Mercury: or the secret and swift messenger : shewing how a man may with privacy and speed communicate his thoughts to a friend at any distance (1707)

236 Pages·1984·10.37 MB·English

by  John Wilkins

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MERCURY: OR THE SECRET AND SWIFT MESSENGER
ESSAY TOWARDS
A REAL CHARACTER AND A PHILOSOPHICAL LANGUAGE
FOUNDATIONS OF SEMIOTICS
General Editor
ACHIM ESCHBACH
(University of Essen)
Advisory Editorial Board
Erhard Albrecht (Greifswald);Herbert E. Brekle (Regensburg)
Geoffrey L. Bursill-Hall (Burnaby, B.C.);Eugenio Coseriu (Tübingen)
Marcelo Dascal (Tel-Aviv);Lambertus M. de Rijk (Leiden)
Max H. Fisch (Indianapolis);Rudolf Haller (Graz)
Norman Kretzmann (Ithaca, N.Y.);W. Keith Percival (Lawrence, Kansas)
Jan Sulowski (Warszawa);Jürgen Trabant (Berlin)
Volume 6
John Wilkins
Mercury: or the Secret and Swift Messenger
Essay towards a Real Character and a Philosophical Language
MERCURY:
OR THE SECRET AND SWIFT MESSENGER
Shewing how a Man may with Privacy and Speed
communicate his Thoughts to a Friend at any distance (1707).
Reprinted from the third edition:
The Mathematical and Philosophical Works of the
Right Reverend John Wilkins (1708)
Together with an abstract of Dr. Wilkins's
ESSAY TOWARDS A REAL CHARACTER
AND A PHILOSOPHICAL LANGUAGE
with an introductory essay by
Brigitte Asbach-Schnitker
JOHN WILKINS
JOHN BENJAMINS PUBLISHING COMPANY
AMSTERDAM/PHILADELPHIA
1984
The Reprint Section was reproduced with the permission of the Bayerische
Staatsbibliothek as the original owner.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Wilkins, John, 1614-1672.
Mercury, or, The secret and swift messenger.
(Foundations of semiotics, ISSN 0168-2555; v. 6)
Originally published in 1707.
"Reprinted from the third edition: The mathematical and philosophical works of the
Right Reverend John Wilkins (1708)."
Includes bibliographies.
1. Cryptography - Early works to 1800. 2. Language and languages. 3. Philosophy -
Miscellanea. I. Wilkins, John, 1614-1672. Essay towards a real character and a philosoph­
ical language. Selections. 1984. II. Asbach-Schnitker, Brigitte. III. Title. IV. Title: Mer­
cury. V. Title: Secret and swift messenger. VI. Series.
Z103.5.W54 1984 401'. 84-24279
ISBN 90-272-3276-8
© Copyright 1984 - John Benjamins B.V.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm, or
any other means, without written permission from the publisher.
To J.W.

Table of Contents
Seite
0 Introduction ix
1 General Characterization: Sources and Aims x
2 Early Continental Developments xi
3 Language Invention in England xiii
3.1 The Beginnings xiii
3.2 Universal Character xv
3.3 Universal Language xxii
3.4 The Turn of the Century xxviii
3.5 The 18th Century xxix
4 Universal Languages in France xxxiii
4.1 The 17th Century xxxiii
4.2 The 18th Century xxxvii
5 Universal Languages in Germany xl
5.1 Comenius and the Academy at Herborn xl
5.2 J.J. Becher and A. Kircher xliv
5.3 G.W. Leibniz xlvi
5.4 Logically Orientated Movements in 18th Century Germany xlviii
5.5 Pasigraphic Proposals 1
5.6 Conclusion liv
6 Notes lvii
7 Bibliography lxx
7.1 List of Source Works lxx
7.2 List of Secondary Works lxxvii
7.3 Works of John Wilkins lxxxi
8 The Life of the Author
9 Mercury, or the speedy and swift messenger
10 An Abstract of Dr. Wilkins's Essay (1668)