many of them commence with double a, (aa), and four with aaa.

But if, on the contrary, we put the a's under the small letters, and the b's under the larger letters, then we have six groups of letters, every one of which is equivalent to a letter in the Baconian bi-literal alphabet!

It is to my mind conclusive, therefore, that the cipher given in the De Augmentis was constructed with a view to that inscription on Shakespeare's grave-stone.

If not, why would it correspond with it only in its present shape?

If we find two pieces of machinery, in two different places, wide apart, if you please, which, when put together dovetail into each other's parts, and together produce practical results, are we not forced to conclude that they were made by the same workman and were intended to be united?

But I go farther:-I am satisfied, as I have said, that that particular bi-literal alphabet, given in the De Augmentis, was not arranged prior to the construction of the grave-stone inscription; but that the grave-stone inscription was first in order of time, and the alphabet adapted to its necessities. The stone was put in place in 1616; the cipher was not published until 1623.

Let me give some of my reasons.

If the reader will look at that bi-literal alphabet he will find certain symbols that can be read from left to right, or from right to left, and still produce the same letter.

Here we have:-aaaaa-A. This, of course, is the same read from either end. "A" is a letter that is very often used in the construction of the words,-"Shakespeare," "Plays," "Francis," "Bacon,”—etc.

Then we turn to the letter E, which we know is the letter used most in our language. The bi-literal symbol for E is aabaa. This the reader will perceive produces the same result read from either end.

Here too is the letter L;-the symbol is,-ababa. This likewise can be read either way. It is found in "plays,"

etc.

Then here is the letter P;-the symbol is,―abbba. Either way it represents P. It is found in "Shakespeare"

and “Plays.”

Here too is the letter S. Its sign is baaab. It can be read either way. It is found in "Shakespeare" twice; and in "plays" and "Francis" once each.

Now does it not seem a little surprising that these symbols have been cunningly constructed so as to perform double duty? And we will see hereafter that they do perform double duty; and that they are used forwards and backwards, in the working out of the cipher in the inscription on the Shakespeare grave-stone.

But this is not all. Besides these symbols which are capable of being read either way, and either way representing the same letters, we have a number of others, in this marvelous alphabet, which do double duty by representing one letter read from left to right and another letter read from right to left.

There is, aaaab; from left to right it is B; but turn it around,—read it from right to left, and it becomes baaaa, which is the symbol for R.

Then there is the group,-aabab. From left to right it represents F; turn it around and it becomes,-babaa,which is the symbol for W.

Then there is,-aabba. From left to right this is G; but reversed it becomes,-abbaa,-the sign of N.

Then there is,—abaaa;—from left to right this is I; from right to left it becomes aaaba, which stands for C. Then there is abaab; from left to right it represents K; reversed it is,-baaba, and signifies T.

Then there is,-abbab; from left to right it is 0; from right to left it is,-babba,-or Y.

Here then are five groups which yield the same letters read either from left to right, or from right to left; and six other groups that represent altogether twelve dif ferent letters, as we change the direction in which we read them from left to right or from right to left. This gives us altogether seventeen letters out of twenty-four; for in the Baconian bi-literal alphabet the same signs represent I and J, and V and U.

The reader will begin to think that there is more in that De Augmentis alphabet than appeared on the surface of it. Instead of simple signs, to be read always from left to right, as he had supposed, he finds that seventeen of them can be read from right to left as well.

And he will find hereafter that it is upon this capacity to do double duty,--this double-back-action quality,that the cipher in the grave-stone inscription depends.

But some one will say, that Bacon was driven to these two-headed forms by the paucity of his materials, confined, as he was, to the combinations of a and b. This is a mistake. There were a number of other groupings, of those letters, which he neglected. For instance he could have used:-bbaaa, bbaba, bbaab, bbabb, bbbab, bbbaa, bbbba, and bbbbb. This would have avoided eight out of the eleven combinations that are susceptible of being read

from either end. But to use such a grantry of 's while it would have made no diference, the cipher depended on two different fonts of type of the same class, wherein the differences were minit ; yet of the cipher was to be hased on "a mixture of small letters and capitals," the presence of such a great number of capitals would produce a result as "uncouth," upon every kne of the inscription, as those words "SAKE" and "HERE." and "Encio Aso" Now then, if Bacon avoided such a result, by not using groups of letters commencing with bb or 356, because he knew it would make an "uncouth" predominance of capitals, that was certain to attract attention and arouse suspicion; was it not because he had in his mind's eye, a certain grave-stone away off in Stratford, where already the "uncouthness” of “SAKE” and "HF.Re" and "Enclo-Ased" had been driven as far as he could safely go?

CHAPTER VIII.

The Frame-Work of the Cipher.

Is there a scheme, a plan, in the construction of the quartrain on the tomb-stone?

There is, and a very perfect and regular one.

It will be observed that there are no points of punctuation on the first line or the last line.

But on the second and third lines there are six.

There are two dashes on the second line and two on the third line, and a period in the midst of the word "HE.Re," at the end of the second line, and another period at the end of the line. These six points of punctuation are points of departure, from which the cipher

moves.

Three of the dashes are cunningly concealed, as hyphens, to unite the compound words "T-E," (the), on the second line; "T-E," (the), on the third line and "T-Es," (these), on the same line. But the fourth dash is not so covered up; but is boldly injected into the middle of the word "enclo-Ased." And this word, instead of being spelled as it is now, and as it was in the First Folio of the Plays of 1623, is given in this extraordinary fcrm:"Enclo-Ased."