ideas 22, no. 4 (October-December, 1961): 561-72.

In the following essay, Graham chronicles the reception and influence of Lavater's works in England.

When Johann Caspar Lavater died in 1801, a leading British periodical, The Scots Magazine, quite rightly acknowledged that he had been, “for many years, one of the most famous men in Europe.”¹ Part of his fame rested on his capable and conscientious performance of duties as a pastor and a religious writer, rôles which made him loved and respected by his fellow citizens of Zurich who literally flocked about him in the streets. But his fame was based more firmly, albeit more questionably, on his Essays on Physiognomy.² That this work was well-known on the continent and in England and America is common enough knowledge, but the full extent of its popularity and impact is yet to...