The questions at the bottom of each page constitute an invaluable aid to test the accuracy of his knowledge and the correctness of his inferences.

  1. Is it possible to exaggerate the importance of this lesson?
  2. When will the pupil appreciate its practical value?
  3. Where is this key given?
  4. Are numbers hard to remember?
  5. How do we make them hard to forget?
  6. By what are the figures represented?
  7. What letters have no numerical value assigned to them?
  8. What do the questions at the bottom of each page constitute?

‌The nought and the nine digits are represented by the following consonants when they are sounded or pronounced; viz., 0 (nought) by s, z, or csoft as in cease, 1 by t, th, or d, 2 by n, 3 by m, 4 by r, 5 by l, 6 by sh, j, ch, or gsoft as in the first g of George, 7 ghard as in Gorge, k, chard as in cane, q, or ng, 8 by f or v, and 9 by b or p.

Ample practice in translating the sounded consonants of words into figures, or of figures into the sounded consonants of words will now be given. If the reader can remember the foregoing consonant equivalents of figures in connection with the tabulated Figure Alphabet on the [74th page] of this lesson, he can at once pass on through the book. If not, he must carefully study the intervening pages with painstaking—for when once learned, no further difficulty can arise.

The tabulated Figure Alphabet on the 74th page of this lesson expresses the consonant values of the nought and nine digits in perpendicular columns, as under nought (0) are placed s, z, and csoft; under nine are placed b and p; under six are placed sh, j, ch, and gsoft, &c. Only those who possess first-rate natural memories can learn the equivalents of the sounded consonants in figures from this table. But when learned in this way, the pupil requires much practice in translating words into figures and figures into words. Even this exceptional pupil had better carefully study the ensuing examples.

The first thing to be done is to learn which consonants are used to stand for and represent the nought (0) and 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9. Let the student remember that we use vowels to make words with, but we do not give the vowels [a, e, i, o, u], or w, or y, any number value whatever.

We represent the nought or cypher [0] by the consonants s, z, or csoft [as in cease].

The figure value of “sew,” therefore equals or is represented by a cipher [0]. S = 0, and the vowel “e” and the consonant “w” have no figure value. Cannot the‌ student understand at once that Say = 0, See = 0, Ease = 0, Is = 0, and Zoe = 0, and Seize = 00, Size = 00, Sauce = 00?

The following is another way of fixing in mind this first rule.

If the capital letter S were cut into two parts, and the bottom half attached to the top half, it would make a nought (0). So it is easy to remember that S represents 0. Csoft as in cease has the same sound as S, and should therefore stand for the same figure, viz., 0; and Z is a cognate of S—that is, it is made by the same organs of speech in the same position as when making S, only it is an undertone, and S is a whispered letter. Besides Z should represent 0 because it begins the word Zero—Csoft should also stand for 0 for the additional reason that Csoft begins the word cipher. In translating a word into figures we always turn S, Z, or Csoft into nought (0); in turning figures into words we always translate a nought (0) into S, Z, or Csoft.