Page:The art of kissing (IA artofkissing987wood).djvu/40

 kiss is, at times, a disease-spreader; lovers willingly run the risk of this contagion. Indeed, modern wisdom holds that germs of many diseases are constantly present in the organisms of all of us; and, if we continue in normal health, with normal care of the body and plenty of fresh air and as much outdoor life as is possible, the body protects itself from yielding to these diseases. Thus lovers, otherwise healthy, may kiss with hardly any fear of contagion. Kissing among women, where there is no such overpowering love interest, is on a different footing. If the woman receives excessive pleasure from it, this is a matter for self-investigation and understanding, and points toward a perversion. If it be taken and given merely as a formal courtesy, this is a matter to be determined by individual preference, and by the customs of the social group in which you move.

The Kiss Complete.—When the love relationship has moved a stage beyond mere lip kissing, it is on the road toward that ultimate enjoyment, in which the whole body of each lover is a viand for the other's delectation. Shakespeare hints such a kiss for us, in Venus and Adonis, where he describes the experienced goddess with the callow youth: