XI On Kisses and Kissing
“Sag mir, wer einst das Kussen efrund?
Das war ein gluhend glucklicher Mund;
Er kusste und dachte Nichts daberi.”
—Heine
Many are the varieties of kisses; as many, probably, as the varieties of kisses; as many, probably, as the variety of lips—and of the owners thereof. And
A kiss may mean so very much—or so very little. Wherefore
Look not upon the lips when they are red;—for although A kiss is a small thing, so is a spark. And always, though
A smile is an open window, a kiss is an open door.
Strange—strange—that from the momentary contact of lip with lip, an infinitesimal surface of epithelial tissue, there an be called up from the deeps of the soul emotions strange as deep; emotions vague and thrilling; emotions to the which to give utterance those lips are themselves all powerless. And
When to the conjoined lips there is added the bliss of an up-turned eye and embracing arms..... Ah! well-a-day,
There are Edens for us still, if only we will eat not of the forbidden fruit.
The value of a kiss is determined by the personage on whom it is bestowed, not by the from whom it is besought: which, if it needs any explanation, means this, that It is the man who ardently desires the kiss that puts the value upon that kiss, not the woman of whom it is desired. Yet women know that,
As with commodities, so with kissings, the greater the rarity, the greater the vale.
Osculatory transactions there be as lasting in their results as transient in their causes.
A cheek surreptitiously brushed in the dark is preferable to lips premittedly pressed by day.
What an extraordinary multiplicity of maneuvers a man will perform for “Just one kiss!” But
With the precise numerical equivalent of the expression “Just one kiss” algebra has not yet been found quite able to grapple. It is believed, however, to belong to Permutations and Combinations.
There is a very decided, but wholly indefinable, line of demarcation between the kissed and the unkissed woman. In other words,
The “status quo ante exosculationem” can never be re-established: hitherto the kisses may have been friends; henceforward they may be... they may be...... But
Who shall say to what kissing may lead? Besides,
Much more kissing than is supposed goes by purchase than by favor. All which, probably, will be Greek to the uninitiated. Nevertheless, and at all times, and in all places,
A kiss is like faith: it is “the evidence of things not seen, the substance of things hoped for.”
How appalling the immensity of the results due to the minutest of causes —a burning city from a lighted match; a life-long tragedy from a stolen kiss! In truth,
Fate is often another name for Folly.
A woman who is afraid of a kiss knows much. Amongst other things, perhaps, that Kisses, like misfortunes, rarely come singly—and bear many things in their train.
Despite the varieties of beards and mustachios, never will you hear from your osculatrix the source of her knowledge of that variety.
If by any chance the divulgence leaks out—how the girl beshrews the mischance! For, though the man may hold his peace, she knows that she gives him to think.
It takes two to make a quarrel. Yes: and it takes two to make the reconciliating kiss.