Is the word acquaintance an equivalence of the modern version of dating as in courtship from the context? Did different generations still get to use the word in this sense when we grew up? And what is "the difficulties of civilization"? Thanks. "Dorothea’s inferences may seem large; but really life could never have gone on at any period but for this liberal allowance of conclusions, which has facilitated marriage under the difficulties of civilization. Has any one ever pinched into its pilulous smallness the cobweb of pre-matrimonial acquaintanceship?" “When a man has great studies and is writing a great work, he must of course give up seeing much of the world. How can he go about making acquaintances?”