Meanwhile the third fish, the dumb one, was
jumping about in great agitation,

trying to escape with agility and cleverness. The net closed
around his thrashing, and as he lay

in the terrible frying-pan bed, he thought, “If I get out of
this, I’ll never live in the limits

of a lake again. Next time, the ocean! I’ll make the
infinite my home.” Such a stated

intention must not always be taken seriously! There are
those who cannot do what they say

they’re going to. They lack the quality called spiritual
reason. Seized by a net

of painful circumstances, they cry out and imagine how they
might have acted, but if

the situation goes away, they forget and go back to the
lake of comfortable pleasure,

a moth with singed wings returning to the candle.