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- A quote that stands out to me is when the narrator's cousin tells the narrator that he lacks "an eye that can really see" (Hoffman 380). This stands out to me because it implies that there is a divide between those that "can really see" and those who can't and in this text the divide seems to rest on creativity and artistic genius. The cousin's status as a writer allows him to understand the innermost character of various people in the market below from only their physical visage. The cousin uses figurative language a lot to personify inanimate objects such as clothes that are associated with the people he is studying to help him paint a more nuanced picture.
- This text and Lavater's Essays on Physiognomy are quite connected, the word physiognomy is even brought up as a way to describe what the cousin and the narrator are doing. This text like Lavater's connects the beauty or lack of beauty of a subject being studied with the divine, calling a modest girl with lack of affectation a "lovely angel" (Hoffman 389) while a gruff cook who is with her is described as "the impudent demon of the kitchen" (Hoffman 389).