Fish Die Soon, Frogs Live Long
Illustration★★★★Almost twenty years since I heard a profane jest, and still remember it. How many pious passages of far later date have I forgotten! It seems my soul is like a filthy pond wherein fish die soon and frogs live long. Lord, raze this profane jest out of my memory. Leave not a letter thereof behind, lest my corruption (an apt scholar) guess it out again; and be pleased to write some pious meditation in the place thereof. And grant, Lord, for the time to come, (because such bad guests are easier kept out), that I may be careful not to admit what T find so difficult to expel. T. Fuller.
The point
Thomas Fuller laments that a single profane jest sticks in his memory for decades while pious truths fade quickly, and prays God would purge and replace corrupt memories.