355 TRAVELS m THE UNITED STATES : 
but they seldom, notwithstanding, go beyond 
the bounds of their walks and gardens except., 
it be occasionally to visit their friends in the 
town. 
The Moravians, though they do not enjoin 
celibacy, yet think it highly meritorious, and 
the young persons of different sexes have but 
very little intercourse with each other; they 
never enter each other’s houses, and at church 
they are obliged to sit separate; it is only in 
consequence of his having seen her at a distance* 
perhaps, that a bachelor is induced to propose 
for a young woman in marriage, and he,is not: 
permitted to offer his proposals in person to the 
object of bis choice, but merely through the 
medium of the superintendant of the female 
house. If from the report of the elders and 
wardens of the society it appears to the super¬ 
intendant that he is able to maintain a wife, 
she then acquaints her protegee with the offer, 
and should she consent, they are married im¬ 
mediately, but if she do not, the superintendant 
selects another female from the house, whom 
she imagines would be suitable to the young 
man, and on his approval of her they are as 
quickly married. Hasty as these marriages are* 
they are never known to be attended with un¬ 
happiness; for being taught from thir earliest 
■infancy to keep those passions under controul, 
which occasion so much mischief amongst the 
