The herald., 1896-06-14
KISSES OLD AND NEW
BY J. G. MACCABE

Heine in his Book of Songs asks who 1t
was that first suggested the giving Oh
kisses. The question opens up too vast
a scope of historical, legendary ana ro-
mantle love to find time for accurate
discussion in a newspaper article, ana IN
these days of telegraphic and telauto-
graphic methods of communication. Yet
at least our answer to the inquiry may be
found in that stately poem, Milton's
Paradise Lost, where the beautiful Eve,
Turing our great. putative progenitor 10
the delicious feast, sets the example,
which the fair sex have devotedly fol-
lowed from that day to this. Here is
how John Milton tells, in his own grand
way the interesting story:
80 spake our general mother. and with
OF conjugal attraction, unreproved.,
And meek surrender. haif-empraclng
On our first father: half her swelling
Naked met his, under the flowing gold
OF her loose tresses hid; he In delight
Smiled with superior love, as Jupiter
On June smiles, when he impregns the
That shed May blossoms, and pressed her
matron lips
With kisses pure"
Surely no modern dilettante Of the
osculatory art can improve on this, and
It is, perhaps, just as well that we con-
tent ourselves In finding q true answer
Just here to Heine's very suggestive
and Interesting question. But the ori-
gin of the custom of giving kisses, nor
the delights it imparts to the lover and
the poet are Of the purpose of this ar
ticle: That some of us enjoy and all
of us have enjoyed some experimental
knowledge. at least, of that spiritual
exaltation and communion born of labial
contact when, to paraphrase Tennyson,
'sThe spirits rushed together at the
touching of the lips" goes without say
ing. We all might even recall hours
when we could have said with the i'm
mortal Will, sweet singer Of Avon:
''Take, o take those lips away.
That SO sweetly are foresworn.
And those eyes, the break of day,
Lights that do mislead the MORN:
But my kisses give again, give again,
Seals Of love but sealed In vain!'
All of us, however, may be thankful
that the giving of kisses is custom cor
daily and genially domiciliated under
our roof tree, with our lares and penates,
honored on all fitting occasions. de-
ectable trait of our social life, that out
ward expression Of inward grace and
graciousness, the interpreter of love and,
alas! that we must say it, the conven-
lent modern symbol of conventional fe-
male friendship!
We may assume that the giving of
kisses Is an attitude of civilized human
nature; that 1t does not generally per-
tain to ''the savage breast" and that
the more cultivated and refined the race
the richer in suggestive symbolism will
be the kisses exchanged among its peo-
pie. OF course this assumption, If postu-
lated of our modern men and women.
must be taken cum grano sails. A hard.
practical. iconoclastic generation, steep
ed in materialism to the very lips, see
little in symbols or customs of any kind,
beyond the cool, cash results they may
possibly foreshadow. We must look to
less complex, less sophisticated. a
simpler. honester. If ruder people, for
illustrations of the symbolism of kissing.
OF all historical or queer historical rec
ords, embracing in wide profusion fact
and fiction alike. there are none more
instructive-taken all together-and
hardly any more fascinating, that those
descriptive of the Hebrewic peoples.
than the documents, records and laws
relating to the Jewish state, the ballads
ana songs OF the period OF national pros