Page:Passages from the Life of a Philosopher.djvu/252

236 In a conversation on that subject which I had with the late Mr. Davies Gilbert, President of the Royal Society, each maintained that he possessed a cipher which was absolutely inscrutable. On comparison, it appeared that we had both imagined the same law, and we were thus confirmed in our conviction of the security of our cipher.

Many years after, the late Dr. Fitton, having asked my opinion of the possibility of making an inscrutable cipher, I mentioned the conversation I had had with Davies Gilbert, and explained the law of the cipher, which we both thought would baffle the greatest adept in that science. Dr. Fitton fully agreed in my view of the subject; but even whilst I was explaining the law, an indistinct glimpse of defeating it presented itself vaguely to my imagination. Having mentioned my newly-conceived doubt, it was entirely rejected by my friend. I then proposed that Dr. Fitton should write a few sentences in a cipher constructed according to this law, and that I should make some attempts to unravel it. I offered to give a few hours to the subject; and if I could see my way to a solution, to continue my researches; but if not on the road to success, to tell him I had given up the task.

Late in the evening of that day I commenced a preparatory inquiry into the means of unravelling this new cipher, and I soon arrived at a tolerable certainty that I should succeed. The next night, on my return from a party, I found Dr. Fitton's cipher on my table. I immediately commenced my attempt. After some time I found that it would not yield to my means of treating it; and on further examination I succeeded in proving that it was not written according to the law agreed upon. At first my friend was very positive that I was mistaken; and having taken it to his sister, by whose