The Art Of Kissing

THE ART OF KISSING.I.ORIGIN OF KISSING; THE SCANDINAVIAN TRADITION; AN OLD POETS IDEAKISSING IN ANCIENT ROME AND AMONG THE JEWS AND EARLY CHRISTIANSBIBLICAL KISSINGRELIGIOUS SIGNIFICANCEKISSING IN EARLY ENGLANDANCIENT KISSING CUSTOMS AS DESCRIBED BY ERASMUSTHE PURITANICAL VIEWS OF JOHN BUNYANHOW ADAM KISSED EVEA KISS DEFINED: BY THE DICTIONARY SHAKESPEARE ROBERT HERRICK SIDNEY COLERIDGECOMICAL AND SHORT DESCRIPTIONSA GRAMMAR OF KISSINGTHE SCIENTIFIC REASON WHY KISSES ARE PLEASANT.Of kissing it has been quaintly said that nature was its author and it began with the first courtship. The Scandinavian tradition was that kissing was an exotic introduced into England by Rowena the beautiful daughter of Hengist the Saxon. At a banquet given by the British monarch in honor of his allies the princess after pressing the brimming beaker to her lips saluted the astonished and delighted Vortigern with a little kiss after the manner of her own people.For a long time it was an act of religion in ancient Rome and among the Romans the sacredness of the kiss was inviolable. At length it was degraded into a current form of salutation.The kiss was in process of time used generally as a form of salutation in Rome where men testified their regard and the warmth of their welcome for each other chiefly by the number of their kisses. There was a curious law among the Romans made by Constantine; that if a man had kissed his betrothed she gained thereby the half of his effects should he die before the celebration of the marriage; and should the lady herself die under the same circumstances her heirs or nearest to kin would take the half due her a kiss among the ancients being the sign of plighted faith.Among the Jews kissing was a customary mode of salutation as we may judge from the circumstance of Judas approaching his Master with a kiss. The Rabbis did not permit more than three kinds of kisses the kiss of reverence of reception and dismissal. Kissing in many religions has played a part as a mark of adoration or veneration. In Hosea xiii-2 speaking of idolatry we find the sentence Let the men that sacrifice kiss the calves. Again the discontented prophet is told that even in idolatrous Israel are seven thousand knees which have not bowed to Baal and every mouth which hath not kissed him. The Mohammedans on their pious pilgrimage to Mecca kiss the sacred black stone and the four corners of the Kaaba. The Roman Catholic priest kisses the aspergillum and Palm Sunday the palm.In the works of St. Augustine we find an account of four kinds of kissing; the first the kiss of reconciliation which was given between enemies wishing to become friends; the second the kiss of peace which Christians exchanged in church in the time of the celebration of the holy eucharist. The third the kiss of love which loving souls gave to one another and to those whom they showed hospitality. St. Peter and St. Paul used to finish their letters by saying salute one another with a holy kiss. In the early church kissing seems to have been a common form of greeting irrespective of age sex or social condition and in some it seems to have created a jealous feeling.One heathen writer speaks of how annoying it must be to a heathen husband to see his wife exchanging kisses with the Christian brethren. Origen one of the early Christian writers says that the kisses must be holy. He may have had occasion to give this reminder for mention is made by another writer of kisses so loud that they resounded through the churches and occasioned foul suspicions and evil reports.In the Bible there are eight kinds of kisses mentioned:Salutation.David fell on his face to the ground and bowed himself three times; and they [David and Jonathan] kissed one another and wept one with another until David exceeded. I. Samuel xx 41. Greet all the brethren with a holy kiss. I. Thess. v 26. Salute one another with a holy kiss. Roma