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156 journey these girls kiss them, and take as affectionate a farewell of them as if the latter were their brothers or near relations."

And Holberg in his letter writes: "In England it is considered uncourteous to enter a house without saluting one's hostess with a kiss."

Even in the Low Countries the friendly kiss was much in vogue. Adrianus Höreboord, a professor at the University of Leyden, has, in a Latin treatise, investigated the question as to whether the custom of allowing strangers to kiss young girls, widows, and other persons' wives, on paying a visit, can be said to be in conformity with the laws of chastity. Höreboord's opinion is that such practice is in no way objectionable: as a kiss can be given without any arrière pensée, the kisses demanded by politeness may be quite chaste.

Erycius Puteanus, the learned Dutch philosopher, on the contrary, holds that the aforesaid custom is not without danger—at any rate to more sensually-disposed temperaments. In a letter on the education of a young Italian girl he writes that he would never suffer any one to kiss his pupil, adding: "Our