The first Professor I saw was in a very large Room, with forty Pupils about  
him. After Salutation, observing me to look earnestly upon a Frame, which  
took up the greatest part of both the Length and Breadth of the Room, he  
said perhaps I might wonder to see him employed in a Project for improving  
speculative Knowledge by practical and mechanical Operations. But the World  
would soon be sensible of its Usefulness, and he flattered himself that a  
more noble exalted Thought never sprung in any other Man's Head. Every one  
knew how laborious the usual Method is of attaining to Arts and Sciences;  
whereas by his Contrivance, the most ignorant Person at a reasonable Charge,  
and with a little bodily Labour, may write Books in Philosophy, Poetry,  
Politicks, Law, Mathematicks and Theology, without the least Assistance from  
Genius or Study. He then led me to the Frame, about the Sides whereof all  
his Pupils stood in Ranks. It was twenty Foot Square, placed in the middle  
of the Room. The Superficies was composed of several bits of Wood, about the  
bigness of a Dye, but some larger than others. They were all linked together  
by slender Wires. These bits of Wood were covered on every Square with Paper  
pasted on them, and on these Papers were written all the Words of their  
Language, in their several Moods, Tenses, and Declensions, but without any  
Order. The Professor then desired me to observe, for he was going to set his  
Engine at Work. The Pupils at his Command took each of them hold of an Iron  
Handle, whereof there were fourty fixed round the Edges of the Frame, and  
giving them a sudden turn, the whole Disposition of the Words was entirely  
changed. He then commanded six and thirty of the Lads to read the several  
Lines softly as they appeared upon the Frame; and where they found three or  
four Words together that might make part of a Sentence, they dictated to the  
four remaining Boys who were Scribes. This Work was repeated three or four  
Times, and at every turn the Engine was so contrived that the Words shifted  
into new Places, as the Square bits of Wood moved upside down.  
  
 Six Hours a-day the young Students were employed in this Labour, and the  
Professor shewed me several Volumes in large Folio already collected, of  
broken Sentences, which he intended to piece together, and out of those rich  
Materials to give the World a compleat Body of all Arts and Sciences; which  
however might be still improved, and much expedited, if the Publick would  
raise a Fund for making and employing five hundred such Frames in Lagado,  
and oblige the Managers to contribute in common their several Collections.  
 He assured me, that this Invention had employed all his Thoughts from his  
Youth, that he had emptyed the whole Vocabulary into his Frame, and made the  
strictest Computation of the general Proportion there is in Books between  
the Numbers of Particles, Nouns, and Verbs, and other Parts of Speech.  
  
Nicholas J. Theocarakis