d the prospect of an employment
which would enable him to keep a family, his acquaintances, men and
women, exerted themselves to devise, propose, and negotiate a marriage
for him. Match-making was then a duty which no one could easily escape.
Grave scholars, distinguished officials, rulers and princesses of the
country, assiduously transacted the like disinterested business. A
marriageable man in a respectable position had to endure much from the
admonitions, the mischievous hints, and numerous projects of his
acquaintances. When Gellert first exchanged a few letters with
Demoiselle Caroline Lucius,--whom he had never seen,--he asked her, in
the first long letter with which he had favoured her, whether she would
marry an acquaintance of his, the Precentor at St. Thomas's school.
When Herr von Ebner, chancellor of the University of Altorf, spoke for
the first time to the young Professor Semler, he made him the kind
offer of providing a rich wife for him. The young Professor Puetter, who
was at Vienna in his travels, had the offer of a wealthy merchant's
daughter as a good _partie_, from a count, who was his neighbour at
table, but entirely a stranger to him. This proposal, however, was
declined. But, equally cool as the offers, were the decisions of the
parties interested. Men and women decided upon marrying each other
often after a passing view, or after they had exchanged a few words,
never having had any affectionate intercourse. On both sides a good
recommendation was the main point. The following is an example of a
similar betrothal, which appeared to the parties interested as
especially vehement and impassioned. The assessor of the Supreme Court
of Judicature, von Summermann, became acquainted at the Schwalbach
baths, in 1754, with a Fraeulein von Bachelle, an amiable lady of the
court of a disagreeable Langravine; he saw her frequently at country
parties, to which both were invited by a married acquaintance. Some
weeks later he revealed his wish to marry the Fraeulein, to an
acquaintance at Wetzlar, after he had cautiously collected information
concerning the character of the young lady. The confidant,--it was
Puetter--visited the innocent court lady: "After some short common-place
conversation, I said that I had to make a proposal to her, to which I
must beg for an answer. She replied shortly, 'What kind of proposal?' I
equally shortly and frankly asked, 'Whether she could make up her mind
to marry the Herr von Su