Fugen eBooks

5 " 12.
6 " 11.
!1 " 8.
0 " 6.
92 " 5.
:3 " 4.
? " 3.
] " 2.
-. " 1.

"Now, in English, the letter which most frequently occurs is e.
Afterwards, the succession runs thus: a o i d h n r s t u y c f g l
m w b k p q x z. E predominates so remarkably, that an individual
sentence of any length is rarely seen, in which it is not the
prevailing character.
"Here, then, we have, in the very beginning, the groundwork for
something more than a mere guess. The general use which may be
made of the table is obvious--but, in this particular cipher, we
shall only very partially require its aid. As our predominant
character is 8, we will commence by assuming it as the e of the
natural alphabet. To verify the supposition, let us observe if the
8 be seen often in couples--for e is doubled with great frequency
in English--in such words, for example, as 'meet,' 'fleet,'
'speed,' 'seen,' 'been,' 'agree,' etc.


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