THE CARP AND THE STICKLEBACK 



feel ourselves floating above duration, and assisting at 

 the succession of things. We see connections and 

 relations between things we are accustomed to dis- 

 tinguish and separate. Beyond the individual which 

 perishes, we see its ancestry and its succession. Con- 

 sciousness develops further. In relation to these lives, 

 it becomes what for a generation like our own would be 

 that of a being who, living for thousands of years, 

 should see before him the torrent of peoples and 

 generations. 



There are fish in the pond. I see them every now 

 and again passing below me among the submerged 

 plants. Most of them belong to the small species, like 

 loach, and a few roach. But there are more sticklebacks 

 than anything else, and they abound in several places. 

 And there are bigger creatures. From the line I 

 have thrown out, I get large eels, keen hunters of 

 tadpoles and frogs, whose numbers they keep down. 

 There are a few large carp too, but they do not often 

 allow themselves to be caught. Sometimes I hear one as 

 it comes up to the surface; the noise made when it 

 breathes a mouthful of air strikes the ear and attracts my 

 glance. I see a large snout, but it soon disappears; the 

 carp has dived back to its lair among the reeds, leaving 

 no trace but a series of broad circling ripples, where it 

 showed itself. The carp are distrustful, wild, different 

 from their fellows in the lakes of a park which has many 

 visitors. These make a business of coming to the shore 

 to gather the bread which is thrown to them. 



Yet I once had the opportunity to examine one of 

 them as well as I could desire. I heard a splash such as 

 one usually hears when the fish drops back into the 

 water, but it was some way off, and I got up to go to- 

 wards the sound. To my surprise the noise, instead of 

 ceasing, continued. When I got near enough, I dis- 

 covered the reason. The carp was struggling on the 

 surface of the water; escaping doubtless from some 

 enemy, an otter perhaps or a water-snake, which had 

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