Nothing is so difficult as to form a correct judgment of the morality in families of a far-distant period. For it is not sufficient to estimate the sum of striking errors, which in itself is very difficult; it is equally necessary to understand the individual injustice in particular cases which is often impossible. Among the citizens, the intercourse of both sexes was almost entirely confined to the family circles: larger societies were rare. In the houses of intimates, the habits of the young people were lively and unrestrained; the friends of the sisters and the comrades of the brothers became part of the family. The custom still continued of making confidences in jest which would now be considered objectionable. Embracing and kissing were not restricted to games of forfeits. Such a custom, however harmlessly and innocently carried on by the young people, was calculated to give rise to feelings of levity which we should view with regret, and it frequently gave birth to a certain bold freedom in the intercourse between the young men and maidens. Tender liaisons were quickly formed in families between the unmarried members; no one thought them wrong, and they were as speedily dissolved. These transient liaisons, full of sentiment, seldom increased to a deeper passion, nay, in general, the poetry of youth was extinguished by them. They seldom led, either, to betrothal or marriage; for marriage at that period, about 1750, was still as much an affair of business as of the heart. And the endless blessing of love and faithfulness, which just then began to dawn upon them, rested generally on other grounds than on the glow of a pure passion, or a deep-seated communion of feeling preceding the betrothal.