The affinity between these is unmistakable. The same train of thought may produce the same fruit with an absolute freedom from indebtedness. It is a rather interesting problem, of which the solution will, perhaps, never be forthcoming. A second illustration is admissible, shewing the same process at work at a different angle:-- EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. NINETEENTH CENTURY. “Sheridan told his “When Sydney son that he thought Smith’s physician it was high time for (Abernethy) told him him to take a wife. that he ought to take ‘_Whose_ wife shall I exercise on an empty take, sir?’ was the stomach, he inquired, inquiry.” ‘upon whose?’”[1] [1] There can be no doubt that the faulty or varying versions of stories of modern origin are often ascribable to the neglect of immediate registration, and the subsequent oral or written repetition from memory. It is not in the least degree a ground for astonishment, that _jeux d’esprit_ appertaining to old times have descended to our own in a decomposed or mutilated condition, when we find such fugitive trifles connected with men, who were all but our contemporaries, already parting with the bloom of the mint. Two of the biographers of Charles Lamb offer to public consideration simultaneously a _mot_ from his lips, in terms beginning to be fairly devious, but which, when a few more years have run out, will by possibility have ceased to be recognisable by the author. _Ecce!_ “MR. PROCTER. “MR. FITZGERALD. “An old lady, fond of “A lady once bored her dissenting minister, him a good deal. ‘Such wearied Lamb by the a charming man! I know length of his praises. ‘I him! Bless him! I know speak, because I _know_ him!’ To her Charles, wearied him well,’ said she. with repetition of this ‘Well, I don’t,’ replied encomium,--‘Well, I Lamb, ‘I don’t; but don’t; but _damn him damn him at a venture.’” at a hazard_.’” The two records are approximately similar; yet the discrepancies are rather serious, taking into calculation the nearness of Lamb to us and to the literary gentlemen who have made it their business to chronicle his good sayings. The editorial setting has somewhat overlaid the mounted jewel.