Honeyed seal of soft affections, Tenderest pledge of future bliss Dearest tie of young connections. Love’s first snowdrop, virgin bliss. But kissing baffles all attempts at analysis; as Josh Billings says “the more a man tries to analize a kiss, the more he can’t; the best way to define a kiss is to take one.” Kisses are commodities costing nothing, never wearing out, and always to be had in abundance. After all, why are kisses pleasant? A scientist says that kissing is pleasant because the teeth, jawbones and lips are full of nerves, and when the lips meet an electric current is generated. Oh that a joy so soon should waste! Or so sweet a bliss as a kiss Might not forever last! So sugared, so melting, so soft, so delicious. The dew that lies on roses, When the morn herself discloses, Is not so precious. Oh, rather than I would it smother, Were I to taste such another. It should be my wishing That I might die kissing. The late George D. Prentice said he had a female correspondent who wrote “when two hearts are surcharged with love’s electricity, a kiss is the burning contract, the wild leaping flames of love’s enthusiasm.” The humorist observed that the idea was very pretty, “but a flash of electricity is altogether too brief to give a correct idea of a truly delicious kiss.” We agree with Byron that the strength of a kiss is generally measured by its length. Still, there should be a limit, and we really think that Mrs. Browning, strong-minded woman as she is, transcends all reasonable limits in her notions of a kiss’s duration. In her ‘Aurora Leigh’ she talks of a kiss ‘As long and silent as the ecstatic night.’ That, indeed, must be ‘linked sweetness’ altogether too long drawn out. II. HOW TO KISS—THE ACT FULLY DESCRIBED—SIZE OF THE MOUTH TO BE CONSIDERED—LARGE MOUTHS AND THOSE OF THE ROSE-BUD SORT— THE GIRL WHO CLAWS AND STRUGGLES—POETICAL DIRECTIONS— DANGERS OF HUGGING—TAPPING THE LIPS OF A MEXICAN SENORITA—KISSING A CHINESE GIRL—HOW TO RECEIVE A KISS— LONG-REMEMBERED KISSES—THE KISS IN BETROTHAL AND MARRIAGE.