rried letters and errands on fixed
days, alike through snow and under a scorching sun; they had charge of
all kinds of purchases, and, as trustworthy persons, enjoyed the
confidence of the magistrates, who entrusted them with official letters
and public papers, and when they arrived at their destination had an
appointed place, where letters and return parcels for their native home
were delivered to them. If the intercourse between two places was very
active, a goods conveyance, with compartments with drawers in it, of
which sometimes two associated families had the key, was sent backwards
and forwards.

Scanty and spare was the housekeeping of the citizens; few of them were
sufficiently wealthy to be able to invest their household arrangements
and their life with any polish; and the rich were always in danger of
falling into unseemly luxury, such as corrupted the courts and the
families of the nobility. Those who had a comfortable competency lived
very simply, only showing their wealth by their hospitality and the
adornment of their house and table on festive occasions. Therefore
feasts were ungenial state affairs, for which the whole household was
deranged. Nothing distinguishes the man of the world more than the easy
style of his society. Strict were the regulations in the citizen's
household: everything was precisely defined, even on the smallest
points, as to what one was to render to or receive from another. The
interchange of good wishes and compliments, that is to say, the
courtesies of conversation, and even the _trinkgeld_, all had their
accurately prescribed form and amount. Through these innumerable little
regulations, social intercourse acquired a stiff formality which
strongly contrasts with the freedom from constraint of the present day.
It was still customary to be bled and take medicine on appointed days,
to pay your bills and make visits at stated intervals. Equally fixed
were the enjoyments of the year: the cake which was suitable to every
day, the roast goose, and, if possible, the sledge-drives. Fixed was
the arrangement of the house: the massive furniture which had been
bought by the bridal couple on their first settling down, the stuffed
chair which had perhaps been bought at an auction by the husband as a
student, the folding-table for writing, and the cupboards, had been the
companions of many generations. But underneath this network of old
customs freer views began to germinate: already did the