agement with Bernhard. His
married life was happy, he was sincerely in love with his wife, and she
became his faithful, devoted companion.

Six children were the offspring of their union: Abraham, Joseph, Nathan,
Dorothea, Henriette, and Recha. In Moses Mendelssohn's house, the one in
which these children grew up, the barriers between the learned world and
Berlin general society first fell. It was the rallying place of all
seeking enlightenment, of all doing battle in the cause of
enlightenment. The rearing of his children was a source of great anxiety
to Mendelssohn, whose means were limited. One day, shortly before his
death, Mendelssohn, walking up and down before his house in Spandauer
street, absorbed in meditation, was met by an acquaintance, who asked
him: "My dear Mr. Mendelssohn, what is the matter with you? You look so
troubled." "And so I am," he replied; "I am thinking what my children's
fate will be, when I am gone."

Moses Mendelssohn was wholly a son of his age, which perhaps explains
the charm of his personality. His faults as well as his fine traits
must be accounted for by the peculiarities of his generation. From this
point of view, we can understand his desire to have his daughters make a
wealthy match. On the other hand, he could not have known, and if he had
known, he could not have understood, that his daughters, touched by the
breath of a later time, had advanced far beyond his position. The Jews
of that day, particularly Jewish women, were seized by a mighty longing
for knowledge and culture. They studied French, read Voltaire, and drew
inspiration from the works of the English freethinkers. One of those
women says: "We all would have been pleased to be heroines of romance;
there was not one of us who did not rave over some hero or heroine of
fiction." At the head of this band of enthusiasts stood Dorothea
Mendelssohn, brilliant, captivating, and gifted with a vivid
imagination. She was the leader, the animating spirit of her companions.
To the reading-club organized by her efforts all the restless minds
belonged. In the private theatricals at the houses of rich Jews, she
filled the principal roles; and the mornings after her social triumphs
found her a most attentive listener to her father, who was in the habit
of holding lectures for her and her brother Joseph, afterward published
under the name _Morgenstunden_. And this was the girl whom her father
wished to see married at sixteen. When a ri