The Magician's Own Book, or, the Whole Art of Conjuring / Being a complete hand-book of parlor magic, and containing over one thousand optical, chemical, mechanical, magnetical, and magical experiments, amusing transmutations, astonishing sleights and subtleties, celebrated card deceptions, ingenious tricks with numbers, curious and entertaining puzzles, together with all the most noted tricks of modern performers.

by George Arnold; Frank Cahill

The earth, the sea, the starry sky,
Are cyphers writ by hand divine,
That hand which tuned their harmony,
And bade their varied glories shine;
In them e'en heathen's eye may see
Symbols in one grand Truth combine;
But in the book of books there lies
A key to read their mysteries.
Then let not faithless tongue advance
Its shallow vaunts, nor scoffer dare
Upon the base of ignorance
To raise a structure of despair!
Though fools may give the world to chance
Design and Providence are there:
How blinded, who at death alone
Their deep significancy own!

THE CIRCULAR CYPHER.

To carry on a correspondence without the possibility of the meaning of the letter being detected, in case it should be opened by any other person, has employed the ingenuity of many. No method will be found more effectual for this purpose, or more easy, than the following.

Provide a piece of square card or pasteboard, and draw a circle on it, which circle is to be divided into 27 equal parts, in each of which parts must be written one of the capital letters of the alphabet, and the &, as in the figure. Let the center of this circle be blank. Then draw another circle, also divided into 27 equal parts, in each of which write one of the small letters of the alphabet, and the &. This circle must be cut round, and made exactly to fit the blank space in the center of the large circle, and must run round a pivot or pin. The person with whom you correspond must have a similar dial, and at the beginning of your letter you must put the capital letter, and at the end the small letter, which answer to each other when you have fixed your dial.

Suppose what you wish to communicate is as follows:

I am so watched I cannot see you as I promised; but I will meet you to-morrow in the park, with the letters, &c.

You begin with the letter T, and end with the letter m, which shows how you have fixed the dial, and how your correspondent must fix his, that he may decipher your letter. Then, for I am, you write b uf, and so of the rest, as follows:

T b uf lh pumwayx b wugghm lyy rhn ul b ikhfblyx vnm b pbee fyym rhn mh fhkkhp bg may iukd pbma may eymmykl, tw.

m.

Another Way.