£84 LAV 
foreigner pafled through Zurich without obtaining an In¬ 
terview with Lavater, and procuring his judgment of fome 
character from a fhade or miniature. On thefe occafions 
the philofopher fometimes appears to have employed a lit¬ 
tle quackery, although candour and fincerity were the ha¬ 
bitual qualities of his heart; but he was engaged in fup- 
port of a fyftem, and his reputation for fagacity was at 
flake. Together with admirers he met with opponents, 
who attacked his do&rines both with argument and ridi¬ 
cule. The refult has been, that, novelty and wonder hav¬ 
ing ceafed, his bulky volumes are feldom looked at except 
for the plates ; and the Lavaterian phyfiognomy is con- 
figned to neglefV among the other chimerical fciences. 
He indeed confeffed, in one of his books, that his wife, 
though totally unacquainted with his fcientific rules, was 
rendered, by a natural turn for obfervation, a much bet¬ 
ter phyfiognomift than himfelf. One of the belt known 
of his tnifcellaneous writings is his Aphorifms on Man, 
of which an Englilh tranflation from his original manu- 
fcript was publifhed in 1788. Thefe aphorilms contain 
much originality of fentiment and expreflion, with many 
deep and philofophical views of human nature; but fome- 
times obfcure and bordering on extravagance, as well as 
tinged by the writer’s peculiar notions. 
Lavater was zealoufly attached to the Chriftian revela¬ 
tion, and tranfiated “ Bonnet’s Enquiry into the Evidences 
of Chriftianity” into the German language. This he 
thought proper to dedicate to the famous Jewifh philofo¬ 
pher, Mofes Mendelfohn, with a call upon him either 
publicly to refute it, or to profefs his conviction of the 
truth of its arguments. A very excellent reply of Men¬ 
delfohn produced a fair confeffion from Lavater, that his 
zeal had nulled him, and that his challenge was inconfi- 
derate. He afterwards gave way to a devotional myfti- 
cifm, which offended the orthodox, but procured him 
many votaries ; and it is affirmed that he was the centre 
of an invifible church, whofe members extended from Na¬ 
ples to Conftantinople, and who refpected him as their 
founder and prophet. His popularity as a preacher and 
paftor was extremely high at Zurich, where it was com¬ 
mon in his walks for the people to flock about him and 
kifs his hand in token of refpect, and where he was ap¬ 
plied to by all ranks as the decider of controverfies among 
them. His moral character was molt exemplary, and his 
ardent zeal for doing good was fcarcely ever furpaffed. 
Though full of fire and fenfihility, he was mild and mo¬ 
derate in converfation, and extremely candid in his efti- 
mate of thofe who differed from him. His mode of Jiv¬ 
ing was Ample. He rofe earl}', and never took his break- 
faff till he thought he had earned it. The multiplicity of 
bufinefs which he difpatched was indeed wonderful. No 
man was ever a more determined oppofer of tyranny and 
intolerance in every fhape; and he had the true Swifs zeal 
for liberty. This fpirit rendered him a friend to the 
French revolution at its commencement ; but, when the 
republican rulers began to difplay their fyftem of rapine 
and extortion, and to extend it to Swifferland, he was the 
boideft of their antagoniffs. He wrote at that period an 
energetic appeal to the French government; and never 
ceafed to proclaim the rights of his countrymen, till he 
was torn from his congregation as a preacher of (edition, 
and fent as a hoffage to Schaffhaufen. He afterwards re¬ 
turned to Zurich ; and, on the day when that unfortunate 
city 'was flormed by the troops of Maffena, in the autumn 
of 1799, he ruffled into the flreet, and received a fevere 
wound in the bread; from a Swifs foldier on whom he had 
formerly conferred feveral benefits. From the eft'eCfs of this 
wound he never entirely recovered ; and he brought on a 
return of his fymptoms by attending for above an hour, in 
the open air, a man condemned to be (hot as a fpy. The 
activity of his mind was, however, unfubdued till a fhort 
time before his death, which happened on the 2d of Ja¬ 
nuary, 1801, in the lixtieth year of his age. Monthly Rev. 
Ann. Regijl. 
LAVATEfRA, f. [fo named by Tournefort from La- 
L A V 
vater , a phyfician at Zurich. We have none of his writ¬ 
ings.] Tree-Mallow, See. in botany, a genus of the 
clafs monadelphia, order polyandria, natural order of co- 
lumniferae, (malvaceDe, JuJf.) The generic characters are— 
Calyx 1 perianthium double ; exterior one-leafed, trifid, 
obtufe, fhort, permanent; interior one-leafed, half five- 
cleft, more acute, more ereft, permanent. Corolla : pe¬ 
tals five, obcordate, flat, fpreading, affixed below to the 
tube of the ftamens. Stamina : filaments numerous, coa¬ 
lescing below into a tube; loofe above, gaping at the tip 
and furface of the tube; antherae reniform. Piftillum: 
germ orbicular ; ftyle cylindric, fhort ; ffigmas feven to 
fourteen, briftly, length of the ftyle. Pericarpium : cap- 
fule orbicular, compofed of as many cells as there are ftig- 
mas, bivalve, and articulated in a whorl round the colum¬ 
nar receptacle, at length falling off. Seeds : folitary, re¬ 
niform.— Ejjentia / Chamber. Calyx double, outer trifid ; 
arils very many, one-feeded. 
Species. 1. Lavatera arborea, or tree-mallow : ftem ar¬ 
boreous, leaves feven-angled, hairy, plaited ; peduncles 
cluffered, one-flowered, axillary; outer calyxes larger. 
Tree-mallow, or mall.ow-tree, rifes with a ftreng thick 
ftalk the height of eight or ten feet (in gardens), divid¬ 
ing into many branches at the top. In itswild ftate, when 
largeft, from four to fix feet high, and as much as four 
inches in diameter. Leaves alternate, numerous, cordate, 
rounailh ; fome five and others three angled, the angles 
blunt, foft as velvet, fhorter than the petioles. Flowers 
moftly in pairs, fometimes three together, on upright pe¬ 
duncles an inch and half in length ; corolla pnrplifh red, 
with dark blotches at the bafe, fpreading-beil-fhaped, (like 
that of the common mallow,) an inch or more in diame¬ 
ter; petals broader at top, narrow at the bafe, fo that the 
calyx appears between the claws ; cylinder of filaments 
purple, woolly at the bafe; germ very fmooth ; ftyle ufu- 
ally eight-cleft at top ; ffigmas revolute, reddifh. Seeds 
kidney fhaped, afh-colouted. Native of Italy, the Le¬ 
vant, and Britain. With us it is fmaller than it appears 
in the gardens ; and is found at Hurff caftle, Portland 
ifland, Denny ifland near Briftol, in Cornwall and Devon- 
fhire; Teignmouth ; rocks of Caldey ifland; Anglefey, 
See. in Wales ; Baffe-iflands, near Edinburgh ; Inch- 
Garvey and Mykiie-Inch, in the Firth of Forth. It 
flowers from June or July to September or Odfober. 
Ray, Morifon, and others, diltinguifh ours from the 
Italian plant; the leaves of ours being fmaller, more hoary 
on the upper furface, and the upper ones more angular; 
the flowers not fo large, and of a paler red colour. Mori¬ 
fon found it growing plentifully on the ifland of Pierre 
Perce on the coaft ot Bretagne. 
2. Lavatera micans, or fhining tree-mallow : ftem arbo¬ 
reous; leaves feven angled, acute, crenate, plaited, tomen- 
tofe ; racemes terminating. Leaves loft, waving on the 
edge, with brimftone-coloured micas, fhining in the fun 
on the upper furface. Stems from two to three feet in 
height. Native of Spain and Portugal. 
3. Lavatera olbia, or downy-leaved lavatera: ftem 
fhrubby ; leaves flve-lobed-haffate ; flowers folitary. Stem 
round, branched, five feet high, villofe at top, reddifh ; 
leaves foft, whitifb, tomentofe, unequally ferrate. Lin- 
nasus obferves, that the leaves of the firft year are very 
large, and thofe of the following years much fmaller, 
which is a circuinftance common to this with other plants 
of the fame' natural order. It bears a great refemblance 
to the next fpecies : but in this the flowers are folitary, on 
a very fhort peduncle; and the outer calyx is acuminate, 
almoft three-parted, the length of the inner. Native of 
the South of France. It flowers from June to October. 
Cultivated by Mr. Hugh Morgan in 1570, according to 
Lobel. 
4. Lavatera triloba, or three-lobed lavatera: ftem fhrub¬ 
by; leaves fubcordate, fubtrilobate, rounded, crenate ; fti- 
pules cordate ; peduncles one-flowered, aggregate. Stem 
round, branched, from three to four feet in height. Lin- 
nasus obferves, that the whole plant is tomentofe, being 
covered 
