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THE ART . . . OF . . . KISSING.

Curiously, Historically, Humorously, Poetically Considered.

DEDICATED TO ALL WHO LOVE.

New York: J. S. Ogilvie Publishing Company, 57 Rose Street.

THE

ART OF KISSING.

CURIOUSLY, HISTORICALLY, HUMOROUSLY, POETICALLY CONSIDERED.

NEW YORK: J. S. OGILVIE PUBLISHING COMPANY, 57 ROSE STREET.

THE

ART OF KISSING.

ORIGIN OF KISSING; THE SCANDINAVIAN TRADITION; AN OLD POET'S IDEA--KISSING IN ANCIENT ROME, AND AMONG THE JEWS AND EARLY CHRISTIANS--BIBLICAL KISSING--RELIGIOUS SIGNIFICANCE--KISSING IN EARLY ENGLAND--ANCIENT KISSING CUSTOMS AS DESCRIBED BY ERASMUS--THE PURITANICAL VIEWS OF JOHN BUNYAN--HOW ADAM KISSED EVE--A KISS DEFINED: BY THE DICTIONARY, SHAKESPEARE, ROBERT HERRICK, SIDNEY, COLERIDGE--COMICAL AND SHORT DESCRIPTIONS--A GRAMMAR OF KISSING--THE SCIENTIFIC REASON WHY KISSES ARE PLEASANT.

Of kissing it has been quaintly said that nature was its author and it began with the first courtship. The Scandinavian tradition was that kissing was an exotic introduced into England by Rowena, the beautiful daughter of Hengist, the Saxon. At a banquet given by the British monarch in honor of his allies the princess, after pressing the brimming beaker to her lips, saluted the astonished and delighted Vortigern with a little kiss, after the manner of her own people.

For a long time it was an act of religion in ancient Rome and among the Romans the sacredness of the kiss was inviolable. At length it was degraded into a current form of salutation.

The kiss was, in process of time, used generally as a form of salutation in Rome where men testified their regard and the warmth of their welcome for each other chiefly by the number of their kisses. There was a curious law among the Romans made by Constantine; that, if a man had kissed his betrothed she gained thereby the half of his effects should he die before the celebration of the marriage; and should the lady herself die, under the same circumstances, her heirs or nearest to kin would take the half due her, a kiss among the ancients being the sign of plighted faith.

Among the Jews, kissing was a customary mode of salutation as we may judge from the circumstance of Judas approaching his Master with a kiss. The Rabbis did not permit more than three kinds of kisses, the kiss of reverence, of reception and dismissal. Kissing in many religions has played a part as a mark of adoration or veneration. In Hosea xiii-2, speaking of idolatry, we find the sentence "Let the men that sacrifice kiss the calves." Again, the discontented prophet is told that even in idolatrous Israel are seven thousand knees which have not bowed to Baal, "and every mouth which hath not kissed him." The Mohammedans, on their pious pilgrimage to Mecca, kiss the sacred black stone and the four corners of the Kaaba. The Roman Catholic priest kisses the aspergillum, and Palm Sunday the palm.

In the works of St. Augustine we find an account of four kinds of kissing; the first, the kiss of reconciliation which was given between enemies wishing to become friends; the second, the kiss of peace which Christians exchanged in church in the time of the celebration of the holy eucharist. The third, the kiss of love which loving souls gave to one another and to those whom they showed hospitality. St. Peter and St. Paul used to finish their letters by saying, "salute one another with a holy kiss." In the early church kissing seems to have been a common form of greeting, irrespective of age, sex, or social condition, and, in some it seems to have created a jealous feeling.

One heathen writer speaks of how annoying it must be to a heathen husband to see his wife exchanging kisses with the Christian brethren. Origen, one of the early Christian writers, says that the kisses must be "holy." He may have had occasion to give this reminder for mention is made by another writer of kisses so loud that they resounded through the churches and occasioned foul suspicions and evil reports.

In the Bible there are eight kinds of kisses mentioned:

Among the poets we will select Johannus Secundus to sing to the origin of kisses:

When young Ascanius, by Queen of Love, Was wafted to Cythera's lofty grove, The slumbering boy upon a couch she laid, A fragrant couch, of new-blown violets made, The blissful bower with shadowing roses crowned, And balmy-breathing airs diffused around.

Soon as she watched, through all her glowing soul, Imprisoned thoughts of lost Adonis stole. How oft, as memory hallowed all his charms, She longed to clasp the sleeper in her arms! How oft she laid admiring every grace, "Such was Adonis! such his lovely face!"

But, fearing lest this fond excess of joy Might break the slumber of the beauteous boy, On every rose-bud that around him blowed, A thousand nectared kisses she bestowed; And straight each opening bud, which late was white, Blushed a warm crimson to the astonished sight.

And the poet goes on to say that as Triptolemus gave a golden plenty to the land:

Fair Cytherea, as she flew along, O'er the vast lap of nature kisses flung; Pleased from on high she viewed the enchanted ground, And from her lips thrice fell a magic sound; He gave to mortals corn on every plain, But she those sweets which mitigate my pain.

John Bunyan, the author of the "Pilgrim's Progress," writing over a hundred years later, did not view the practice with enthusiasm. He wrote: "The common salutation of women I abhor; it is odious to me in whomsoever I see it. When I have seen good men salute those women that they have visited, or that have visited them, I have made my objections against it; and when they have answered that it was but a piece of civility, I have told them that it was not a comely sight. Some, indeed, have urged the holy kiss; but then, I have asked them why they make balks? why they did salute the most handsome and let the ill favored ones go."

In England the custom of universal kissing seems to have gone out about the time of the Restoration. Its abandonment in England might have formed part of that French code of politeness which Charles II introduced on his return. Returning to our first thought as to the origin of Kissing, we may use the very safe phrase that "its origin is involved in mystery," and agree with the poet that

When we dwell on the lips of the love we adore, Not a pleasure in nature is missing May that man lie in Heaven--he deserves it I'm sure Who was first the inventor of kissing.

How Adam kissed Eve has been described in "Paradise Lost:"

Though we may be unfortunate in tracing back the origin of this pleasing custom, let us see if we have better luck in an attempt to answer the question, "What is a kiss?"

First, we will go to the dictionary where we learn that a kiss, a smack, or a buss, is "a salute made by touching with the lips pressed closely together and suddenly parting them."

Dr. Stormouth says that the word kiss seems to have had its origin in the practice of feudal times of expressing homage to a superior by kissing the hand, foot or some part of the body or, in his absence, some object belonging to him, as a gate or a lock.

One poet calls kisses "the fragrant breath of summer flowers." This is a very happy conceit that is not always found to be true, for how fragrant kisses are depends very much on the breath of the principals engaged. Coleridge calls them "nectar breathing." Shakespeare speaks of them as "seals of love," and Sidney tells us they tie souls together. An old poet asks:

What is a kiss? alacke! at worst, A single drop to quench a thirst, Tho' oft it proves in happier hour The first sweet drop of one long shower.

Robert Herrick, the old English divine, says of a kiss:

It isn't creature born and bred Between the lips all cherry red; It is an active flame that flies First to the babies of the eyes; Then to the cheek, the chin, the ear; It frisks and flies--now here, now there; 'Tis now far off, and then 'tis near; Here and there and everywhere.

Among short definitions we have that of the old Georgia farmer who caught a young couple kissing on a train that was passing through a tunnel, and called the act "dipping sugar." A kiss is like a rumor, because it goes from mouth to mouth; its shape is a lip-tickle; as a grammatical part of speech it is a conjunction; kisses are the interrogation points in the literature of love. Then again, kissing has been called lip-service and has been defined as the prologue to sin; more often, let us hope, it is simply a sweetmeat which satisfies the hunger of the heart.

Martial, the old satirist, has called the kisses of his favorite "the fragrance of balsam extracted from aromatic trees; the ripe odor yielded by the teeming saffron; the perfume of fruits mellowing in their winter repository; the flowery meadows in the vernal season; amber warmed by the hand of a maiden; a garden that attracts the bees."

Kisses have been called the balm of love; Cupid's seal; the lover's fee; the fee of parting; the first and last of joys; the homage of the life; the hostage of promise; love's chief sign; love's language; love's mintage; love's print; love's tribute; love's rhetoric; the nectar of Venus; the pledge of bliss and love; the seal of bliss; the melting sip, and the stamp of love.

Johannas Secundus says to his sweetheart:

'Tis not a kiss you give, my love! 'Tis richest nectar from above! A fragrant shower of balmy dews, Which thy sweet lips alone diffuse! 'Tis every aromatic breeze, That wafts from Africa's spicy trees; 'Tis honey from the osier hive, Which chymist bees with care derive From all the newly opened flowers That bloom in Cecrop's roseate bowers, Or from the breathing sweets that grow On famed Hymettus' thymy brow.

Kisses, according to Sam Slick, are like creation, because they are made out of nothing and are very good. Another wag says they are like sermons, they require two heads and an application.

An ingenious American grammarian thus conjugates the verb: Buss, to kiss; rebus, to kiss again; pluribus, to kiss without regard to number; sillybus, to kiss the hand instead of the lips; blunderbus, to kiss the wrong person; omnibus, to kiss every person in the room; erebus, to kiss in the dark.

Robert Burns thus speaks of it:

Honeyed seal of soft affections, Tenderest pledge of future bliss Dearest tie of young connections. Love's first snowdrop, virgin bliss.

But kissing baffles all attempts at analysis; as Josh Billings says "the more a man tries to analize a kiss, the more he can't; the best way to define a kiss is to take one." Kisses are commodities costing nothing, never wearing out, and always to be had in abundance. After all, why are kisses pleasant? A scientist says that kissing is pleasant because the teeth, jawbones and lips are full of nerves, and when the lips meet an electric current is generated.

Oh that a joy so soon should waste! Or so sweet a bliss as a kiss Might not forever last! So sugared, so melting, so soft, so delicious. The dew that lies on roses, When the morn herself discloses, Is not so precious. Oh, rather than I would it smother, Were I to taste such another. It should be my wishing That I might die kissing.

The late George D. Prentice said he had a female correspondent who wrote "when two hearts are surcharged with love's electricity, a kiss is the burning contract, the wild leaping flames of love's enthusiasm." The humorist observed that the idea was very pretty, "but a flash of electricity is altogether too brief to give a correct idea of a truly delicious kiss." We agree with Byron that the strength of a kiss is generally measured by its length. Still, there should be a limit, and we really think that Mrs. Browning, strong-minded woman as she is, transcends all reasonable limits in her notions of a kiss's duration. In her 'Aurora Leigh' she talks of a kiss

'As long and silent as the ecstatic night.'

That, indeed, must be 'linked sweetness' altogether too long drawn out.

Having at least learned something as to the nature of a kiss, let us seek information on how to kiss. There are various general directions; the gentleman must be taller than the lady he intends to kiss. Take her right hand in yours and draw her gently to you; pass your left hand over her right shoulder, diagonally down across her back, under her left arm; press her to your bosom, at the same time she will throw her head back and you have nothing to do but lean a little forward and press your lips to hers, and then the thing is done. Don't make a noise over it as if you were firing off shooting crackers, or pounce upon it like a hungry hawk upon an innocent dove, but gently fold the damsel in your arms without smashing her standing collar or spoiling her curls, and by a sweet pressure upon her mouth, revel in the blissfulness of your situation without smacking your lips on it as you would over a glass of beer. It might be well at the conclusion of the operation to ask the young woman if it was satisfactory, for we are never satisfied that a lady understands a kiss unless we have it from her own mouth.

A Kentucky authority insists that a man must be in humor for the business; you want to get the idea into your head that the girl is just dying to be kissed by you and is only waiting for you to make the break. Then you want to take a good view of her mouth and see just how much of it you can take in. If she has a regular rose-bud mouth, why, take it all in and throw your whole soul into one kiss, but if her mouth has the appearance of a landscape cut in two by a waterless river, then the safest plan is to take in the corners and byways, and sort of divide your kiss into sections. Most girls have no end of cheek, therefore a fellow can seldom miss fire in kissing a girl on the cheek. Do not kiss her ear as nine cases out of ten the girl will make a slight dodge so as to impress you with the idea that you are really surprising her in your action; the result is you miss the ear, kiss her hair and get your mouth full of ten-cent hair oil. Only actors kiss on the brow. If a girl has a pretty mouth kiss it every time, but if her mouth is so large that you endanger your life by getting too near it, then resort to the next best thing and kiss her on the cheek.

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