THERE is a very general notion, that if you once suffer women to eat of the tree of knowledge, the rest of the family will very soon be reduced to the same kind of aerial and unsatisfactory diet. DCXLIV.--A-LIQUID. PORSON, once conversing with a party of congenial friends, seemed at a loss for _something_ to cheer the inward man, and drawing his glass mechanically towards him, he took up one bottle, and then another, without finding wherewithal to replenish. A friend observing this, he inquired what the professor was in search of. "Only _a-liquid_!" answered Porson. DCXLV.--TOP AND BOTTOM. THE following playful colloquy in verse took place at a dinner-table between Sir George Rose and James Smith, in allusion to Craven Street, Strand, where he resided:-- _J.S._--"At the top of the street ten attorneys find place, And ten dark coal barges are moored: Fly, honesty, fly, to some safer retreat, For there's _craft_ in the river, and _craft_ in the street." _Sir G.R._--"Why should Honesty fly to some safer retreat, From attorneys and barges, od rot 'em? For the attorneys are _just_ at the top of the street, And the barges are _just_ at the bottom." DCXLVI.--A SUGGESTIVE PRESENT. JERROLD and a company of literary friends were out in the country. In the course of their walk, they stopped to notice the gambols of an ass's foal. A very sentimental poet present vowed that he should like to send the little thing as a present to his mother. "Do," Jerrold replied, "and tie a piece of paper round its neck, bearing this motto,--'When this you see, remember me.'" DCXLVII.--A NEW DISGUISE. THE Duke of Norfolk of Foote's time was much addicted to the bottle. On a masquerade night, he asked Foote what _new_ character he should go in. "Go sober!" said Foote. DCXLVIII.--WET AND DRY. DR. MACKNIGHT, who was a better commentator than preacher, having been caught in a shower of rain, entered the vestry soaked with wet. As the time drew on for divine service he became much distressed, and ejaculated over and over, "O, I wish that I was dry! Do you think I'm dry? Do you think I'm dry eneuch noo?" To this his jocose colleague, Dr. Henry, the historian, returned: "Bide a wee, doctor, and ye'se be _dry eneuch_ when ye get into the _pu'pit_." DCXLIX.--RUM AND WATER. A CERTAIN Scotchman, who is not a member of any temperance society, being asked by a dealer to purchase some fine old Jamaica, dryly answered, "To tell you the truth, Mr. ----, I canna' say I'm very fond of rum; for if I tak' mair than _six_ tum'lers, it's very apt to gi'e me a headache." DCL.--A BUDGET OF BLUNDERS.