THORN-APPLE. 
153 
I 
THORN-APPLE. 
DECEITFUL CHARMS. 
Too often enervated by luxurious ease, an 
indolent beauty languishes the whole day, and 
avoids the cheering rays of the sun. At night, 
arrayed with all the art of coquetry, she ex¬ 
hibits herself to her admirers. The unsteady 
and delusive light of tapers, aiding 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. Imprudent youth, 
flee from the approach of this enchantress! 
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 
nocturnal 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 bells, which 
