The principal promoter of physiognomy in modern times was the Swiss pastor Johann Kaspar Lavater(1741–1801)who was briefly a friend of Goethe. Lavater's essays on physiognomy were first published in Germanin 1772 and gained great popularity. These influential essays were translated into Frenchand English. The two principal sources from which Lavater found 'confirmation' of his ideas were the writings of the ItalianGiambattista della Porta(1535–1615) and the English physician-philosopher Sir Thomas Browne(1605–1682), whose Religio Medicidiscusses the possibility of the discernment of inner qualities from the outer appearance of the face