No. 357, by _Professor
Childe Wilful_, on this subject, may be added the meeting of Telemachus
and Ulysses on the return of the latter from Troy, as described, Odyssey,
lib. 16, v. 186--218; and the history of the courtship of the patriarch
Jacob and the "fair damsel" Rachel, Genesis, ch. xxix. v. 11. This last
authority, though it must be acknowledged not so classical as the
foregoing, is nevertheless much more piquant, being perhaps the oldest
record of amorous kissing extant. Thou seest, therefore, courteous
reader, that this "divine custom," in addition to the claims upon thee
which it intrinsically possesseth, and which are neither few nor small,
hath moreover the universal suffrage of the highest antiquity; thou
seest that its date, so far from being confined to the Trojan or Saxon
age, can with certainty be traced to patriarchal times; yea, verily, and
I cannot find it in me to rest here, without conducting thee to an era
even more remote. Revert thine eye to the motto at the head of this
chapter. Doth it not carry thee back in spirit to the very baby hours of
creation, the "good old days of Adam and Eve?" and doth it not represent
unto thee this delightful art as known and practised in full perfection,
"when young time told his first birth-days by the sun?" I grant thee that
such an authority is not sufficiently critical to fix with precision the
"_ab initio_" of the custom; yet doth it not possess infinite claim upon
thy credence? and more especially when thou considerest that, our
respectable progenitors, the antediluvians, were visited with the deluge
of waters for little else than their license. Vide chap. vi. of the first
book of Moses called Genesis, _passim_. In a world, of which almost all
we know with certainty is its uncertainty, and that "the fashion thereof
passeth away," it is only a natural inquiry whether the custom of kissing
hath, like most others, undergone any material alteration. Perhaps from
its nature, it is as little subjected to versatility from the lapse of
ages as any; yet still, to say that it has experienced some change, would
not be hazarding a very improbable opinion. Who knows but the "clamorous
smack" wherewith the Jehu of an eight-horse wagon salutes the lips of his
rosy inamorata, (scarcely less audible than the crack of his heavy thong
on Smiler's dull sides,) may have been perfectly consistent with the acme
of politesse some centuries bygone. We speak here somewhat confidently.