Chapter X

On Oblique Transposition in general,
or Transfusion of the Alphabet into fewer Letters: and,
in particular, on Transposition Of Radical Letters

The first Mode was Transposition simply called, or Direct Transposition. We come now to Oblique Transposition, which takes place when the Power of the letters of the alphabet is transfused into a smaller number of letters.  Whence it is easy to understand wherein Oblique Transposition differs from Direct Transposition, and why we sometimes speak of this method under the name of Transfusion.  This general class, again, has a threefold subdivision:  There are, namely (1) the Transfusion of cognate letters into radical letters; (2) the Transfusion of vowels into consonants, or of certain consonants into the consonants that remain; (3) the Transfusion of the alphabet, arranged in a table, into certain combinations of letters.  Hence Transposition is  of radical letters;  of consonants;  of combinations of two or three letters.  With regard to these three kinds of Transposition I will now speak in order, beginning with the first kind.

Oblique Transposition of Radical Letters, then, takes place when all the Power of cognate letters is transfused into that one of the letters which is considered the chief, and is lodged therein; which letter is then transposed for all the other letters.  Whence it happens that the full alphabet, which we Germans make to consist of twenty four letters, is shortened so that only the radical letters remain, be the number ten or twelve or sixteen or eighteen.  The Hebrew, according to Irenasus, formerly did all their writing with ten letters; whence Herman Hugo, Da Prim. Scrib. Orig.,c.4., argues, in opposition to Scalinger, that the letters of the Hebrews were the first and oldest letters that existed.  For our purpose, I first, out of the complete alphabet a b c d e f g h i k l m n o p q r s t u w x y z, requires that twelve letters only have force, the Power of the others being transfused into these: a c e i l m n p r s t u :the letter, or aspirate, H, being omitted:  The Power of the other letters passes into these letters which are expressed, as is clear from the following scheme:

Secondly, we may make all the Power of the letters fall upon sixteen letters: