On this day in 1857, Charles Baudelaire published LES FLEURS DU MAL (Flowers of Evil), leading to his conviction on charges of blasphemy and obscenity. "Hymn to Beauty" Do you come from Heaven or rise from the abyss, Beauty? Your gaze, divine and infernal, Pours out confusedly benevolence and crime, And one may for that, compare you to wine. You contain in your eyes the sunset and the dawn; You scatter perfumes like a stormy night; Your kisses are a philtre, your mouth an amphora, Which make the hero weak and the child courageous. Do you come from the stars or rise from the black pit? Destiny, bewitched, follows your skirts like a dog; You sow at random joy and disaster, And you govern all things but answer for nothing. You walk upon corpses which you mock, O Beauty! Of your jewels Horror is not the least charming, And Murder, among your dearest trinkets, Dances amorously upon your proud belly. The dazzled moth flies toward you, O candle! Crepitates, flames and s...