The Sun.
London, England, 1824-08-13 00:00:00

I' 0 I N T.

What mighty effects often spring from the
meatiest causes ! This word, which stands for
nothing in the French linguage, land is defined
by the great geometrician, that which bath no
parts or magnitude, is yet a component part of
every thing which is or shall be; we cannot move
a pen, a foot, or even a finger, without it. What
is the vast mass of bodies in the universe but a
composition of surfaces, 'generated by lines,
which are nothing but a stream of flowing points.
Of what is old time itself made up, and its lovely
daughters, the rosy hours which so gracefully
lead down the jocund dance of life, but of su
many moments or points which themselves are gone
before yoU can tell them on the dial, or even in
the twinkling of the eye which looks upon them.
—Without point, or punctuality, which is its
derivative, what would become of the man of
business ? what of the heads of commerce—the
Common Councilman—or the Alderman, ho
takes care to arrive at his favourite hall just at
the point of time as dinner is serving up—neither
before nor after the happy moment, for it is in
that true punctuality, consists—the very nick of
time—neither to keep others waiting nor to be
ourselves kept kicking our heels and prating our
nothings till the guests arrive.

Nothing so blunts the appetite as exceed-
ing the appointed time; and that may be one of
the reasons of the absurd custom in this age of
economy, of keeping the company in one conti-
nued suspense and alarm, every time. time door
opens, for at least an hour or two beyond time
hour in the cards of invitation. So true is the old
_ _ _

- " Hope fleferred maketh the heart sick.",
And when the heart is once sick, what sympathy
will there be in the other organs ?
And now we talk of organs, what would be-
come of the musician without his notes and
points ; or of the songster without his point
d'orgue ; or of the sailor and of commerce
in general, and of this island in particular,
without boxing the points of the compass ; or even
of the ladies without their lace, so highly prized
'by them, in point,—so called, perhaps, because to
gain it is with them so great a point ; or what, in.
deed, of the men, if they cannot gain their point?
In heraldry, what is so great a glory upon the
escutcheon (for its praise extends beyond the
grave) as the nine points, especially the honour,
the fess, and the nombril-point ? and what so
delights tho heart of the whistplayer as to win
all the points of the rubber, that bumper to cheer
his spirits ?
Without points what would become of the Lo-
gician and his quirks and quiddities ? what of
the Lawyer without his cases in point? or what
of the wit, more especially in his epigrams, which,
if they fail in point, must fall, as they deserve,
into oblivion, the proper place for obtuseness.
For want of a point how many good stories have
been murdered by the telling of them. The dull,
and phlegmatic, and obtuse, are but sorry chan-
nels for the itommunication of wit and vivacity ;
and perhaps there is nothing more ridiculous
than to see some of these ponderous dunces
labouring under the load, heavy to them, of
others' smart repartees and sayings, and wonder-
ing that the laugh is not raised at what they
think the proper place, but which, they point ng
wrong, is raised at their own expence ; and often
the more profusely, as they themselves do not
perceive it, but imagine, in their vain conceit,
that any one but their sacred person may be
made. the general butt : as the wag that was
recording the wit of another who had passed his
joke upon Herring as he was pused in a pond--
« What a sad state poor Herring is-in !"—but the
company did not find it so good a thing as .the
Recorder thought it, till they heard what had
really been said upon the future Archbishop-
-44 What a pickle poor Herring is it: !"

But, besides the sports of wit, what would be
the sports of the field without a PointY Without
his pointer, the sportsman might walk all day
with gun in hand, and return with it as innocent
of blood as when he started ; and the-only game
for his friend's diversion would be the poor la-
bourer himself, who returns with but his labour
for his pains, which is but a wretched entertain-
ment to solace the fatigue of the ones or to
sweeten the disappointment of the other.
How important are the live points upon which
the religious world has been so long, and are
likely to be still longer, and perhaps as long as
the world lasts, divided and perplexed, because
they will not, with all their pretensions to religion,
arrive at the grand point of all to be accomplished
on subjects which no one can understand,--a rem.
lotion to agree to differ; and not to sacrifice Chris.
tiara charity to a point of controversy, because it
happens to be the opinion of our party, any more
than the sentiment of honour, in its genuine sense,
to the point of etiquette. We all know how im.
portant a point was to poor Martin of old—who
was an AWO expelled from the, Monastery of
Able for putting a comma in this line after
instead of after esto:—
Porta patens esto nulls, claudatur honesto—
whence came the proverb :
Faute Wan point, Martin perdit son Ane.
I am, Mr. Editor, •

DREADFUL AFFRAY.—One day last week a
dreadful affray happened at Pett-Horse-race,
place near the sea, midway between Rye and
Hastings, between the Coast Blockade and a
party of smugglers ; of the latter six lost their
lives—one was shot, and five were drowned. A
Jury has sat on the bodies of the deceased, con-
vened by THOMAS Bawrox, Esq. the Coroner of
the Rape of Hastings : the verdict has been,
" Justifiable Homicide."—Two of the smugglers
have been committed to the gaol of Horsham.—
At present we are not sufficiently informed upon
this dreadful event to give any opinion as to the
merits or demerits of either party ; but we may
venture to express a hope that the Member for
the County of Sussex, who took so active a part
in the inquiries which he instituted into this sub-
ject in the Session of 1821, will draw the atten-
tion of Parliament again to those melancholy
occurrences. None of the blockade awn were
materially injured.

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