"The net of crime is not taken up" so they don't catch the crimes in the net (apparatus of the state?), for want of 'taking it up'/reeling it in/using the apparatus of the state to punish wrongdoing?

"But she is [no better than] an owl." ??

"Those from whom come no lessons, no instruction,
Are women and eunuchs." but a second ago she was wise?

'But they do not say [that their words were] very wrong; -
[They say], ' What evil was there in them?
As if in the three times cent per cent of traffic,
A superior man should have any knowledge of it;' what?

'Heaven is letting down its net,
And many [are the calamities in it].' so we're back with the net, but I'm not clear on what this net is doing