|
|
|
|
|
|
John Wilkins, An Essay towards a Real Character, and a Philosophical Language
(London: Printed for S. Gellibrand, 1668), p. 311. Courtesy of the Lilly Library,
Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
placed by another slave, belonging to a different person, and even the thirty figs, as individual entities, were replaced by twelve other figs. Moreover, let us imagine that the new slave brought the basket to a different addressee. We can also suppose that the new addressee did not know of any friend eager to cultivate him and to send him figs. Would it still be possible to decide what the letter was speaking about? |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
I think that we are still entitled to suppose that the reaction of the new addressee would have been, more or less, of this sort: "Somebody, God knows who, sent me a quantity of figs which is less than the one mentioned by the accompanying letter." (I also suppose that the new Addressee, being a Master, chastised the slave before trying to solve the Riddle: this, too, is a Semiotic Problem, but let us stick to our Main Question.) |
|
|
|
|
|