to a
later age, and as showing that Wilkins possessed the inspiring
conviction of all genuine men of Science, that for it the word
impossible does not exist.

In 1638 he published his first work, an Astronomical treatise, the fruit
of his studies at Oxford and at Fawsley. It is entitled 'The Discovery
of a World in the Moone, or a discourse tending to prove that there may
be another habitable World in that Planet': in the third impression,
issued in 1640, is added a "Discourse concerning the Possibility of a
Passage thither." Like Lucian he imagined a voyage to the moon, though
he admits that the journey through the air was a formidable difficulty.
He successfully defended his views against an objection raised by the
Duchess of Newcastle. That clever and eccentric lady, the authoress of
many "fancies," philosophical and poetical, asked him where she was to
bait her horses if she undertook the journey. "Your Grace could not do
better," he replied, "than stop at one of your castles in the air." In
his treatment of the difficulties caused by the apparent conflict
between certain passages of Scripture and the conclusions of
Astronomical Science, which he accepts, he anticipates in a remarkable
way that explanation of them which rests on the understanding of the
meaning of the Bible and of the nature of inspiration. The book was
parodied in the story of 'Peter Wilkins' Journey to the Moon,' which
even usually well-informed persons have been known to attribute as a
_jeu-d'esprit_ to the Warden of Wadham. It was written by Robert
Paltock, and published in 1751.

His next production was 'Mercurie; or the Secret and Swift
Messenger,'--a treatise on Cryptography or ciphers; curious
contrivances whereby A can communicate with C without B's suspecting or
understanding, by signs, gestures, parables, and transpositions of the
alphabet: such as the writer looked at seemed to confirm the view that
every cipher which depends on system, and not on an arrangement of a
capricious kind, can be interpreted by an expert, a title to which he
lays no claim. The book was meant perhaps for use in the Civil War, as
was the system of Wilkins' friend, Dr Wallis, who could both invent and
solve such puzzles, and distinguished himself by deciphering the letters
of the king which fell into the hands of the Parliamentarians at Naseby.
There is also among the "Tracts of Bishop Wilkins," a treatise dated
1648, entitled 'Mathematical Magic; or, the Wond