Dante, in the fifth canto of his _Hell_, has celebrated the power a kiss may have over human beings. In the course of his wanderings in the nether world, when he has reached the spot where abide those who have sinned through love, he sees two souls that “flutter so lightly in the wind.” These are Francesco da Rimini and her brother-in-law Paolo. He asks Francesco to tell him: “In the time of your sweet sighs, By what, and how love granted, that ye knew Your yet uncertain wishes?” Whereto she replies: “One day For our delight we read of Lancelot, How him love thrall’d. Alone we were, and no Suspicion near us. Ofttimes by that reading Our eyes were drawn together, and the hue Fled from our alter’d cheek. But at one point Alone we fell. When of that smile we read, The wished smile, so rapturously kissed By one so deep in love, then he, who ne’er From me shall separate, at once my lips All trembling kiss’d. The book and writer both Were love’s purveyors. In its leaves that day We read no more.”[1] I have had a special object in prefacing my studies on the history of kissing with these famous verses, for I regarded it in the light of a duty to caution my readers emphatically, and at the very outset, as to the danger of even reading about kisses; and I consider that, having done this, I have warned my readers against pursuing the subject, and “forewarned is forearmed,” or, “_homme averti en vaut deux_.” TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAP. PAGE I. WHAT IS A KISS? 3 II. LOVE KISSES 29 III. AFFECTIONATE KISSES 79 IV. THE KISS OF PEACE 101 V. THE KISS OF RESPECT 113 VI. THE KISS OF FRIENDSHIP 141 VII. VARIOUS KINDS OF KISSES 161 VIII. THE ORIGIN OF KISSING 177 L’ENVOI 189 I WHAT IS A KISS? CHAPTER I WHAT IS A KISS? It may perhaps seem somewhat futile to begin with discussing what a kiss is: that every child of course knows. We are greeted with kisses directly we enter the world, and kisses follow us all our life long, as Hölty sings-- Giving kisses, snatching kisses, Keeps the busy world employed. W. F. H. Nevertheless the question is not altogether superfluous. It seems to me even to offer certain points of interest, inasmuch as it is by no means so easy as people may imagine to define what a kiss is. If we turn to the poets we are often put off with the answer that a kiss is something that should be merely felt, and that people would do well to refrain from speculating as to what it actually is.