Several sorts of Seals, some shewing by scrues, others by gages, fastening or unfastening all the marks at once; others by additional points and imaginary places, proportionable to ordinary[1] Escocheons [2][3] and Seals at Arms, each way palpably and punctually setting down (yet private from all others, but the Owner, and by his assent) the day of the Moneth, the day of the Week, the Moneth of the Year, the Year of our Lord, the names of the Witnesses, and the individual place where anything was sealed, though in ten thousand several places, together with the very number of lines contained in a Contract, whereby falsification may be discovered, and manifestly proved, being upon good grounds suspected. Upon any of these Seals a man may keep Accompts of Receipts and disbursments from one Farthing to an hundred millions, punctually shewing each pound, shilling, peny or farthing. By these seals likewise any Letter, though written but in English, may be read and understood in eight several languages, and in English it self to clean contrary and different sense, unknown to any but the Correspondent, and not to be read or[4] understood by him neither, if opened before it arrive unto him; so that neither Threats, nor hopes of Reward, can make him reveal the secret, the Letter having been intercepted, and first opened by the Enemy. Footnotes [1] _Escocheon_ is the old heraldic term. [2] Escucheons. MS. [3] Escutcheons. P. [4] nor to be. [_Seals abundantly-significant._] Under this title the present article is referred to in the “Index,” given by the Marquis, at the end of the first edition of his “Century,” while the articles themselves are only distinguished by consecutive numerals. Therefore, without deranging the original form of the “Century,” the designation of the several articles will appear throughout, as above, at the head of each comment. The author, never having met with any attempt to elucidate the mechanical arrangement here suggested, communicated a plan that occurred to him in 1829, soon after reading the foregoing, which was as follows:-- A Cipher Seal. Amidst the variety of inventions for giving security to property, few improvements have been made in seals or signets. I shall proceed to describe a cipher seal, which, though not, perhaps, so “abundantly significant” as those described by the Marquis of Worcester, might, nevertheless, be applied to very important uses, inasmuch as the face of the seal may be varied at pleasure. [Illustration: A Cipher Seal] Fig. 1. A, the seal handle; B, the seal made moveable on the pivots at _c c_.