Irenaeus Fable 86: Cera Duritiem Appetens

I've embarked on a new Latin fable project here at the Latin Via Fables blog: digitizing the 300 fables in the Mithologica sacro-profana, seu florilegium fabularum by P. Irenaeus, published in 1666, which has recently become available at GoogleBooks. For a complete index of the fables in the book, with links to the fables I've digitized so far, check out the Aesopus wiki page at Aesopus.PBwiki.com.

Today's fable is De Cera, duritiem lateris appetente, the story of some wax that wanted to become hard as a brick. The fable comes from Abstemius.

To make reading the fable easier, I've provided a segmented version of the story below.

Cera, videns se mollem et tractabilem, nimis dolebat conditionis suae vicem, cupiebatque lateris cocti soliditate donari, quod ut consequeretur, iecit se in fornacem ardentem, sed momento liquefacta, et igne consumpta, documento fuit: quemque in suo statu manere debere, nec appetere quod sibi a natura fuit negatum.

Cera,
videns
se mollem et tractabilem,
nimis dolebat
conditionis suae vicem,
cupiebatque
lateris cocti soliditate donari,
quod ut consequeretur,
iecit se
in fornacem ardentem,
sed momento liquefacta,
et igne consumpta,
documento fuit:
quemque
in suo statu manere debere,
nec appetere
quod sibi
a natura fuit negatum.

Here's an illustration for the fable (image source) showing a wax candle:

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Aesop's Fables in Latin now available at Amazon.com.