To find out one consonant from ano ther, you must also observe the frequency of d, h, n, r, a, t ; and next to these, c, f, g, 1, m, w; in a third rank may be placed k, p, and lastly q, x, z. This remark, however, belongs to English ; for in Latin •common consonants are the 1, r, e, t; next c, f, m, n; then d, g, h, p, q; and lastly x, z. But the difficulty is to come at the knowledge of three or four letters ; therefore, where a word of four letters has the first and fourth the same, it it most likely to be that : to discover which look for another of four letters, beginning with the two first, and ending with two others, and it will probably prove to be this; and more especially if you find ano ther, with three letters, beginning with the two first; for in that case it must be the. Now, having found out in any part of the cypher these three words, that, this, and the, place them over the characters which you know to be t, h, a, i, s, e, and then consider what letters are deficient, and what words, from the number of let ters that composed them, they are most likely to be. You will thus find such ready and surprising intimations from the above six letters previously discovered, that you will soon be in possession of the whole alphabet.
When words of two letters appear of the same characters, differently placed, it is most likely one is on and the other no: so of, and for, and from, discover and ascertain each other ; and th are very often used in the beginning of English words, as that, this, then, these, their, thirst, &c. &c.
Besides these peculiarities, Mr. Falco ner points out the following, as applica ble to the English.
It would be two prolix in us to give an equally minute account of the particulari ties of other languages; but the inquisitive reader will find them very well specified in the " Cryptographia Denudata" of D. A. Conard, 8vo. Lug. Bat. 1739, and in the latter part of Breithaupt's " Ars Decifratoria, sive Scientia occultas Scrip turas solvendi et legendi," Ilelmst. 12mo. 1737.
To excercise the English scholar, we here subjoin one example of plain cypher ing, in which two figures answer to each letter : 39. 38, 31, 21, 35. 35, 14, 20, 18, 21, 19, 20, 35; 34. 20, 38, 39, 19. 32, 35, 31, 35, lb. 22, 39, 20i 38. 13, 31, 14, 24. 20, 38, 39, 14, 37,19. 31, 19. 20, 15. 20, 38, 35. 13, 31, 14, 31, 37, 39, 14, 37. 15, 36. 20, 38, 35. 31, 36,
36, 31, 39, 18. 18, 35, 17, 21, 39, 19, 39, 20, 35. 36, 15, 18. 24, IS, -1. 20, 15, 11, 14, 15, 22. 18, 35, 13, 35, 13, 32, 35, 18. 20, 38, 31, 20. 15, 14. 14, 15. 31, 33, 33, 15, 21, 14, 20. 24, 15, 21. 36, 31, 39, 12. 20, 15. 13, 35, 35, 20. 13, 35, 31, 20. 14, 39, 14, 35. 20, 15, 13, 15, 18, 18, 15, 22. 14, 39, 37, 38, 20. 36, 15, 18. 22, 35. 13, 21, 19, 20. 14, 15, 20, 14, 15, 22. 34, 35, 12, 31, 24. 20, 38, 35. 19, 21, 18, 16, 18, 39, 25, 35. • 15, 36. 20, 38, 35. 33, 31, 19, 20, 12, 35.
22, 35, 14. 20, 38, 39, 14, 37, 19. 31, 18, 35. 39, 21, 19, 20. 18, 39, 16, 35. 36, 15, 18. 35, 23, 35, 33, 21, 20, 39, 15, 14.
By practising the foregoing rules, the student will find that this method of se cret writing in plain cypher may, with as much ease, if not as much speed, be de cyphered as written.
In all cases, begin first to decypher the single characters and shortest mono syllables; mark down on a separate pa per any corresponding signs and letters you discover, and count the different characters throughout the piece, in order to compare their frequency, &c. It will generally, if not always happen, that the most frequent is e.
In the whole of the preceding instruc tions it may be observed, that the suppo sitions of a single alphabet, and of the spaces between the words being discover able, or the nulls, few have been made throughout. • But it may happen that the spaces may have been very artfully con cealed ; that the nulls may be at least as many as the significantcharacters; and that both the one and the other, being more numerous than the letters of an al phabet, may be intermixed, not only at the ends but in the body of all short words, and made to recur by a system of periodcial change which shall ease the writer of the burthen of their number, and nevertheless prevent the decypherer from having any considerable portion of similar writing to operate upon. When these and other difficulties are opposed to the exercise of the rules above laid down, the decypherer will have an op portunity of exercising his natural or ac quired sagacity ; and though the advan tage may be on the side of the writer, yet the patience and continued trials of the decypherer will, in actual business, be often rewarded by discoveries, at which he himself will look back with sur prise.