Natchitoches spectator. [volume] (Natchitoches, La.) 1867-18??, 1868-04-30


KIssING.-If there he anything of
which the human race is fond, it is kiss
ing. No doubt our lady readers will be
shocked, and toss their pretty heads dis
dainfully at this assertion; but we main
tain it, nevertheless, and whatever they
may say to others, to themselves they
will be compelled to confess it's truth.
We do not mean that they like to kiss
everybody, sDnly some particular lucky
fellow. Philosophers and learned men
may talk about the attractions of gravi-
tation and cohesion, but there is no at
traction i'll nature as powerful and ire
sistible as that which lies i'm a pair of
ripe lips.s In all ages it has been potent
to draw the strongest man from his duty
or his prejudices. Even philosophers,
with all their boosted GOODNESS, have
been powerless to resist the force of this
abstruse science cannot account for.
ihNVho invented kissing is not known;
but we shrewdly suspect that if Mother
Eve was half so fair as Mr.. john Milton
has painted her, it must have been the
first thing Father Adam did when he
woke to find SO lovely u creature by him.
Certainly, if he was able to resist the
attraction, he must have been a very
icicle. The Hebrews had q decided
weakness for the institutions; and if we
may judge from the Songs of Solomon,
the wisest man that ever lived was not
proof against it. The old Greeks, who
were as cold as their faultless marble,
seem to have had no knowledge of the
attraction, for their poets, until the days
of Theocritus, say nothing about it.
Theocritus was travelled man, and had
seen the Egyptian women, and kissed
them too, we suppose, but for all that,
he was exceedingly moderate in his
doings, for he tells us of his sweetheart
Il should have been contented 10. 4
With a kiss of your sweet mouth" /
We rather think we should have been
very discontinued with such Ia small
allowance. Ea
The Romans were long time in learn
ing the art. At first they used 1t very
formally. Virgil makes Jupiter kiss
Venus, to encourage her--a lesson, by
the way, upon which Madame Venus
improved in an amazingly short time.
Even Horace, who was "a broth of q
boy" and who was much of a lady's
man, says nothing about kissing, if we
remember Alright. But Catullus, though
"a predecessor of Horace, was a wiser
man, and a fellow after our own heart,
when she asks him how many kisses he
wants: Hsg
"Do you ask, Lesbia, how many kisses
of thine can be -enougha AS many as
are. the sands of the African desert, or
as many as the stars that behold the Sc
cret loves of mortals when night is
still.' h fH
" That was sensible fellow, and very
naturally he was popular with the ladies
in his day. 1"a
AT present one must be very proper In
the practice of the art. IF he be wise,
he will never try TO kiss lady against
her will, nor to make much fuss in doing
so: A quiet, easy, gentlemanly way of
going about it, is almost sure to win;
and many a bright-eyed demure lass,
who wouldn't for the world be kissed in
the presence of a third party. will not
have the heart to say 'no" to a good
looking fellow, 'twhen there's nobody
near to see." A wise man will also limit
the number of those he tries to kiss, for
promiscuous kissing is worse than none
at all-isn't it, ladies2 How to go about
the business is something that each one
must decide for himself. A sensible
fellow will rarely fail to perceive the
right moment; and if he behaves him
self, he will almost always fiud his fair
one ready to supply the deficiencies of
his education in this respect, for the art
comes naturally to women.