text:  And as to kissing and jumping on people's knees and hugging close to the heart these seem equivalent among the Germans of all ranks and ages to a good hearty shake of the hand among our more sedately behaved population; and though we think that under ordinary circumstances our national customs in those respects are preferable we are not prepared to say that we should be sorry for the introduction of a little Germanism in our own case if we were a great poet at the age of fifty-eight and were acquainted with a lively happy charming little genius like Bettina of fifteen