Cypher

“ He wished he was coming with us.'
'Well, we all wish it too,' said the master heartily. 'What does he do with himself all day? Invent more cyphers?'
'No, sir, he does not mean to invent a new one,' answered Franz, laughing, 'till some one has solved the present one. I am to send him a long telegram in it every day.'
'What is that?' asked the short stranger, good-humouredly. 'I did not know there was such a thing as a cypher that could not be solved.'
'One of my pupils has invented one that no one has solved yet,' answered Herr Groos proudly. ”

“ They accordingly invented a cypher, which they varied from time to time, in order to disconcert those who might attempt to pry into the mysteries of their correspondence. The cypher, composed of fifty signs, was of great value to them through all the troubles of the “Ligue,” and the wars then desolating Europe. Some of their despatches having been intercepted, Henry IV. handed them over to a clever mathematician, Viete, with the request that he would find the clue. ”

“ But how can a cypher, or nothing, in any respect belong to number, or something? For if nothing be a boundary, merely from its intervention, a point existing between any two disjoined lines, though at the greatest distance from each, must be their common boundary, which is evidently absurd. Besides, what relation does it bear to a point, which is endued with a generative power, by its flux forming the simple extension of a line, and, at the same time, every where limiting its progression, and subsisting in infinite capacity in its every part? ”

“ When I had finished, Hewitt, who had been examining the cryptogram meanwhile, remarked: "This cypher is something out of the common, Brett. I certainly don't expect to be able to read it in the cab-journey—perhaps not in a week of study. The man who devised this is a man of abilities altogether beyond the average." ”

“ For a considerable time an American student, Dr. Owen, had been working at the elucidation of another cypher altogether, also alleged to be Bacon’s, and to exist in the Shakespearian plays. This is the word-cypher. With its details we need not here concern ourselves. It is enough to say that an American lady, Mrs. Gallup, was his assistant. The above passage from Bacon arrested her attention, and she became convinced that the Bi-literal Cypher had been described by its inventor with special ulterior purpose and might possibly be found co-existing in Shakespearian plays with the others. ”

“ We have annext likewise a more ample example of the cypher of writing omnia per omnia: An interiour letter, which to expresse, we have made choice of a Spartan letter sent once in a Scytale or round cypher’d staffe.
Spartan Dispatch.
All is lost. Mindarus is killed. The soldiers want food. We can neither get hence nor stay longer here.
An exteriour letter, taken out of the first Epistle of Cicero, wherein a Spartan Letter is involved. ”

“ For the specific instances where Roman type is used, Bacon’s instructions are found on pp. 66-67 of the Bi-literal Cypher, which “Correspondent” has evidently overlooked. I have used this passage on another occasion, but will quote again, as others have stumbled over the same difficulty:
“In order to conceale my Cypher more perfectly, I am preparing for th’ purpose a sette of alphabets in th’ Latine tipe, not for use in th’ greatest or lengthy story or epistle, but as another disguise, for, in ensample, a prologue, præfatio, the epilogues, and headlines attracted too much notice. ”

“ Cyphers were dangerous things to write in time of war. Deadly things. Why did these ladies want to learn the cypher?
It was then that Eileen O’Connor was most brilliant. She described in a simple and girlish way how she and her pupils worked in their little room. While they copied freehand models, one of them read out to the others, books of romance, love, adventure, to forget the gloom of life and the tragedy of war. One of those books was Jules Verne’s “Cryptogram.” It had fascinated them. It had made them forget the misery of war. They were romantic girls, imaginative girls. ”

“ I have, therefore, enclosed you a cypher, and in the duplicate of my letters, I shall enclose another. If both arrive, you will use one, and, in case of your absence, leave the other with such person as may supply your place. Let me know, however, which cypher you use.
The bearer of this letter, Major Franks, formerly an Aid-de-camp to General Arnold, and honorably acquitted of all connexion with him, after a full and impartial inquiry, will be able to give you our public news more particularly than I could relate them. ”

“ Then you can send me a long cypher telegram every day from the station on the Observatory, and it will give me something to do to translate it,' and he handed Franz some silver.
During his illness, Hugo had occupied himself in inventing a most elaborate cypher, which was the envy of the whole school. Not even the masters could read it, and it was an endless source of amusement to himself and Franz, who alone was in the secret. ”

“ I have a head for things like chess and puzzles, and I used to reckon myself pretty good at finding out cyphers. This one looked like the numerical kind where sets of figures correspond to the letters of the alphabet, but any fairly shrewd man can find the clue to that sort after an hour or two’s work, and I didn’t think Scudder would have been content with anything so easy. So I fastened on the printed words, for you can make a pretty good numerical cypher if you have a key word which gives you the sequence of the letters. ”

“ Such is the argument which the ordinary man uses; and if he consents to consider the matter a little farther, and finds, as he will find, that the advocates of the cypher theory maintain that Bacon, in the Shakespearian plays, has hidden away not one cypher but six, his dismissal of their theory will be yet more curt and contemptuous. ”

“ Moxton knew that his wife would be the first to discover his dead body, and wrote the message in cypher for her information. It is only reasonable to think so."
"Mrs. Moxton says she does not know what the cypher means." ”

“ If a thousand towns are examined, the same marks will be found at every passage entrance. The passage mark is a cypher with a twisted tail: in some cases the tail projects into the passage, in others outwardly; thus seeming to indicate whether the houses down the passage [211] are worth calling at or not. Almost every door has its marks: these are varied. In some cases there is a cross on the brick-work, others, a cypher: the figures 1, 2, 3 are also used. Every person may for himself test the accuracy of these statements by the examination of the brickwork near his own doorway ... ”

“ On this principle by certain measurements one man out of fifty thousand can be identified, for it is well known that no two men have all the measurements of head and limbs alike. Now the cypher employed by this gang has been constructed on various measurements from the chief of the gang's body, such as the circumference of his skull and length of certain bones. ”

“ No part of the Cipher Story is embodied in the script or pen letters on these pages. Whether or not the changing of the lines was done purposely, the grouping of the Italic letters from the regular fonts is consecutive as the printed lines stand, the wrong make-up causing no break in the connected narration. There are many “veiled” statements throughout the “Bi-literal Cypher,” such as are noted in Edward Second and in Burton. ”

“ Thus the biliteral cypher exists in one page of Bacon’s works at all events. There is nothing, therefore, fantastic in the idea that it may exist elsewhere. The only possibility of any doubt with regard to the question is due altogether to a purely physical circumstance. The types employed in printing the specimen passage from Cicero were designedly made of such a size, and the differences between the two alphabets were accentuated in such a manner, that the ordinary eye could readily learn to distinguish the letters that stand for dashes from those that stand for dots. ”

“ As soon as the ship touches Plymouth he means to send off this telegram. If he does so all our plans will be foiled." She paused, then slowly raising the locket held it on her palm. "I happen to know, and my father also knew, that, written in a very ordinary and simple cypher within this locket is the order of the measurements of my father's body, which it is necessary to know in order to read the key. When I promised to marry him last night Mr. Wilson gave me the locket. It was the price I required. He thought himself safe, believing that my father was buried for ever. ”

“ But that jealousies may be taken away, we will annexe an other invention, which, in truth, we devised in our youth, when we were at Paris: and is a thing that yet seemeth to us not worthy to be lost. It containeth the highest degree of Cypher, which is to signifie omnia per omnia, yet so as the writing infolding, may beare a quintuple proportion to the writing infolded; no other condition or restriction whatsoever is required. It shall be performed thus: First let all the Letters of the Alphabet, by transposition, be resolved into two Letters onely ”

“ Some brokers in Wall-street average from six to ten messages per day throughout the year. I remember hearing of a young officer, at Niagara Falls, who, finding himself low in the purse, telegraphed to New York for credit, and before he had finished his breakfast the money was brought to him. Cypher is very generally used for two reasons; first, to obtain the secrecy which is frequently essential to commercial affairs; and secondly, that by well-organized cypher a few words are sufficient to convey a long sentence. ”

“ For Cyphars; they are commonly in Letters or Alphabets, but may bee in Wordes. The kindes of Cyphars, (besides the Simple Cyphars with Changes, and intermixtures of Nvlles, and Nonsignificants) are many, according to the Nature or Rule of the infoulding: Wheele-Cyphars, Kay-Cyphars, Dovbles, &c. But the vertues of them, whereby they are to be preferred, are three; that they be not laborious to write and reade; that they bee impossible to discypher; and in some cases, that they bee without suspition. The highest Degree whereof, is to write Omnia Per Omnia ”

“ Then look at the table. T is the first letter; 4 answers to 1; therefore write the fourth letter in the place of T; that is A instead of T. For h the second, put the seventh, which is y; for E, take the second, h. The sentence will stand "Ayh utsr emma yhutsr." It is all but impossible to discover this cypher.
All these cryptographs consist in the exchange of numbers or characters for the real letters; but there are other methods quite as intricate, which dispense with them. ”

“ As not every one can be a poet, an artist, an astronomer, or adept in other branches requiring special aptitude, so, and for the same reasons, not every one will be able to master the intricacies of the Cipher, for in many ways it is most intricate and puzzling,—not in the system itself, but in its use in the books. “It must not be made too plain lest it be discovered too quickly nor hid too deep, lest it never see the light of day,” is the substance of the inventor’s thought many times repeated in the work. ”

“ On the other hand, the fact that the amateur finds himself, after weeks of study, still completely bewildered in his attempt to allocate the various letters to two different founts of type, in such a way as to elicit a sentence or even a word in groups of dots and dashes, according to the Baconian code, must not be taken too hastily as a proof that the alleged cypher is imaginary. Mrs. Gallup has done much, though not so much as she might have done, to enable her readers to settle this point for themselves. ”

“ Elizabeth Wells Gallup.
Detroit, January 9.
P. S. Jan. 11.—Copies of your issue of December 26 and 27 have just reached me.
The articles on the “Bacon Bi-literal Cypher” show that The Times is not averse to whatever aids in elucidation of this new phase of the Bacon-Shakespeare question.
I am glad to note that “A Correspondent” has taken some of the preliminary steps to an actual examination of the cipher and apparently has the perception required to reach conclusions that Mr. Mallock and Mr. Sinnett have also reached as to distinctive variations in the forms of letters used in the old books. ”

“ Aside from the apostrophe, which could not of course be placed in cipher in the one case—suggested as a printer’s error in the other—the forms “Achilles fortune” and “Achilles mind” are the same. We have the following examples and many others of the first form also in the Bi-literal Cypher, (omitting apostrophes,) “Elizabeths raigne,” p. 4; “Kings daughter,” ibid.; “loves first blossom,” “lifes girlod,” p. 5; “stones throw,” “Edwards sire,” p. 6; “lions whelp,” p. 7, etc., etc., etc., and we see that both forms are used in the published works and in cipher. ”

“ Next, the numbers most frequently repeated, if we except the noughts, are 5 and 20, which occur seven times each. Now, the vowel most frequently occurring in average English writing is e, and you will at once perceive that e is number five in the alphabet, counting from the beginning. More, if we go on counting so, we shall find that 20 is t, which is one of the most frequently occurring consonants. This would seem to hint that the cypher is of the very simplest description, consisting of the mere substitution of figures for letters in the exact order of the alphabet. ”