A half-ironical instance occurs in Molière; in _Les Femmes Savantes_ Armande and Philaminte fall into raptures over Vadius’ great learning. _Du grec! O ciel! du grec! Il sait du grec, ma sœur!_ (Greek! good heavens! Greek! He knows Greek, sister), says the one, and the other answers: _Du grec! quelle douceur!_ (Greek! how sweet!). In their boundless enthusiasm they ask Vadius to let them kiss him as a mark of their admiration. He accepts this salutation very politely, if not with any particularly great joy; but when he turns to young Henriette, from whose lips he is especially desirous of receiving so tender an expression of admiration, she rejects him quite abruptly with the remark: _Excusez-moi, monsieur, je n’entends pas le Grec_ (Excuse me, sir, I don’t understand Greek). The pedantic Vadius got just what he deserved--a kiss as dry as dust from two middle-aged, sexless blue-stockings, which nobody begrudges him. On the other hand, many, perhaps, will read with envy of the homage received by Benjamin Franklin at the French Court. Mme. de Campan, in her _Mémoires_, says: “At one of the splendid entertainments given in Franklin’s honour, I saw how the most beautiful of the three hundred ladies present was chosen to place a laurel crown on the white locks of the American philosopher and imprint a kiss on each of the old man’s cheeks.” The kiss of admiration and respect has, I suppose, been the longest to survive in the form of kissing ladies’ hands. Formerly, in many countries, it constituted a friendly greeting on meeting a lady or saying good-bye to her; but nowadays this custom has grown obsolete in most places; nevertheless we have certain literary reminiscences of it. In Austria people say _Küss die Hand, gnädige Frau_, and _Sârut mâna_ in Roumania, but still it is comparatively rare that this expression is followed by actual kisses, as was formerly the case. _Je vous baise les mains_ is now only used in an ironical sense in France. Ceremonial kisses, however, still flourish in Spain to a marked degree, not only in the language of the Court, but also in general conversation. When I was first presented to a Spanish lady I expressed my gladness at making her acquaintance by kissing her hand--only, however, by figure of speech--but her husband at once pointed out to me in a laughing way, that I had failed to show her proper respect. One can only kiss a Spanish lady’s feet: _Beso à usted los pies_ or _à los pies de usted_ (I kiss your feet), as they say.