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Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [K6v p156]

Apta recipiunt.

To each his own.

Carolo Clusio.[1]

Man with a scythe breaking up some stone in a river with a swan on it. Man on far bank is moving some sticks.
[Click on image to enlarge]

Robora quò puteis, fluvioque diutius insunt,
Ad lapidum magis hoc diriguere modum.
Paucis id natura dedit contraria lignis,
Caetera dumque natant, humida facta putrent.
Multis malva gravis, quos vix testacea laedunt,
Moesta cothurnici nilque cicuta nocet.
In medico non est semper sanetur ut aeger,
Formaque naturam suscipientis habet.
Thersites nunquam in varium mutatur
Ulyssem, Margites nec adit fortis Achillis opus.[2]
Psittacus est docilis, bos lentus, pegasus acer:
Quolibet è trunco fac mihi Mercurium.

The longer oaken planks are in wells and rivers, the more they are hardened in the manner of stones. Contrary Nature gave this to few trees, and the others as they swim grow wet and rot. Mallow is harmful to many who are hardly hurt by shellfish, and grievous hemlock harms not the quail. It is not always within the skill of the doctor to cure the sick man, and form has the nature of the one who receives it. Thersites never changes into wide-ranging Ulysses, nor does Margites attempt the work of brave Achilles. Parrots learn easily, the bullock is slow, a Pegasus spirited: make me a Mercury out of any piece of wood.

Notes:

1.  Carolus Clusius (Charles de l’Ecluse): Flemish botanist (d. 1609).

2.  Thersites was an ugly and outspoken Greek fighting at Troy. Margites was the hero of a comic poem by Homer, known for his stupidity and conceit

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