The Pocket Lavater; or, The Science of Physiognomy / To which is added an inquiry into the analogy existing between brute and human physiognomy

by Johann Caspar Lavater; Giambattista della Porta

Southern District of New-York, ss.

BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the first day of May, in the forty-first year of the Independence of the United States of America, Van Winkle & Wiley, of the said district, have deposited in this office the title of a book, the right whereof they claim as proprietors, in the words and figures following, to wit:

“The Pocket Lavater, or, the Science of Physiognomy. To which is added, An Inquiry into the Analogy existing between Brute and Human Physiognomy, from the Italian of Porta. Embellished with 14 Copperplate heads.”

In conformity to the act of Congress of the United States, entitled, “An act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts, and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the times therein mentioned,” and also, to an act entitled, “An act, supplementary to an act, entitled, an act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts, and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the times therein mentioned, and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of designing, engraving and etching historical and other prints.”

THERON RUDD.
Clerk of the Southern District of New-York.

ADVERTISEMENT.

The public are here presented with a translation from the French of the “Pocket Lavater,” a work which has become highly popular in France, and which has run through successive and repeated editions.

The attention which the French have, of late, paid to Physiognomy, may be ascribed not only to the infatuating nature, and intrinsic excellence of that science, but, also, to adventitious circumstances. France, or, more properly, its metropolis, has, within a few years, become, as it were, the immense stage on which all the varieties of human aspect and action have been exhibited. Their painters, at present, employ the pencil, not on pieces of ancient history or mythological fiction, but in designating the various national physiognomies, costumes, and conformation of body, which Paris now presents, assembled from all Europe, and from some parts of Asia. The Physiognomist has there an ample scope for the study and enlargement of his Science: the Briton melancholy amidst success—the Frenchman happy amidst adversity—the phlegmatic German, the choleric Russian, the proud Spaniard, the vain Pole, and the grave and jealous Turk; these parading her streets and gardens, or thronging her Caffées, must present a group, whose motley and various character mocks both narrative and description. All of these are distinguished from each other by a difference of countenance, language, dress, habits, customs, and manners; yet the philosopher observes in all these but one being under different modifications.

This edition is enriched by an ingenious inquiry into the existing analogy between brute and human physiognomy, from the Italian of Porta, whose observations on national character, although written three centuries ago, are found correct at the present day.