The Portland daily press., 1875-04-27
THE PRESS.
TUESDAY MORNING, APRIL 27, 1875
About kissing.

falling into sad repute. 1t is a great pity, fol
the practice has ever been held in high es
TEEN by men of the English race as eminent.
ly honorable and delightful. 1t is true thai
Importance as an indication of honor, prefer
ment and respect, attached to it by Oriental
nations does not obtain with those of Anglo,
Saxon blood, nor do we delight in seeing
bearded men rush into each others arms and
kiss after the continental fashion but as an ex-
preston of tenderness between man and wo-
man the custom has always stood in deserved
respect and affection. Even the tribe of scof
fers have not assaied it until recently.
1t is curious to note how prominent place
the kiss holds in English literature, and how,
save at times in the coarse humor of Chaucer,
it is mentioned with loving and respect.
Spenser devotes many of his most exquisite
lines to the meeting of the lips. A Shakes
peare concordance will show a long list of
lines in which the finding-word is kiss. Ben
Jonson makes it substitute for wine
thereby following the thought Of the royal Is
raelic preacher who says: "Let him kiss me
with the kisses of his mouth, for his love is
better than wine." Let us hope that the He.
brew poet and the British playwright have
not made themselves responsible for that
sickening phrase of the second-rate novel and
the first-rate love-letter, can intoxicating lit
tie kiss"
The prominence given to the kiss and the
praises bestowed upon it are found in writers
of the most vigorous thought and those most
free from unhealthy sentiment. The stronger
the author the greater the esteem in which
he holds the kiss, is a rule Of general appli-
cation. Christopher Marlowe, certainly not
a Lord Fanny nor a Tommy Little, says, in
speaking of the Greek face that launched a
thousand ships and burnt the topless towers
of Iium, snake me immortal with kiss"
The summary of Lord Lyttleton's advice is
SIN short, my deary, kiss me, and be quiet'-
very sensible advice, it must strike all men.
Swift, not given to saying good of anything,
this our theme. Sydney Smith, who hated a
sentimentalist, does not disdain to give ex-
plicit directions as to the performance of
the sweet task. He says: "We are in
favor of certain amount of shyness when a
kiss is proposed, but it should not be too
long; and when the fair one gives it, let it
be administered with warmth and energy !;
let there be soul in it. If she close her eyes,
and sigh Immediately after it, the effect is
greater. She should be careful not to slobber
a kiss, but give it as humming-bird runs his
bill into honey-suckle-deep, but delicate
There is much virtue in kiss when we'll de-
livered. We have the memory of one we re-
ceived in our youth which lasted us forty
years, and we believe it will be one of the
last things we shall think of when we die"
Against the propriety of these directions no
man can speak. Not to multiply quotations,
let us close with Oliver Wendell Holiness
definition of kiss: "The twenty-seventh
letter of the alphabet,-the love-labial which
it takes two to speak plainly"
The kiss under the mstletoe, which figures
so conspicuously in the observances of christ
mas, had its origin in the killing of Balder,
the white god, by the blind Holder at the insti-
CATION of the subtle fend Loki. From that
time forth no two passed under the E,istletoe
without exchanging kiss, as sign that no
treachery was in mind. By the process
through which the holy dass. .scasn sse be
came the holidays Of the next, and the sacred
runes change into nursery rhymes, the OBJ
servance lost its sacred aspect, but main
tanned its place in the popular affection along
with many other traditional rites of the re-
ligion of the Mortimer. There are those
who refer the custom TO the universal sun
myth and liken the old gods to the powers of
nature personified. But it is quite as reason
able to think that the myth was invented
as justification of the kiss, though SO
good thing would seem to be justifi-
cation enough in itself. However this may
be it is evident that the practice was in good
standing among our ancestors centuries
since. and that it has claims upon our regard
growing out of long observance as well as be-
cause of its intrinsic merit.
Now for the sake of few jokes, OCCASION
ally bright but mostly stupid, is it in good
taste to make fun of that upon which so
much wit and wisdom, and poetry have been
spent? While essaying no defence of kisses
of peace or other lip caresses encountered
with adjective phrases or of those little dove
kisses which women so freely shower upon
each other, it is time to protest against the
ridicule visited upon the good old-fashioned
kiss between man and woman. Hitherto
such cheap fun has been confined to the rid
die books, where it has broken out in ''Rebus,
to kiss again." and like trivial play upon
words.