But even if the mouth is not exactly torn, yet much kissing may be almost harmful; but there is only one remedy to be found for this—"you must heal the hurts by fresh kisses."
Dorat, who may be regarded as a high authority on philematology, expressly says:
A second kiss can physic
The evil the first has wrought.
And Heine, whose authority in these questions should hardly be inferior, holds quite the same theory:
If you have kissed my lips quite sore,
Then kiss them whole again;
If we till evening meet no more,
Then hurry will be vain.
You have still yet the whole, whole night,
My dearest heart, know this:
One can in such a long, long night,
Kiss much and taste much bliss.
I make use of the last of the verses quoted as a transition to the next question we have to investigate, viz., the qualitative aspect of kissing, as I regard it apart from its merely gustative qualities, which have already been considered.
