Point (as I have often try'd on the
_Moon_, and (when not too bright) on the _Sun_ it self.) So, could a
Mechanical contrivance succesfully answer our _Theory_, we might see the
least spot as big as the Earth it self; and Discover, as _Des Cartes_[2]
also conjectures, as great a variety of bodies in the _Moon_, or _Planets_,
as in the _Earth_.

But leaving these Discoveries to future Industries, we shall proceed to add
one Observation more of a _point_ commonly so call'd, that is, the mark of
a _full stop_, or _period_. And for this purpose I observed many both
_printed_ ones and _written_; and among multitudes I found _few_ of them
more _round_ or _regular_ then this which I have delineated in the third
figure of the second Scheme, but _very many_ abundantly _more disfigur'd_;
and for the most part if they seem'd equally round to the eye, I found
those points that had been made by a _Copper-plate,_ and Roll-press, to be
as misshapen as those which had been made with _Types_, the most curious
and smothly _engraven strokes_ and _points_, looking but as so many
_furrows_ and _holes_, and their _printed impressions_, but like _smutty
daubings_ on a matt or uneven floor with a blunt extinguisht brand or
stick's end. And as for _points_ made with a _pen_ they were much _more
ragged_ and _deformed_. Nay, having view'd certain pieces of exceeding
curious writing of the kind (one of which in the bredth of a _two-pence_
compris'd _the Lords prayer, the Apostles Creed, the ten Commandments, and
about half a dozen verses besides of the Bible_, whose _lines_ were _so
small_ and _near together_, that I was unable to _number_ them with my
_naked eye_,) a very ordinary _Microscope_, I had then about me, inabled me
to see that what the Writer of it had asserted was _true_, but withall
discover'd of what pitifull _bungling scribbles_ and _scrawls_ it was
compos'd, _Arabian_ and _China characters_ being almost as well shap'd, yet
thus much I must say for the Man, that it was for the most part _legible_
enough, though in some places there wanted a good _fantsy_ well _preposest_
to help one through. If this manner _of small writing_ were made _easie_
and _practicable_ (and I think I know such a one, but have never yet made
tryal of it, whereby one might be inabled to write _a great deale_ with
_much ease_, and _accurately_ enough in a very _little roome_) it might be
of very good use to convey _secret Intelligence_ without any danger of
_Di