e no more trouble than P. P., we shall find ourselves no {449} nearer
our object in the middle of your eightieth volume than we are now in your
eighth.

What P. P. is pleased to term the "routine" reason is after all but one
among many, and is not better substantiated than some of the others quoted
by me; for though the lozenge has a "supposed" resemblance to the distaff
or fusil, heraldically it is but a supposed one, and by most writers the
difference is very distinctly indicated.

Boyer says:

"A fusil is a bearing in heraldry made in the form of a spindle, with
its yarn or thread wound about it. _Fusils are longer than lozenges_,
and taper or pointed at both ends."

The same author thus describes a lozenge:

"A Rhimbus, in geometry, is a figure of four equal and parallel sides,
but not rectangular."

Robson says:

"Fusil, a kind of spindle used in spinning. Its formation should be
particularly attended to, _as few painters or engravers make a
sufficient distinction between the fusil and lozenge_."

Nisbet describes a lozenge to be--

"A figure that has equal sides and unequal angles, as the quarry of a
glass window placed erect pointways."

He adds:

"The Latins say, 'Lozengae factae sunt ad modum lozangiorum in vitreis.'
Heralds tell us that their use in armories came from the pavement of
marble stones of churches, fine palaces and houses, cut after the form
of lozenges, which pavings the French and Italians call loze and the
Spaniards _loza_."

Sylvester de Petra-Sancta of the lozenge says much the same:

"Scutulas oxigonias scu acutangulus erectas, et quasi gradiles, referri
debere ad latericias et antiquas domus olim, viz. Nobilium quia vulgus,
et infamiae sortis homines, intra humiles casus, vet antra
inhabitantur."

Of the fusil Nisbet writes:

"The fusil is another Rhombular figure like the lozenge, but more long
than broad, and its upper and lower points are more acute than the two
side points."

He adds that:

"Chassanus and others make their sides round, as in his description of
them: 'Fusae sunt acutae in superiore et inferiore partibus, et rotundae
ex utroque latere;' which description has occasioned some English
heralds, when so painted or engraven, to call them millers' picks, as
Sir John Boswell, in his _Concords of Armory_, and others, to call them
weavers' shuttles."