In view of the remarkable expressions in the Times and other papers, and in two or three magazines in England, I should perhaps regard myself fortunate that there is now no Inquisition to compel a discoverer to recant, under penalty of the rack; and I can already sympathise with a contemporary of Bacon who, when forced publicly to deny what he knew to be truth, was said to have muttered, as he withdrew, “E pur si muove!”
The torrent of questions, objections, suggestions, inferences, and imaginings that have overwhelmed the press over Bacon’s Bi-literal Cypher, has shown an astonishing interest in the subject, and I may congratulate myself, at any rate, upon being the innocent cause of what somebody has called a “tremendous propulsion of thought currents.” Much of this energy has been expended along lines in no way relating to me or the validity of my work, but we may suppose there is “no exercise of brain force without its value,” and in the swirl there may be others who will say with me, “the world does move.”
I had expected, if not hoped, that with the aids I had set out, some adept in ciphers—sufficiently curious to enjoy solving Sphinxlike riddles—would have followed, and so proved my work. I have been surprised to find how few have been able to grasp the system of its application, and how much defective vision affects the judgment. I also regret very seriously the superficiality of most of the investigations. I am therefore obliged to go into details, when I had expected eager research by others would have made it a fascinating race to forestall me in deciphering the old books I was unable to obtain.
Ten Objections in the “Times.”
“A Correspondent,” in the Times, fully discusses and sets out objections, summarising them finally under the following ten heads:
1. “There are discernible distinct differences of form in certain individual Italic letters used by printers of the period.”
This is an important admission of one important fact. Less careful investigators have directly, or by inference, denied that any such discernible differences exist at all. In the Bi-literal Cypher, p. 310, Bacon says: “Where, by a slighte alteration of the common Italicke letters, the alphabets of a bi-literate cypher having the two forms are readily obtain’d,” etc., which states clearly enough that he had few changes to make to secure his double alphabet.
It is admitted also that the full explanation of the bi-literal cipher is given in De Augmentis Scientiarum. Gilbert Wats’s translation says: “Together with this, you must have ready at hand a Bi-formed Alphabet, which may represent all the Letters of the common Alphabet, as well Capitall Letters as the Smaller Characters in double forme, as may fit every man’s occasion.” He also says: “Certainly it is an Art which requires great paines and a good witt, and is consecrate to the Counsels of Princes.”
So we have, in analysing this first objection, made good progress when we have learned—(1) the admitted differences in the types; (2) from Bacon himself of the use of bi-formed alphabets; (3) the clear and full explanation of the cipher itself, which can be applied to these differences; (4) his statement that it is an art which requires great pains and a good wit (and good vision as well); (5) that its importance is so great that it is consecrate to the counsels of princes. This really leaves but one question: did Bacon print this particular cipher into his books? I answer from a study of months and years that he did, and that I have correctly transcribed it.
2. The correspondent says: “These differences were by no means confined to the period when Bacon lived, or to the books in which Mrs. Gallup alleges a secret cypher—in fact, they are to be detected in similar profusion in books published thirty-five years after Bacon’s death—notably in the third folio of Shakespeare, 1661.”