"But my master did not like to be thus criticized.
"So, a little while after that, one day, when that same prince was in an agreeable frame of mind, Lang-Ho invited him to the reading of one of his works.
"The nobleman declared that he had never heard anything more beautiful.
"'That is true,' said Lang-Ho, 'but you ought to have said this the first time you heard it.'
"And he revealed to the prince that these verses were those of the young man whom he had judged so harshly."
From this story two lessons may be drawn:
The first is, that if common sense indicates that judgment should not change from scorn to enthusiasm, when it is a question of the same object, practical sense insists that one should be certain of impartiality of judgment, by avoiding the influence of questions which relate to environment and surrounding circumstances.
The second concerns opportunity.
We have already had occasion to say how much some things, which seem desirable at certain times, are questionable when the situation changes.
Bad humor creates ill-will; therefore it is abominably stupid to provoke the manifestation of the second when one has proved the existence of the first.