Chapter X: Preface (7)

“And yet I have also emploied my cyphers for other then secret matters in many of my later bookes, because it hath now become so much an act of habite, I am at a losse at this present having less dificile labour, now, then in former times in Her Ma.’s service.”--_Bi-literal Cypher_, p. 66.

In the matter of criticism and expression of individual opinion, we might quote from Bacon’s Essay of Custom and Education: “Men’s thoughts are much according to their inclination; their discourse and speeches according to their learning and infused opinions, but their deeds are after as they have been accustomed.”

ELIZABETH WELLS GALLUP.

Detroit, Mich., May 15, 1902.

REPLIES TO CRITICISMS.

ELIZABETH WELLS GALLUP.

In presenting the results of my work in deciphering the bi-literal cypher, I expected criticism, but it has taken on some features that have been quite surprising to me.

To answer fittingly all the questions raised would be to write a book. Some are relevant, many not; some are prompted by desire for knowledge, others by a desire to check what they regard as a heresy; most show unfamiliarity with the subject, and not a few are mistaken in their statements of facts.

REPLY TO MR. CANDLER.

Mr. Candler, in the January number of the _Nineteenth Century_, republishes modified portions of an article that appeared in _Baconiana_ to which I replied some time since, sending a copy of my article to him and to that magazine.

Mr. Candler makes his objections under the heads: History, Language, Arithmetical Puzzles, Geography, Proper Names, and Bacon’s Poetry.

HISTORY.

As to History, I can only say, if the decipherings had been my own invention, I should have had them in substantial accord with such records as exist, defective as they now appear. Had I “followed” accepted history, and prevailing ideas, and found in the cipher confirmation of what people wish to have true, I should have received encomiums due to an important discovery, and commendation for great skill and industry in working it out.

It was my misfortune that the cipher would not read that way, and no preconceived notions of my own could affect it. As I have elsewhere said “the facts of history” is an elastic term, and means to the individual that portion which the individual has learned. The records are by no means in accord, and discrepancies may well be left to the investigators, whose revisions from data they may hereafter be able to collect may greatly change existing ideas. The decipherer is in no way responsible for the disclosures of the cipher, nor allowed speculation as to the probabilities in the case. One question only is admissible--what does the cipher tell?

LANGUAGE.

Under Language, Mr. Candler makes five subdivisions.

1. “It was the English custom to use _his_ in connection with inanimate objects where we now use _its_. This custom died out about 1670.”

This first objection is answered by himself, but in this connection he states:

“_Its_ (or earlier, _it’s_) began to creep into literature about the end of the sixteenth century, though doubtless it was used colloquially at an earlier date.”

As to his other deductions on this point, I cannot speak from knowledge, but whoever put out the First Folio was certainly not averse to the use of _its_. In my former paper in _Baconiana_ I gave from the Shakespeare folio ten examples of the use of the word. As there is no punctuation in the cipher, I am unable to determine which form Bacon used, _it’s_ or _its_, but that he used the word frequently in some parts of the cipher and not at all in others, any reader may easily see. _Thereof_, of which Mr. Candler speaks, though more rarely found was occasionally used.--(See _Bi-literal Cypher_, p. 30, l. 4; p. 61, l. 24.)

2. “From the date 1000 or earlier, we find many instances of _his_ used instead of _s_ in the possessive case, and similarly, for the sake of uniformity, of _her_ and _their_.... But in Bacon, after a diligent collation of a great many pages, I find the general use of s without an apostrophe for the possessive case both for singular and plural, and no use of _his_, _her_, or _their_ in this sense. When a noun ends with an _s_ sound, Bacon joins the two words without a connecting _s_. Thus: 'Venus minion,’ 'St. Ambrose learning,’ and the curious form 'Achille’s fortune,’ which may be a printer’s error, as the apostrophe here is in the wrong place. All these come from 1640 edition of the _Advancement of Learning_, Books 1, 2.”

In a footnote Mr. Candler speaks of the seven instances sent him of the disputed form, but I wish to give them here. _Henry Seventh_, (1622), “King Henry his quarrell,” p. 24; “the Conspiratours their intentions,” p. 124; “King Edward Sixt his time,” p. 145; “King Henrie the Eight his resolution of a Divorce,” p. 196; “King James his Death,” p. 208. Also in _Advancement of Learning_ (1605), Book I, “Socrates his ironicall doubting,” p. 26; and one may see, “Didymus his Freedman.” in the _Tacitus_. How many instances does he wish?

Mr. Candler further says: “And now for the 'Bacon’ of Mrs. Gallup. Turning casually over the leaves of her story I find 'Solomon, his temple,’ p. 24; 'England, her inheritance,’ p. 27; 'man, his right,’ p. 23 and p. 24; 'my dear lord, his misdeeds,’ p. 43; 'the roial soveraigne, his eies,’ p. 59; Cornelia, her example;’ 'the sturdy yeomen, their support;’ 'a mother, her hopes;’ 'woman, her spirit;’ and, curiously enough, where we might have expected an Elizabethan to have employed _his_ 'Achilles’ mind,’ p. 302.”

Aside from the apostrophe, which could not of course be placed in cipher in the one case--suggested as a printer’s error in the other--the forms “Achilles fortune” and “Achilles mind” are the same. We have the following examples and many others of the first form also in the _Bi-literal Cypher_, (omitting apostrophes,) “Elizabeths raigne,” p. 4; “Kings daughter,” ibid.; “loves first blossom,” “lifes girlod,” p. 5; “stones throw,” “Edwards sire,” p. 6; “lions whelp,” p. 7, etc., etc., etc., and we see that both forms are used in the published works and in cipher.

3. Mr. Candler says: “It was the custom to finish the verb with _s_ after plural nouns, as if it were the third person singular,” but complains that I do not recognize this in the deciphered work.

In two plays fifteen instances were found, seven of which are with the verb _is_ or the abbreviation _'s_. In the _Bi-literal Cypher_, p. 177, l. 9, Bacon speaks of “Illes which _is_ laid by for the good opportunitíe.” There are undoubtedly other examples.

4. “Mrs. Gallup’s 'Bacon’ is repeatedly quoting from his own published works and from the plays of Shakespeare.”

A reason is given for this, in the _Bi-literal Cypher_, p. 25. There are many examples also in Bacon’s open works, _e. g._, “Females of Seditions” is found in _Henry Seventh_, p. 137, while in Essay, _Seditions and Troubles_, it appears in this form: “Seditious tumults and seditious fames differ no more but as brother and sister, masculine and feminine.”

From the Shakespeare plays we have,

----“we see
The waters swell before a boyst’rous storme.”--_Rich. III._

This occurs again as follows: “And as there are certain hollow blasts of wind and secret swellings of seas before a tempest.”--Ess. _Seditions and Troubles_. Also this: “Times answerable, like waters after a tempest, full of working and swelling.”--_Avdt. of L._ (1605),