Dugald Stewart, in the true absence of mind of a philosopher, often forgot, it was alleged, to return books which he had borrowed to read. On its being said that, eminent as he was in many branches of knowledge, he confessed himself deficient in Arithmetic, a punster said,
'That, though very improbable, might be true; but he certainly excelled in bookkeeping.'
From The Anecdotes and Egotisms of Henry Mackenzie, ed. H. W. Thompson (1927), pp. 172-3.