But when he comes to speak specifically of _writing_ as a means of tradition, he confines his remarks to that particular kind of writing, which is agreed on betwixt particular persons, and called by the name of _cipher_, giving excellent reasons for this proceeding, impertinent as it may seem, to those who think that his only object is to make out a list and 'muster-roll of the arts and sciences';--stopping to tell us plainly that he knows what he is about, and that he has not brought in '_these private and retired arts_,' with so much stress, and under so many heads, in connection with 'the principal and supreme sciences,' and _the mode of their tradition_, without having some occasion for it. 'Ciphers are commonly in letters, or alphabets, but _may be_ in words,' he says, proceeding to enumerate the different kinds, and furnishing on the spot, some pretty specimens of what may be done in the way of that kind which he calls 'doubles,' a kind which he is particularly fond of; one hears again the echo of those delicate, collateral sounds, which our friend, over the mountains, warned us of, declining to say any more about them in that place. In the later edition, he takes occasion to say, in this connection, 'that as writing in the received manner no way obstructs the _manner of pronunciation_, but leaves that _free_, an innovation in it is of no purpose.' And if a cipher be the proper name for a private method of writing, agreed on betwixt particular persons, it is certainly the name for the method which he proposes to adopt in _his_ tradition of the principal sciences; as he takes occasion to inform those whom it may concern, in an early portion of the work, and when he is occupied in the critical task of putting down some of the primary terms. 'I doubt not,' he says, by way of explanation, 'but it will easily appear to men of judgment, that in _this_ and _other particulars_, wheresoever _my conception and notion may differ from the ancient, I am studious to keep the ancient terms_.' Surely there is no want of frankness here, so far as the men of judgment are concerned at least. And after condemning those innovators who have taken a different course, he says again, 'But to me on the other side that do desire as much as lieth in _my pen_, to ground a sociable intercourse between antiquity and _proficience_, it seemeth best to keep way with antiquity _usque ad aras_; and therefore to _retain the ancient_ TERMS, though I sometimes alter the _uses and definitions_, according to the moderate proceeding in civil government, where, although there be some alteration, yet that holdeth which Tacitus _wisely_ noteth 'eadem magistratuum vocabula.' Surely that is plain enough, especially if one has time to take into account the force and historic reach of that last illustration, 'eadem magistratuum vocabula.'