The Birmingham age-herald., 1902-08-17

I de sucre ct d d'ambergris' (mouth full of sugar and ambergris). Then he quotes the familiar Latin epigram: What is sweeter than mead? The dew of heaven. What than dew? Honey from Hybla. Than this honey7 Nector. Than nectar? Than this honey? Nectar. Than nectar"
 Kisses are sweet as a woman's gentle breath, which, according to a Roumanian folk song. smells of delicate young wine, or as the French poets say, Of thousands of flowers" The author here waxes en- thusiastic and says; "A woman's breath. which intoxicates man. is, as it were, the etheral expression of her whole being" Then. by way of example, he quotes some verses about a beautiful young Blanche flor, whose breath was so delicious and refreshing that the lucky recipient needed no floor for a whole week.
 Whats In a Kiss?
 Here the learned professor switches of to a consideration of the proper sort of a mouth for a woman. The mediaeval French poets insist upon a mouth well formed and sweet to kiss" In general the lips must be bewitchingly soft and red as coral or red as the rose. The rose simile is common to all ages. "On every maid ems lip the kiss sets like the rose which only longs to be plucked"
 
 ing. 90 to speak. with the Danish savant; now he strikes what he considers a snag when he comes to consider what the wo- men expect in a mans kiss. Very few women, he says, have treated in kisses in poetry. He concludes. however that 8 woman gives decided preference to man with a beard and he quotes German pro- vet-bs to the effect that a kiss without a beard is like vespers without the Mag niflcat'' ana like an egg without salt. Holland giNs also -2gree in the egg propo- sition. and in the Tristan islands they say ''porridge without salt" The Jutland lasses go still further and say Kissing a fellow without a quid of tobacco and a beard Is like kissing a clay wall" How ever, the scornful saying, He is nice to kiss when one Is thirsty" conveys an in- timation not to be overlooked, at any rate in Germany. The oldest thing is the French folk-song lover who tells us that he has smeared his lips with fresh but ter to give his sweetheart pleasure.
 The Danger of Kissing. The author here quotes Socrates on the danger of kissing. The Grecian sage, 1t will be remembered, advised Kritobulus to go abroad a year to get cured for one little kiss, and told xenophon to run away as fast as he could the very instant he saw a beautiful woman. But Professor Nyrop does not take much stock in So- crates idea about kisses; he even hints that the philosopher was prejudiced be- cause of his experience with Mistress Xantippe. Then he goes on and quotes the Italian saying: "A mouth is none the worse for having been kissed" Not con- tent with this shocking doctrine he quotes the modern French writer: "Bahi two kisses. What of that? They are exchang- ed like two bullets that miss the mark and honor Is satisfied.
 Yet the cautious professor Is not by any means convinced of the entirely harm less nature of a kiss, for he quotes lines and proverbs from Danish and German writers to this effect: "A kiss may. in deed, be washed away, but the fire in the heart cannot be quenched."
 Professor Nyrop's wavering judgment on the question of the harmlessness or harmfulness Is finally fixed by the refiec- tion that kisses are indestructible. To get rid of them they must be returned, and their return causes more complica- tions. He quotes verses and anecdotes to prove the truth of the Italian proverb, "A kiss once given Is never lost.'' And with this he brings chapter l. to a close. "Love Kisses"
 Tn chapter II. Professor Nyrop tackles Love Kisses" He evidently, feels that he has his hands full; at any rate, he starts out cautiously. For a number of pages he deals largely In generalities, in- terspersed with mild quotations from By ron, Alfred de Musset, Heine and other poets, and from ballads and folk songs from pretty much all over the world Then he gets down to something more definite by taking up for consideration what he calls the "quantitative condi- tions." He quotes a Roumanian proverb to the effect that with a single kiss no woman Is caught" Then he inquires: How many kisses are necessary?' The Spaniards and others say of lovers: ''They eat each other up with kisses" Aares- trup sings: Take this kiss and thous- and more, my darling" Catullus in one of his songs to Lesbit, raises Aarestrup clear out of sight:
 A thousand kisses: add five score;
 Another thousand kisses more.
 Du Bellay, however, upbraids Catul1us for asking for so few kisses that they can be counted.
 This being the case, 1t is a mercy that as the Finnish have 1t, the mouth Is not torn by being kissed, nor the hand by be- ing squeezed" Even if many kisses do harm there is a proverb: 'You must heal the hurt by fresh kisses"
 The Qualitative Aspect.
 Growing considerably more courageous the professor next takes up the ''qualita- tive aspect" of kissing. He retells the old love story of Daphnis and Chloe, in which Daphnis complains of Chloe's kiss that inhicts on him more pain than a bees sting. From this he falls to considering the kisses that pain like a wound. Here he makes timid reference to forms of kisses celebrated by poets of antiquity and the Renaissance Of kisses that at last grow into bites he says: They are, as 1t were, a sea fraught with perils S0ME THING Tn AppREnIATE'