the cipher, the bearer is to produce the non-significant alphabet for the true, and the true for the non-significant; by which means the examiner would fall upon the outward writing, and finding it probable, suspect nothing of the inner. 23

But to prevent all suspicion, we shall here annex a cipher of our own, that we devised at Paris in our youth, and which has the highest perfection of a cipher—that of signifying omnia per omnia (anything by everything)," provided only the matter included be five times less than that which includes it, without any other condition or limitation. The invention is this: first let all the letters of the alphabet be resolved into two only, by repetition and transposition; for a transposition of two letters through five places, or different arrangements, will denote two-and-thirty differences, and consequently fewer, or four-and-twenty, the number of letters in our alphabet, as in the following example:

A BILITERAL ALPHABET,

Consisting only of a and b changed through five places, so as to represent all the letters of the common alphabet

Thus, in order to write an A, you write five a's, or aaaaa; and to write a B, you write four a's and one b, or aaaab; and so of the rest.

And here, by the way, we gain no small advantage, as this contrivance shows a method of expressing and signify

23 The publishing of this secret frustrates its intention; for the examiner, though he should find the outward letter probable, would doubtless, when thus advertised, examine the inner, notwithstanding its alphabet were delivered to him for non-significants.-Shaw.

24 For this cipher is practicable in all things that are capable of two differences.

ing one's mind to any distance, by objects that are either visible or audible-provided only the objects are but capable of two differences, as bells, speaking-trumpets, fireworks, cannon, etc. But for writing, let the included letter be resolved into this biliteral alphabet; suppose that letter were the word FLY, it is thus resolved:

Let there be also at hand two other common alphabets, differing only from each other in the make of their letters; so that, as well the capital as the small be differently shaped or cut at every one's discretion: as thus, for example, in Roman and Italic; each Roman letter constantly representing A, and each Italic letter B.

All the letters of this Roman alphabet are read or deciphered by translating them into the letter A only.

All the letters of this Italic alphabet are read by translating them into the letter B only.

Now adjust or fit any external double-faced writing, letter by letter, to the internal writing, first made biliterate; and afterward write it down for the letter or epistle to be sent. Suppose the external writing were, "Stay till I come to you," and the internal one were, "Fly"; then,

as we saw above, the word "Fly," resolved by means of the biliteral alphabet, is

whereof I fit, letter by letter, the words "Stay till I come to you," observing the use of my two alphabets of differently shaped letters, thus:

Having now adjusted my writing according to all my alphabets, I send it to my correspondent, who reads the secret meaning by translating the Roman letters into a's, and the Italic ones into b's, according to the Roman and Italic alphabets, and comparing each combination of five of them with the biliteral alphabet."

We herewith annex a fuller example of the cipher of writing "omnia per omnia," viz., an interior letter once sent by the Ephores of Sparta in a scytale or round ciphered staff:

"Perditæ res.

Minidarus cecidit. Milites esuriunt, neque hinc nos extricare, neque hic diutius manere pos

sumus.

The exterior letter in which the above is involved is taken from the first epistle of Cicero. We adjoin it:

"Ego omni officio ac potius pietate erga te, cæteris satisfacio omnibus; mihi ipse numquam satisfacio. Tanta est enim magnitudo tuorum erga me meritorum, ut quoniam tu nisi perfecta re, de me non conquiesti. Ego quia non idem tu tua causa efficio, vitam mihi esse acerbam putem. In causa hæc sunt; Ammonius regis legatus aperte pecunia non oppugnat. Res agitur per eosdem creditores per quos,

25 Those who desire a fuller explanation may consult Bishop Wilkins's "Secret and Swift Messenger," or rather Mr. Falconer's "Cryptomenysis Patefacta, or Art of Secret Information disclosed without a Key. The trustiness of this cipher depends upon a dexterous use of two hands, or two different kinds of letters, in the same writing, which the skilful decipherer, being thus advertised of, will be quick-sighted enough to discern, and consequently be able to decipher, though a foundation seems here laid for several other ciphers, that perhaps could neither be suspected nor deciphered.-Shaw.

cum tu aderas, agebatur regis causa, si qui sunt, qui velint qui pauci sunt, omnes ad Pompeium rem deferri volunt. Senatus religionis calumniam, non religione, sed malevolentia, et illius regia largitionis invidia, comprobat," etc.

The doctrine of ciphers has introduced another, relative to it, viz., the art of deciphering without the alphabet of the cipher, or knowing the rules whereby it was formed. This indeed is a work of labor and ingenuity, devoted, as well as the former, to the secret service of princes. Yet by a diligent precaution it may be rendered useless, though, as matters now stand, it is highly serviceable: for if the ciphers in use were good and trusty, several of them would absolutely elude the labor of the decipherer, and yet remain commodious enough, so as to be readily written and read. But through the ignorance and unskilfulness of secretaries and clerks in the courts of princes, the most important affairs are generally committed to weak and treacherous ciphers." And thus much for the organ of speech.

CHAPTER 11

Styled the Wisdom

Method of Speech includes a wide Part of Tradition.
of Delivery. Various kinds of Methods enumerated.

respective Merits

Their

HE doctrine concerning the method of speech has been usually treated as a part of logic; it has also found

a place in rhetoric, under the name of disposition; but the placing of it in the train of other arts has introduced.

26 The art of ciphering is doubtless capable of great improvement. It is said that King Charles I. had a cipher consisting only of a straight line differently inclined; and there are ways of ciphering by the mere punctuation of a letter, while the words of the letter shall be non-significants, or sense, that leave no room for suspicion. It may also be worth considering, whether the art of deciphering could not be applied to languages, so as to translate for instance, a Hebrew book without understanding Hebrew. See Morhof, De variis Scripturæ Modis, "Polyhist." tom. i. lib. iv. cap. 2, and Mr. Falconer's "Cryptomenysis Patefacta."-Shaw.

a neglect of many useful things relating to it. We, there fore, think proper to advance a substantial and capital doctrine of method, under the general name of traditive prudence. But as the kinds of method are various, we shall rather enumerate than divide them; but for one only method, and perpetually splitting and subdividing, it scarce need be mentioned, as being no more than a light cloud of doctrine that soon blows over, though it also proves destructive to the sciences, because the observers thereof, when they wrest things by the laws of their method, and either omit all that do not justly fall under their divisions, or bend them contrary to their own nature, squeeze, as it were, the grain out of the sciences, and grasp nothing but the chaff whence this kind of method produces empty compendiums, and loses the solid substance of the sciences."

Let the first difference of method be, therefore, between the doctrinal and initiative. By this we do not mean that the initiative method should treat only of the entrance into

The

1 The design of Ramus, whose method of Dichotomies is here censured, was to reduce all divisions and subdivisions to two members, with a view to obtain a basis for the construction of dilemmas and disjunctive syllogisms. We are never certain that these species of reasoning are legitimate, except when the divisions out of which they rise are exact; and the only test of this accuracy is to be sought in a dichotomous contradictory division, where the supposition of one member necessarily leads to the exclusion of the other. This method of exhausting a subject by an analytic exhaustion of its parts, which he mainly derived from Plato, has its proper sphere in logic; and though condemned in the text, was employed by Bacon in many of his prerogative instances. error of Ramus consisted in taking only a part for the whole of logic, and applying what is strictly applicable to subjects of a peculiar nature, to the whole range of inference. It is evident, however, that the dichotomous process can only be employed in the investigation of subjects which admit of a twofold contradictory division, and that where the primitive elements are composed of four or five distinct members, the method is totally inapplicable. Its use, therefore, ought to be attended with the greatest caution, as the Ramist can hardly be certain that the twofold division, in many cases, is not more apparent than real, and that a further analysis would not necessitate a multiform classification. For want of this foresight, Ramus, with all his subtilty, falls into inconceivable errors, and a great many of Bacon's exemplifications of his method in the crucial instance are direct paralogisms. Milton framed a logic on the model of Ramus's method, seduced rather by the bold antagonism of the latter against Aristotle, than by its philosophic justness. Both the original and the copy are now forgotten, and Ramus is committed to the judgment of posterity rather on his absurdities than his merits. See Hooker, i. 6, with Keble's note.-Ed.