A would-be poet and flatterer wrote two sonnets in honour of one of his patrons, and submitted their merits to his judgment, desiring him to retain the best. After having read one of them the patron said, 'The other is the best.'

'How!' exclaimed the poet in surprise; 'you have not read it; how can you tell?'

'Because, indeed,' answered the other, 'it cannot be worse than the one I have read.'