The Vertumnus of Vanity

TO STUDIOUS YOUTH,
I write to you, youths:
Do not love the world. 1 John 2, v. 13 & 15.

EPISTLE.

The page you are reading (I hope you are reading), Studious Youth,
Contains words of salvation to be secured.
What better value could there be at the threshold than to bring Salvation?
Which, I pray, you may enjoy with your colleagues.
I take care that the Epistle is endowed with salvific meaning:
As this will be, I think the page will be pleasing.
I suppose you will be less averse to such a thing; even though
It is written in the manner of one warning against something original: "Dehortantis".
I pity your error; if there were no cause,
My pen would not be heavy with any of my warnings.
You provide the material; because you love, alas, the World:
From whose embrace I wish to have recalled you.
Alas! You do not know what you love. Lies smeared
With the coloring of truth: deceits under the guise of sincerity:
Frauds under the image of truthful candor;
Whoever loves the Ludicra playthings/trifles of the Impostor World.
It promises pleasant things indeed; but the promise differs
From the ample gifts, and they provide nothing but loss in return.
Joking with a voice, it simulates the ages of a pleasant life:
The final moments of time hold grief.
It urges, as if by the nod of Alcinous the mythical king of the Phaeacians, known for his luxurious gardens, into the gardens,
The deceiver smoothens the way with the art of flattery.
It marks the path sown with flowers into the Paestan referring to the famous rose gardens of Paestum rose beds;
But the thorn placed in the middle of the roses bristles.