Concerning the bi-literal cypher of Francis Bacon discovered in his works

by Elizabeth Wells Gallup

I hope the gentlemen do not mean to be rude or do me an injustice, and I do not think they can persist in the characterization which their words imply.

The assertion that Mr. Mallock has become “addlepated,” because of thinking there may be something in the cipher, must be something of a shock to his friends.

Mr. Marston did me the honour of two favourable notices, in succeeding issues of the Publishers’ Circular. I was about to thank him for numbers sent to me when I learned that he had prepared and published an elaborate article attempting to discredit the entire work, because of doubts arising in his mind upon a single point. He does not base his disbelief upon any investigation he has made of the cipher itself, but because a fragment which forms a part of Bacon’s “Argument” or epitome (but not the full translation) of the Iliad, in that portion which catalogues the ships and the troops they transported, is similar—“nearly like”—Pope’s translation of the same passages, ergo, it must be that I paraphrased Pope, and hence that the whole cipher fabric is tumbled into dust. Because of this similarity he takes Mr. Mallock to task for considering my work seriously, and declares that, as I have, as he thinks, copied Pope in this, the results of my four years’ research in America and in England, set down on 385 printed pages, must be pure invention, and Mr. Mallock a poor deluded mortal to have gone into the cipher at all. The statement of the case exhibits the value of the conclusion.

It does not appear just how much variation Mr. Marston would have between the translations of the identical Greek text, describing definite things, to prove which was the correct one, and which the copy. It will also be noted that this is not one of the portions of Homer’s wondrous story where imagination may run riot, and imagery and poetic license add lustre to the original.

The claim of identities set me to wondering whom else I might have paraphrased, or if it was not possible that Pope had copied from some one other than Bacon. An examination of six different English translations and one Latin shows me such substantial accord, that either of them could be called with equal justice a paraphrase of Pope, or that Pope had copied from the others.

In phrasing no two translations of the Iliad entirely agree, but are we to conclude that, because the translations of the same text are in substantial agreement (though not exact), that one of the two most nearly alike must be a paraphrase? The trifling additions showing some exterior knowledge of persons and places may be found in Bacon’s other works.

It will be observed by readers of the “Bi-literal Cypher” that the fragment of the Fourth Book of the Iliad which is injected by Bacon into the “Argument” is for illustration merely, and is clearly stated to be only “a supreme effort of memory” of the fuller translation which he had previously embedded as a part of the mosaic in his works, to be extracted and reconstructed through the methods of another cipher.

Surely there can be no more distressing condition than when critics refuse to know all the facts, and are guilty of drawing conclusions without them. Bacon, who knew human nature, has described this class of minds most precisely in his aphorisms, and it would almost seem he had this controversy in view, or at least a permonition of it, when he says, in Number XXXIII:—

“This must be plainly avowed; no judgment can be rightly formed either of my method or of the discoveries to which it leads by means of anticipations ... since I cannot be called upon to abide by the sentence of a tribunal which is itself on its trial.”

“One method of delivery alone remains to us: ... we must lead men to the particulars themselves and their series and order; while men on their side must force themselves for awhile to lay their notions by and begin to familiarize themselves with facts.” (XXXVI.)