The Magic Verse.
The eight words which compose this Latin verse,
"Tot sunt tibi dote, quot cœli sidera, virgo,"[F]
being privately placed in any one of the different combinations of which they are susceptible, and which are 40,320 in number, to tell the order in which they are placed.
Provide a box that shuts with hinges, and is eight inches long, three wide, and half an inch deep, Fig. 17. Have eight pieces of wood, about one-third of an inch thick, two inches long, and one and a half wide, which will therefore, when placed close together, exactly fill the box. In each of these pieces or tablets place a magnetic bar, with their poles, as is expressed in Fig. 18. The bars being covered over, write on each of the tablets, in the order they then stand, one of the words of the foregoing Latin verse.
[F] "Thy charms, O, Virgin! are as numerous as the stars of heaven."
Fig. 17.
Fig. 18.
