Windfalls

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1878 edition. Excerpt: ...for his kindness and gracious hospitality each in turn said Guten Nacht, and then they all took their leave. For a long time Lavater, resting his elbow on the window-sill, his cheek in his hand, watched the waving line of their retreat, hearing ever fainter and fainter the murmur of their voices and the dying music of their laughter.. Soon all was silent. Still he did not change his position: a shade of pensiveness stole over his delicate features, which deepened, till presently the moon rose above the rounded trees, and flooded all the porch steps, and his own countenance with a burnish of golden light. Then, if one had looked, one might have observed in his eyes, as he followed the moon in its course, a gaze of rapt and intimate devotion: the philosopher looked now a saint. The fine weather still continued. Lavater was seated, as the young people had found him the day before, at his table, carefully examining proofs which had been sent him for his great work on physiognomy. He compared them with the drawings which Fuseli and other eminent artists had sent him for his work. The engravings were beautifully done, and a smile of satisfaction showed that he appreciated the care of the engraver. Yet, every now and then, a twitch of impatience betrayed a discovery that minutiae which had escaped the engraver's eye caught his own. These trifling defects seemed to him prodigious; for he saw in all the straight lines, angles, and curves of the human face that language of physiognomy which the engraver misunderstood. As he said to his friend, Zimmermann, when his theory first dawned on him, "It is by the lines of that person's neck that I divine his character;" so still every feature was charged with an expression for him which even his...