The moment his fins feel the water, he is himself again, and darts like a flash through the waves.

His fins mean something now, while before they beat the air and earth in vain, a hindrance instead of a help.
If you fail after doing your level best, examine the work attempted, and see if it really be in the line of your bent or power of achievement.

Cowper failed as a lawyer.

He was so timid that he could not plead a case, but he wrote some of our finest poems.

Moliere found that he was not adapted to the work of a lawyer, but he left a great name in literature.