THORN-APPLE. 159 
THORN-APPLE. 
DECEITFUL CHATOIS. 
Too often enervated by luxurious ease, an indo- 
lent beauty languishes the whole day, and avoids 
the cheering rays of the sun. At night, arrayed 
with all the art of coquetry, she exhibits herself to 
her admirers. The unsteady and delusive light of 
tapers, aiming her artifices, lends her a deceptive 
brilliancy, and she enchants by charms that are not 
her own. Her heart, meanwhile, is a stranger to 
love : all that she wants is slaves, victims. Impru- 
dent youth, flee from the approach of this enchant- 
ress. Nature alone is sufficient, art useless, in 
order to please and to love. She who employs the 
latter is always dangerous, perfidious. 
The flowers of the Thorn-apple, like those noc- 
turnal beauties, droop while the sun shines beneath 
their dull-looking foliage ; but, on the approach of 
night, they revive, display their charms, and unfold 
their prodigious bdh, which Nature has coloured 
