NUMBER XXVII.

DON KISSING.

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What is a kiss? A seal of love
Which binds the vow that's given;
A bliss that's sent us from above,
And register'd in heavenlo

For when it is in truth sincere

There's nought can give more pleasure here.

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KISSING, it seems, was at one time so much in vogue in England, that it drew the following remark from the great and accomplished Erasmus, in one of his visits to this country; who" says his commentator, "expressed himself in language sufficiently warm to prove, that he carried the feelings of a man under the cowl of a monk."

"The women in England," said this Dignitary of the Romish Church, are divinely beautiful, affable, and good-humoured. There is a custom also here, which can never be sufficiently commended. When you go any where, you are received by all with kisses. When you depart, you are dismissed with kisses. On your return, kisses are again bestowed on you. When they visit you, kisses are presented; when they go

token of the sincerity of the heart, of a welcome reception, and of the most flattering esteem. Such might be the original feelings attached to the practice, and may still exist in the breasts of many; but of late, the custom has been so alarmingly encroached upon by every order of individuals, that really, both ladies and gentlemen in the present age, are in dread of all whom they may chance to meet, lest they should lay violent hands upon them, the custom being indiscriminately practised by friend and foe.

This national shake, as it may be termed, when given in the true spirit of John Bull, is really tremendous. The great Prussian hero, General Blucher, who experienced it in its most genuine style, declared that "he would, at any time, sooner meet the enemy's army in the field of battle, than have to encounter the friendly grasp of honest John Bull." And no wonder,—for the very rough testimony of public admiration that was so enthusiastically bestowed on this aged veteran, shook his tottering frame, it may with truth be said, "near dissolution." Even females, struck with the general mania, flocked round his carriage wherever it stopped, not only to take a peep at the venerable warrior, but to give him a free and hearty squeeze. At length, overpowered with these flattering evidences of British popularity, he was, one day, counselled by a native to dismiss one of them with a kiss; which he assured him would put the rest to flight, and

prevent his being thus assailed in future. But how mistaken was their countryman-how astonished the General !-Instead of producing the promised effect, it served but to augment the persecution, and encourage their advances. In fine, his gallantry was so liberally rewarded with the profusion of kisses bestowed on him in consequence, that, according to report, he narrowly escaped suffocation. And England may congratulate herself, that kissing was not from that event again revived and adopted as a national custom. From such trivial circumstances do general usages sometimes prevail.

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NUMBER XXVIII.

ON ENTHUSIASTIC PRESUMPTION.

Each does the other's argument deride,
Each has the Church and Scripture on his side.

THE innumerable evils arising from prejudice and ignorance, may, in a great measure, be attributed to the want of energy and public spirit among the better informed.

Men are too apt, in common classes of society, to take all upon slender authority. Public report, or the argument of a sophist, is sufficient to insnare their intellectual powers and to lead them away, in defiance of reason and even common

sense.

Now that a system of general education is become so prevalent, not only school-boys, but blacksmiths, bricklayers, and clowns, as soon as they can read a verse in the Bible, think themselves capable of expounding the hard passages of Scripture; and this for one favorite quotation, and that for another, regardless of the context,

make such a jumble of things altogether, that half the community are bewildered, and know not which path to pursue.

In short, the world seems turned topsyturvy ;boobies assert, men of erudition do not oppose them-upstarts assume, no one corrects them— children dictate, parents obey-servants control, masters submit scribblers decide, their superiors consent and, though last, not the least injurious, the Laity preach, and leave the Clergy to practise. -In some counties, the mania for running after these itinerant preachers is so grievous, that the preliminary step when a servant goes to be hired is to bargain for the privilege of going twice or three times in the week to meeting. Masters and mistresses may, in the meantime, either wait upon themselves, or wait for every thing they may want in their absence. Neither are the orthodox Clergy exempt from these public nuisances; for they can hardly go to order their mutton for dinner, or their coffee for breakfast, but Mr. Allspice or Mr. Cleaver, forsooth, must needs pour forth a volume of evangelical rhetoric over his block, as though he thought he had nothing but calves' heads in his clutches, and that he might turn them either this way or that, at his pleasure. But in these attacks their argu ments are generally vain and futile, and much less calculated to convince the learned, than to seduce the ignorant. "I would recommend thee," said a clerical friend, one day, to one of these