A kiss must be given and taken in frank, joyous affection. To have recourse to violence is unknightly, unlovely, and despicable in the highest degree. This is a sphere wherein the brutal axiom regarding the right of the stronger can never hold good. An Albanian folk-song tells us of a young man who is in search of a young maiden with whom he is in love; he finds her at a brook, and, against her will, kisses her mouth and cheeks. Filled with shame, the young maiden tries to wash away the kisses in the brook, but its water is dyed red, and “when the women in the neighbouring village come thither to wash their clothes, the latter turn red instead of white. And, in the gardens watered with water from the brook, scarlet flowers sprout up; and the birds which drank of the water thereof lost their power of song.” This ballad shows us, in burning words, how deeply a man outrages a woman when he kisses her against the dictates of her heart. A Southern imagination alone can find an expression so sublime and poetical: in French it runs simply and frankly: _Un baiser n’est rien, quand le cœur est muet_. In Teutonic countries it is expressed somewhat more awkwardly. In Denmark people say: _Kys med gevalt er æg uden salt_ (a kiss snatched by force is as an egg without salt); and in Germany still less elegantly: _Ein aufgezwungener Kuss ist wie ein Hühneraug’ am Fuss_ (like a corn on one’s foot). The question of kissing by main force can be treated not only from an ethical, but also from a juristic point of view. Holberg relates that in Naples the individual who kissed in the street a woman against her will was punished by not being allowed to approach within thirty miles distance of the spot where the outrage had taken place; and a German jurist wrote in the end of the eighteenth century, a minute and extremely solid treatise on the remedy that a woman has against a man who kisses her against her will (_Von dem Rechte des Frauenzimmers gegen eine Mannperson, die es wider seinen Willen küsset_). The author begins by classifying kisses; he distinguishes between lawful and unlawful kisses, and frames the following classification:-- Kisses are either I.--LAWFUL, _A._ As spiritual kisses. _B._ As kisses of reconciliation and kisses of peace. _C._ As customary kisses; partly, _a._ By way of salutation. 1. At meeting. 2. On arrival. 3. At departure; partly, _b._ As mark of courtesy. _c._ In jest. _D._ As kisses of respect. _E._ As kisses on festive occasions. _F._ As kisses of love: α. Between married people. β. Between such as are engaged to be married. γ. Between parents and children. δ. Between relations. ε. Between intimate friends; or, II.--UNLAWFUL, when they are given-- _A._ Out of treachery or malice. _B._ Out of lust.