It is generally allowed that Lord Bacon of Verulam comprehended nearly the whole circle of human knowledge at the period in which he lived, and foresaw most of the discoveries which have since been made. He laid the foundation of an Encyclopædia, and was very near discovering various important philosophical results, such as the weight of the air, &c. If we open his book on the progress of the sciences, we shall find the notion of a pasigraphy in the chapter entitled _The Instrument of Discourse_. "It is possible to invent such signs," says he, "for the communication of our thoughts, that people of different languages may, by this means, understand each other; and that each may read immediately in his own language, a book which shall be written in another." But Bacon did not think of confining this to twelve characters: on the contrary, he requires a great number, at least as many as the number of radical words; on which head he quotes the example of the Chinese; "and although," adds he, "our alphabet may appear more commodious than this method of writing, the thing itself nevertheless is well deserving of attention. The problem relates to the signs by which thoughts may be rendered current; and, as money may be struck of other materials as well as gold and silver, it is possible likewise to discover other signs of things as well as letters and words." Des Cartes, in his third letter to father Mercennus, discusses the invention of a Frenchman, whom he does not name, but who, by means of a certain language and an artificial writing, pretended to understand all the different idioms. He remarks on this subject, that it would be very possible to compose a short and convenient grammar, with general signs, which should render all foreign languages intelligible. In the year 1661, John Joachim Becher published a Latin folio, the title of which was "Characters for the Universal Knowledge of Languages: a Stenographic Invention hitherto unheard of." This unheard of invention consists of a method by which a native of any country may make himself understood by all foreigners by writing in his own language, and be enabled also to comprehend what they write in theirs. It was truly at that time a thing unheard of; for Becher, being the first who had given a complete treatise on this art, may be considered as the inventor.