whispered _no_, so little meant," that they are practical antitheses to
themselves. "Can danger lurk within a kiss." But all fathers are not
Coleridges, nor are all mothers Woolstonecrafts.

I plead not for libertinism, though only in so simple and innocent a form
as kissing. I do not long for the repetition (or more properly
commencement) of Polydore Virgil's days of "promiscuous" kisses. Let
these remain, as heretofore, in fiction, and in fiction alone. "A glutted
market makes provisions cheap," saith Pope. True, saith experience.

"------The lip that all may press,
Shall never more be pressed by mine,"

saith Moore. _Sic ego_. But there is a medium to be observed between
gluttony and absolute starvation, and "_medio tutis-simus ibis_," saith
the proverb; and I do beg to tell those over cautious ladies and
gentlemen, who seem to know no medium between the cloistered nun and the
abandoned profligate, that Nature will prevail in their spite, or, as
Obadiah wisely and truly said, "When lambs meet they will play." And now,
reader, kind, courteous, gentle, or whatever thou art, I bid thee adieu,
with the hope, that if we agree at this, we may meet again on some future
occasion. IOTA.

* * * * *


THE SKETCH-BOOK


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