Book Two

Chapter III.

On Hidden Writing by Position of Letters.

To this point we have descended from the most general considerations. We must now advance to the last step, which is writing. Now by hidden writing by letters takes place the Position of Letters, thus: as the letters exist by themselves, as they form syllables, or as they form words. The ground of this division cannot but clear, since letters as they exist by themselves are, as it were, the foundation:  syllables are the partition, and words are the roof. Writing by Position of Letters as they exist by themselves may be hidden by reason of the Order of the letters, or by reason of their Power, or by reason of the Form. The ground of this distinction is that letters have these three accidents: Form, Order and Power. Some authors, to be sure, hold that Power is a specific variation of the letter and not an affection. I beg, however, to be allowed to use the word here, at least popularly with reference to an affection; although, in the sense in which I take it, it can refer to nothing else than an affection, or property.

            Up to the present, we have descended by fairly direct process of subdivision to the last affection of the letter, which is Form. We must now turn about and carry our investigation upward. The foundation of the investigation lies in the letter itself, as being the thing smaller than all other things connected with the word. I shall begin, following a plan of my own, with the Order of Letters, from which I shall go to Power and Form. Advancing thence to syllables, words, sense, language, the material of writing, and the Dispatch of the missive, and gradually furling my sails when I come to the mysteries of signs, I shall thus be brought to port,—the port which was the starting-point of this long voyage; see, below, Bk. VIII. c. 11.