Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1876-03-10
LIPS AND KISSES.
BY OLIVER oLpscnooL. ESQ.

| ulSh iIpt anu WIN hue ueh VI uLhet
| The nowercf loves forbidden fruit, which grows
Invitingly to tempt us by kiss"
| Tassos SOhntts, trdAslatsd ~ r. H. Wfhe.
The organization of the lips is exceed
ingly delicate and their functions are man
ifod. Their muscular formation Is so ex-
| quisitcly flexible that by their nicely ar
ranged mUdulatous they supply languages
10 all the nations OF the globe. Lady speak
| ers are rarely fatigued, but their auditors
are oltentimes wearied. This feature has
no fixed standard Of perfection either in
form or color. Mungo Park says he sick
sned many an African woman by the un-
natural whiteness Of his skin, and he was
once told by a woolly-headed gentleman
that ho could not look upon him without
disgust. lie says that he once overheard
circle OF African matrons debating whoth-
or a female could possibly kiss such ema-
ciatcd aud frishlful looking lips. In this
connection we are reminded Of the pecul-
lar taste of AIamaboo, q celebrated Arri-
| can prince, who visited England some
years ago and received 10 many attentions
fro m n distinguished bello in London
while listening to her conversation one day
he could not refrain from laying his hands
upon his heart in a moment OF tenderness
| and exclaiming, "Ab, madam, II Hoayen
had only made you negress with large
lips you would have been Irresistible"
1t is very strange how Hams descend
ants came 10 be black, and still stranger
how they should be gifted with such snor-
nous lips. The Sphinx, the great idol Of
the Egyptians, has an enormous Nubian
mouth, and is ponderously provided with
lips. Cecrops is said to have taken a colony
OF tawny, big. Tipped Egyptians from the
mouths Of the Nile and Settled thom in At
tica, and founded nation that attained
surprising pre-eminence in arts and arms,
and rose 10 such pitch OF perfection as
fixed The European standard OF symmetry
and lovelness in staluary aud painting.
Their descendants, "the Greeks, not only
peopled the woods and mountains With be-
ings conjured up and created by their mere
fancy, but by interminslinS the physical
and moral converted every thing about
them into types aud symbols and idealized
their whole system OF mythology into a
com plicated alegory." In looking at the
classical bow Of tho aucenls we cannot fail
to discover that lis elegant shape is sup
piled by nature, as it is an exact copy of
the line described by tho surface OF the up
per lip. 1t was happy thought in the an-
clients TO have assigned the lip shaped bow
10 Apollo, the god Of music, and Cupid, the
god OF love, thus typifying that amorous
shaft which is never SO powerfully shot in
to the heart as through the medium of a
kiss. No upper lip is beautiful unless 1t
have this line as distinctly defined rs the
type which IL furnished by classical antiq-
uity. Full and round lips are bewilching,
but you must beware that you do not tempt
them into poryerse and pouting oxpres-
sion. The "slumberous pout," which the
poet Keats has so pleasantly described in
his sleeping deity, is the only one which is
becoming l should prefer a nymph In
whose looks and lips the bows OF Apollo
and Cupid are united and intertwined; ; one
who does not simper from nero allecia-
tion, nor smile because it Is becoming, nor
opon her lips to display tho symmetry of
her teeth but her mouth should have that
peculiar expression which apalntcr of the
old school was instructed to catch
"And give the lips that speaking sir,
Ash word were lowering there"
"Intelligence should beam from her eyes,
enchantment should dwell within the ruby
portals of her mouth, its very silence
would be eloquent, for her lips would be
those which Apollo lov'd In Daphne, and
Cupid in his Psyche, which Phideas and
Prsxiteles have immOrtalized in marble"
Such mouth and lips "would shake the
saintship of an anchorite," and confirm
ed cynic would be tempted to blister them
with kisses.
Kissing is practice as old as civilization
itself. The Roman emperors saluted their
principal officers by kiss aud the people
of Romo were accustomed 10 kiss their fe-
male relatives on the mouth, that they
might determine whether they had been
drinking wine on the sly. In Gays Beg
gars Opera, Machsath, amer saluting Jenny
Diver, exclaims, lone may know by your
lips that your gin is excellent" One John
Everard, who occupied the same position
under tho Archbishop of Toledo which Gil
Bias did under the Archbishop Of Grana-
da, wrole a series of essays on kissing. He
described kisses of every kind, from the
counterpart of that bestowed by Petruchio
upon his bride in the flaming of the
Shrew," which is thus described by Shakes
peare-
"Ihis done he took the bride about the neck,
And kissed her lips with such a clAmorous smack
That, at the parting, all the church did echo,"
to the fond and gentle embrace described
by Milton, when Adam gazing upon our
FIRST parent in the garden of Eden
tin delight
Both Of her beauty and submissive charms
Smiled with superior love Jupiter
On Juno smiles when he impregns the clouds
That shed May flowers, and pressed her mAtron lips
With kisses pure"
We should always restrain our passions so
as never TO exceed tho limit OF Virtuous
friendship, and never forget the sacred in
junction which orders us never TO kiss and
tell.
The under lip betokens melancholy, de-
lection and disappointment II II assumes a
dropping or hanging form. In Shakes
peare's TrOilus and Cressda, Helen ex-
plains TO Pandarus, her uncle, the reason
why her brother Troilus is not abroad by
saying "He hangs the lip at something" 4"