Nor were
the participants mere rustics; many of them could boast as good blood,
as careful breeding, and as much intelligence, as any in the land.
Neither was the morality or sensitiveness of the young women of that
day in any respect inferior to what it is at present.
"Now that our country towns are become mere outlying suburbs of
cities, these remarks may be read with a smile at the rude simplicity
of old-fashioned American life. But the laugh should be directed, not
at our own country, but at the bygone age. It must be remembered that
in mediaeval Europe, and in England till the end of the seventeenth
century, a kiss was the usual salutation of a lady to a gentleman whom
she wished to honor.... The Portuguese ladies who came to England with
the Infanta in 1662 were not used to the custom; but, as Pepys says,
in ten days they had 'learnt to kiss and look freely up and down.'
Kissing in games was, therefore, a matter of course, in all ranks....
"In respectable and cultivated French society, at the time of which we
speak, the amusements, not merely of young people but of their elders
as well, were every whit as crude.
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