homely aunts, mothers-in-law, and esteemed grandmothers, the cheek is always handy, and is recommended, unless you are fond of the taste of vinegar or peppermint-drops, if the old lady is partial to that Victorian comfit.
The girl, in letting male relatives kiss her, had best be guided in similar fashion. Let her prize her lips, as a medium of osculation, so highly that she does not let them be sampled by any whom accidents of blood give a partial right to. If the young man is attractive, or the old man either, and you want the sensation of the kiss, this is your privilege; but a deft movement will always suffice to substitute a cheek for the more intimate lip smack.
Kissing Your Own Sex.—Physical love between women and women, or between men and men, is looked upon with repugnance by the normally developed among civilized people. Far from being the highest form of love, as Socrates and Sappho respectively described it, we know today that this is an innately sterile type of embrace, and is hence to be avoided by the normally matured.
The custom of men kissing each other, still found in certain countries among our civilized brothers, originated in a time when Socratic love was not essentially uncommon. It has largely passed out as a social custom among us. If a man feels much pleasure in it, it is a matter for self-investigation and understanding, and points toward the perverse. It may be largely disregarded in this study.
The custom of women kissing each other is far more common. It is undeniable that the
