881. Philosophus et Cucurbita. Sunt qui vel mundi opificem sapientissimum reprehendere audeant. Cum quidam cucurbitam grandiorem tenui in caule humi iacentem videret, “Hem!” inquit; “non in caule tenui, sed in alta quercu ego eam suspendissem.” Abiit deinde, et sub quercu aliqua obdormiscebat. Qui cum dormiret, ventus glandes innumeras a quercu decutiebat, quarum aliqua nasum hominis vehementius tetigit. Expergefactus ille, cum sanguinem e naso profluentem cerneret, “Quid,” inquit, “si haec cucurbita fuisset, vix equidem viverem amplius? Deum profecto sentio sapientissime atque optime mundum disposuisse.”
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SLIDESHOW of all the Billinghurst images. You can see a bit of the pumpkin vine there on the gourd, where presumably the would-be wise man has just plucked the impressive pumpkin.
M0881 (not in Perry). Source: Yenni, Anecdote 7. This fable is not in Perry’s catalog; it does appear in La Fontaine, 9.4. Compare the fable about wishes that do not turn out as expected, #782 or #811.
