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Georg Christoph Lichtenberg Author

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg, professor of physics at Gottingen (1742-1799), was a man of varied interests and a shrewd, kindly observer of the human scene; his aphorisms in particular demonstrate why he is considered to have been one of the sharpest intellects of the Enlightenment, and one of its finest prose writers. His commentaries on Hogarth have led a recent critic to speak of him 'simply Hogarth's best interpreter, realizing in words the artist's visual score, and often interpolating a virtuoso cadenza of his own.'