This table contains a series of letters in six Orders, or, if you prefer, Lines.  Each Order consists of ten Troops, or Squadrons, or, better still, Columns; each Column, or Squadron, of ten Stations, or Positions.  As the most important feature of this series of letters, we find occurring here two groups of two alphabets each, each group containing a General and a Particular alphabet.  In the Former, of these two groups the letters of the secret are recorded and sought;  the function of the latter group is to make and unmake Transposition.  The Former General alphabet, which is written once, and is called the alphabet of the Major Order, -- against each individual letter of which the Particular alphabet is written and repeated in full, -- occupies twenty-four Stations; the twenty-fifth place at the head being in each case filled by that single letter of the General alphabet which leads the whole line.  This arrangement may be seen in the two and a half alphabetic columns of the leading letter A, which letter may serve as an example of the other letters that follow.  The Latter General alphabet, which is likewise found written once, at the side of the column, and may be called the alphabet of the Minor Order, is subordinate, in making Transposition, to the first General alphabet, and, at each repetition of this alphabet, to the single letter at the left hand of which the Transpositive letter stands in projection.  Thus, against the letter A stands in projection the Transpositive letter T; against the letter B, the Transpositive letter O; against the letter C, the Transpositive letter G; and so on, according to the will and agreement of the parties.  Similar is the explanation of the second particular alphabet, which, that it may assist in making Transposition of the letters of the Former General alphabet, is found stationed in arbitrary order at the right of the General Alphabet.  So much, then, in this place for the explanation of the table.  For as regards the further question of the numbers which are found written above and at the right, these are used when we have planned to write, not with letters, but with numerical ciphers.  Of this method I will speak in the proper place, Bk.6.c.17.

The praxis consists of the writing, the reading, and, finally, the use and form of the table.

Now, if the sentence: Mauritius nos accessit: is given you to write, first find the single letter M of the Former General alphabet, and , applying your finger, run through its Stations until you come to the letter M and the letter A combined in one Station.  This union is found in the present case in the very first Station.  And since, against the single letter, the General Transpositive letter K stands in projection, and, against this, at the side of the first Station, the Particular letter W, these tow letters must be written.  This process must be carried through the remaining letters, UR, etc., and you will then have the following form: Kwlympmyaq wraq tsgpaxmp.  When you have received the letters for reading, take the table, and find the General letter K projecting at the side, and, under this, at the side of the first Station, the Particular letter W: the true letters MA will then appear.  If you continue this process with the other letters, you will without any difficulty draw forth from the table the whole secret.