``Pri'thee, sir, whence comes that quotation?''

``From Sophocles,''quoth the vain fellow.

``Be so kind as to find it for me?'' asked Porson, producing a
copy of Sophocles from his pocket.

Then the coxcomb, not at all abashed, said that he meant not
Sophocles, but Euripides. Whereupon Porson drew from another
pocket a copy of Euripides and challenged the upstart to find the
quotation in question. Full of confusion, the fellow thrust his
head out of the window of the coach and cried to the driver:

``In heaven's name, put me down at once; for there is an old
gentleman in here that hath the Bodleian Library in his pocket!''

Porson himself was a veritable slave to the habit of reading in
bed. He would lie down with his books piled around him, then
light his pipe and start in upon some favorite volume. A jug of
liquor was invariably at hand, for Porson was a famous drinker.
It is related that on one occasion he fell into a boosy slumber,
his pipe dropped out of his mouth and set fire to the bed-
clothes. But for the arrival of succor the tipsy scholar would
surely have been cremated.

Another very slovenly fellow was De Quincey, and he was devoted
to reading in bed. But De Quincey was a very vandal when it came
to the care and use of books. He never returned volumes he
borrowed, and he never hesitated to mutilate a rare book in order