LICHTENBERG

From Agepedia

LICHTENBERG, George Christopher, one of the greatest natural philosophers, and wittiest writers, that Germany has produced, born in 1742, at OberRamstadt, near Darmstadt, was the youngest of a family of 18 children. He received from his father some instruction in physics, and went, after his death, to the academy at Darmstadt. He was strong and well formed till eight years of age; but, at this time, the effects of the carelessness of his nurse became visible, in a distortion of the spine. In 1763, he went to Gottingen, where he applied himself to astronomical observations. He made observations upon the earthquake of 1767, and observed, with Kastner, the transit of Venus over the sun's disk, June 19, 1769, as also the comets of 1770, 1771, and 1773, the orbit of which last he described, and presented to the academy of sciences of Gottingen. He also constructed lunar charts, in which the spots are indicated in the order in which they are successively covered by the earth's shadow. In 1770, he was offered a professorship at Gottingen, which he entered upon in his 28th year. In this year he went to London. Lichtenberg ascertained by observation, in 1772 and 1773, the situations of Hanover, Osnabriick and Stade. He afterwards undertook to publish, with illustrations, the papers left by Tobias Mayer, and added a lunar chart, with a description of lunar spots; but only one volume appeared. He visited England again in 1774, and wrote upon Garrick and the English stage. He subsequently published an excellent commentary upon Hogarth's engravings. In 1778, he returned to Gottingen. From this period, he lectured upon experimental philosophy. His lectures were of great worth, and his apparatus was princely He was ranked as a discoverer in physics, from his observations upon the figures, developed upon electrified substances, which he learned to reproduce and exhibit and which still retain his name. He also attacked, with much wit, in several publications, the system of physiognomy to which Lavater had given such currency ; but he was subsequently reconciled to Lavater. Other productions, which he thought censurable, felt the lash of his wit. His taste for drawings illustrative of character, made him a great admirer of Hogarth. He, for a long time, supplied the Gottingen Souvenir with miniature drawings of the heads of Hogarth, accompanied by very witty and ingenious observations. The favorable reception of these led to the publication of a Minute Explanation of Hogarth's Plates, with perfect miniature Copies of them, by Riepenhausen, of which he published four numbers himself: the seven next to the eleventh were published by Bottiger, and the last by Bouterwek. In the last years of his life, Lichtenberg became hypochondriac and misanthropic, so that he shut himself up in his chamber, and would see no one. He died of a pulmonary inflammation, Feb. 24, 1799, aged 57. He was an original thinker, to whom no subject of a scientific character was uninteresting. Scientific spirit and poetic talent were united in him in a singular degree, and produced the most peculiar and striking results; but the highest principle of the human mindfaith in something divinewas, in his speculative moments, disregarded; and a superstitious belief in dreams, predictions and presentiments, was admitted in its stead.