WITH NOTES. 437 



Falconer (&quot; The Art of Secret Information/ 7 ) 1685, with 

 others. 



John Baptista Porta, a Neapolitan of considerable 

 eminence, born 1445, and who died in 1515, wrote 

 &quot; De Occultis Literarium Notis, Libri quinque,&quot; Argent. 

 1608, octavo, in which he gives no less than 180 dif 

 ferent methods of secret writing. 



The learned and ingenious Bishop Wilkins in 1641, 

 published his &quot; Mercury, or the Secret and Swift Mes 

 senger.&quot; 



Of line alphabets he says &quot;Who would mistrust 

 any private news or treachery to lie hid in a thread, 

 wherein there was nothing to be discerned, but sundry 

 confused knots or other the like marks ?&quot; It is, how 

 ever, easily effected by each party having like tablets 

 marked at top with the alphabet, and having hooks 

 down each side for the passing and holding of a 

 thread worked backwards and forwards, in which 

 action it is to have a knot made on it for the desired 

 letter above ; making altogether words and sentences. 



Chapter 6, is on &quot; Secret writing with the common 

 letters, by changing of their places/ 



In chapter 11, &quot; Of writing by invented characters,&quot; 

 he says : u There have been some other inventions of 

 writing by points, or lines, or figures.&quot; 



Chapter 13 is, u concerning an universal character 

 that may be legible to all nations and languages,&quot; 

 concluding with observations on &quot; The benefit and 

 possibility of this.&quot; 



In chapter 17, we are told u of secret and swift infor 

 mations by the species of sound.&quot; Among others he 

 names &quot; Bells,&quot; as a species which &quot; may be a sufficient 

 means, whereby to communicate the thoughts;&quot; and in 

 chapter 18, he treats &quot;concerning a language that 

 may consist only of tunes and musical notes, without 



