Karamzin, Kant, and Lavater — Intersecting Biographies
... Lavater in Zürich, with whom he had already corresponded for three years, but Kant warned him of Lavater’s excessive imagination, which let him believe in dreams and magnetism. Lavater’s ‘Schwärmerei’ was above all attacked by the publishers F. Nicolai and J. E. Biester, whom Karamzin would soon come in touch with in Berlin. The young traveler was appalled by the caustic tone of the debate among philosophers, who considered themselves enlightened and ought to be tolerant toward dissenters. Aside ...