A Point


POPE was one evening at Button's coffee-house, where he and a set of

literati had got poring over a Latin manuscript, in which they had found

a passage that none of them could comprehend. A young officer, who heard

their conference, begged that he might be permitted to look at the

passage. Oh, says Pope, sarcastically, by all means; pray let the

young gentleman look at it. Upon which the officer took up the

manuscript, and, considering it a while, said there only wanted a note

of interrogation to make the whole intelligible: which was really the

case. And pray, master, says Pope, with a sneer, what is a note of

interrogation?--A note of interrogation, replied the young fellow,

with a look of great contempt, is a little crooked thing that asks

questions.



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