In momentaneam felicita-
tem.

Transitory success

Aëriam propter crevisse Cucurbita pinum
Dicitur, & grandi luxuriasse coma.
Cùm ramos complexa, ipsumque egressa cacumen,
Se praestare aliis credidit arboribus.
Cui pinus, Nimium brevis est haec gloria: nam te
Protinus adveniet quae malè perdat[1] hyems.

A gourd, it is said, grew beside a lofty pine and flourished with abundant foliage. When it had enveloped the branches and grown taller than the tree-top, it then thought itself superior to the other trees. The pine said to it: This glory is exceedingly brief. For winter will shortly come which will utterly destroy you.

Cucurbita natura sublimitatis avida, hyemem
odit maximè, de qua Plinius li. 19. cap. 5. Nasce-
batur prope pinum arborem altissimam, latis
  Link to an image of this page  [h3v p118]abundans foliis, cumque ramos pini amplexa
esset ac tandem summitatem arboris excrevis-
set, superbire coepit, omniumque arborum se
praestantiorem & excellentiorem gloriabatur
cui pinus respondit, Nimis, ô bone, brevis est
haec tua gloria, cito enim adveniens hyems
radicibus te extinguet, hic Apologus desum-
ptus est ex Crinito lib. 2. cap. 14. de honesta
disciplina, fabulis etiam Aesopi insertus. Non
superbiendum ob prosperae fortunae, quae in-
constans est, fubitum eventum.