814 
P O I 
Be fure to make all the others “ back.” Having kept 
them in that pofition fome time, walk up to him, and 
fpring the birds, at the fame time calling “ Down !” 
Then carefs him, call the others in, and make them all 
“down.” Larks leave a ftrong fcent, and whelps will be 
apt to point them; ftiould this occur, call out “Hold 
upj hie lark;” and they will foon difcontinue it. This 
treatment will fpeedily make them “ down charge.” 
After a fliort interval, allow them all to enjoy the fcent. 
By thefe means your whelps will foon become perfeft 
and Haunch. 
Always endeavour to “ give your pointers the wind ;” 
that is, enter every field facing the wind, as they have 
then a greater chance to catch the fcent floating on the 
breeze; and be careful to make them “quarter the 
ground.” This perhaps may need explanation. It is 
thus : When you enter an inclofure, direft one to the 
right, the other to the left, encouraging them at the fame 
time, with “ Hie on,” and by frequently repeating the 
undulating whiftle above defcribed, and make them pafs 
and re-pafs each other at not more than thirty yards 
diftance in front ; and fo alternately beat the ground in 
parallel lines. If, when they meet, one manifefts an 
inclination to turn and follow the other, check hint, and, 
by a wave of the hand, direft him to purfue his own beat. 
Ufe the whip as fparingly as poflible, confidently with 
good difcipline; and you will have your whelp well 
broke to commence with the gun the enfuing feafon. 
A week or two before the feafon commences, give your 
pointers two dofes of phyfic each, at an interval of three 
days; and, fltould their feet be cut or fwelled, wafli them 
well in greafy water, and afterwards in brine or very 
ftrong fait and water. Laft, but not leaft; let every 
fportfman be very temperate, and “ put on his belt (hoot¬ 
ing” when he firft takes out his pointer-whelp with the 
gun ; remembering always, that good (hooting makes 
good dogs, and vice verfa. F. 
POIN'TING, J. The aft of (harpening; the aft of 
direfting. Punftuation. 
POIN'TING-STOCK, /. Something made the objeft 
of ridicule : 
I, his forlorn dutchefs, 
Was made a wonder and a pointinz-ftock 
To every idle rafcal follower. Shahefpeare's Hen. VI. 
POIN'TLESS, adj. Blunt; not (harp; obtufe : 
Lay that pointlefs clergy-weapon by, 
And to the laws, your fword of jultice, fly. Dryden. 
POIN'TY, a town of Bengal, diftrift of Mongier. It 
is delightfully fituated on the iouth bank of the Ganges, 
in view of the Rajemahel hills; and the vicinity abounds 
with all kinds of game. Lat.25.20.INJ. Ion. 87.26. E. 
POINTYPOU'R, a town ot Hindooftan, in Oude: 
thirty miles fouth-eaft of Fyzabad. 
PO'JO, a town of Sweden, in Nyland : nine miles 
north of Eknas. 
POIRE SOUS LA ROCHE SUR YON'NE, a town 
of France, department of La Vendee, with 4200 inha¬ 
bitants : forty-two miles north-weft of Fontenay. 
POIRE'T (Peter), a famous French myftical divine 
and philofopher, was the fon of a fword-cutler at Metz, 
where he was born in the year 1646. He was originally 
intended by his father for an engraver, and placed when 
very young with an artift in that line, by whom he u'as 
inftrufted in the art of drawing. He foon difcovered, 
however, a ftronger inclination for learning and lcience 
than for bufinefs; and, being permitted to follow the 
bent of his mind, applied with great diligence to the 
ftudy of the Latin language in his native city, and after¬ 
wards at Buxoville, near Strafburgh, where he became 
French tutor in the family of the governor of Hanau. In 
1664, he went to the univerfity of Bafil, where he ftudied 
with fuccefs the Greek and Hebrew languages. Being 
interrupted in his attendance upon the fchools by ill 
health, he employed himfelf during a long confinement, 
in the ftudy of the Cartefian philofophy; and, as he pof- 
fefi'ed a bold and penetrating genius, foon became well 
P O I 
converfant with it. In 1668, he entered himfelf a ftudent 
at the univerfity of Heidelberg, to qualify himfelf for the 
profeflion of a divine, by a particular attention to theo¬ 
logical (Indies ; and, having been admitted to the miniftry 
four years afterwards, he was appointed paftor of the 
church of Amveil, in the duchy of Deux Pouts. Here, 
after a fevere illnefs, he wrote his “ Cogitationes ra¬ 
tionales de Deo, Anima, et Malo,” in which he for the 
moft part followed the principles of Des Cartes. This 
work attracted confiderable notice in the philofophical 
world, and was afterwards defended by the author 
againft the cenfures of Bayle. Here his mind is alfo 
faid to have received its firft tinfture of fanaticifm, from 
the perufal of the works of John Taulerus, Thomas a 
Kempis, and other contemplative and myftical writers. 
In 1676, being driven from his clerical cure by the war 
in which the country was involved* he withdrew' into 
Holland, and from thence to Hamburg, where he met 
with the celebrated myftic, Madame Bourignon; and was 
fo captivated with her opinions, that he became her zea¬ 
lous difciple. From this time he determined to feek 
for that illumination from divine contemplation and 
prayer, which he could not obtain by the exercife of his 
rational faculties. He alfo became a violent enemy to the 
Cartefian philofophy, and took great pains to expofe its 
errors and defefts. At 'the fame time, he rejected the 
light of reafon as ufelefs and dangerous, and inveighed 
againft every kind of philofophy which was not the 
effeft of divine illumination. After refiding eight years 
at Hamburg, in 1688 he removed to Rheinlburg in 
Holland, not far from Leyden, where he fpent the re¬ 
mainder of his life, employed in folitary contemplation, 
in writing myftical books, and in editing the reveries of 
Madame Bourignon, Madame Guyon, and other enthu- 
fiafts. He died in 1719, about the age of 73, having 
“ fliow'n in a drifting manner,” fays Moflteim, “ by his 
own example, that knowledge and ignorance, reafon and 
fuperftition, are often divided by thin partitions; and 
that they fometimes not only dwell together in the fame 
perfon, but alfo, by an unnatural and unaccountable 
union, lend each other mutual afliftance, and thus en¬ 
gender monftrous productions.” Befides enlarged edi¬ 
tions of his “ Cogitationes,” which were altered in con¬ 
formity to his change in fentiment, he was the author of 
a treatife “ De Oeconomia Divina, &c.” in 7 vols. 8vo. 
1-687, in which he drefled out in an ingenious and artful 
manner, and reduced to a kind of fyftem, the wild and 
incoherent fancies of Madame Bourignon. 3. De Erudi- 
tione triplici, folida, fuperficiaria, et falfa, &c. 1692, and 
in 1707 augmented to 2 vols. 4to. 4. The Peace of 
Good Men in all Parts of Chriftendom, 1687, i2mo. 
5. The fubftantial Principles of the Chriftian Religion, 
&c. 1705, 121110. 6. De Natura Idearum, ex origine fua 
repetita, &c. 1715, nmo. and other pieces, biographical 
memoirs, prefaces, tranflations, &c. which are particu¬ 
larized in Moreri. Enfield's llijl. Phil. vol. ii. 
POIRE'TIA, J'. [fo named by the late M. Ventenat, 
in honour of his countryman, M. Poiret, who travelled 
into Barbary in 1785 and 1786. An account of that 
journey appeared in 1789. This gentleman has long 
been laborioufly engaged, as the fucceffor of the diftin- 
guiflied Lamarck, in the botanical part of the Encyclo¬ 
pedic or Diftionnaire de Botanique. Ventenat Mem. de 
l’Injlitut for 1807, Part I.] In botany, a genus of the 
clals diadelphia, order decandria, natural order of papi- 
lionaceae, Linn, (leguminofas, Juff. )— EJfential Character. 
Calyx bell-ftiaped, two-lipped; the upper lip emarginate, 
lower with three teeth. Standard femiorbicular, emar¬ 
ginate, bent back by the keel, reflexed at the fides. 
Wings oblong, very obtufe. Keel fickle-fliaped, curved 
upwards. Stamens all united. Stigma capitate. Le¬ 
gume comprefled, jointed; its joints iingle-feeded, fepa- 
rating when ripe. 
Poiretia fcandens, or climbing poiretia, is a native ot 
Hifpaniola, and appears to be the only known fpecies. 
Stem twining; leaves abruptly pinnate, of two pair of 
wedge-fhaped, or fomewhat obcordate, leaflets, full of 
pellucid 
