As another hint, two of the letters stand for themselves and the semicolon ';' and the full stop are actually themselves as pieces of punctuation. Are you ready? Like I said, it looks hideous!
8n{}58†d w!0 b† !x6n†z k65 !nz k65,8l†n b}x 8nd}Pxd !zw8x 6k n6 36w-†nd!x86n;
x=†0 z†,5!z† x=† w8nz 8n 8xd 62n †dx††w !nz k653† 8x x6 5†36l†5 8xd P†l†P b0 5†l†n,†.
{}n8}d
HINT:
This is a pretty tough question. If you're tearing your hair out, a logical approach will help you bust this open.
Firstly, go through and make a list of each symbol (letter, number or punctuation mark) and write down how many times they occur. Then think about which letters occur most commonly in English (or look up a list if you want).
There is one symbol which clearly occurs the most often and a six-letter word in the cipher in which this symbol occurs three times including in a double. What word could that possibly be? Go from there — and don't forget the language has an 1840s sophisticated feel to it.
Answer:
The most common symbols in our code and the number of times they occur are † (20), n (14), 8 and × (12), 6 (11), d and 5 (eight) and z and ! (seven times each).
The most common letters in English change depending on which list you're looking at, but E is always first, and A R I O T N S seem to be the next bunch. This means † could very well be E.
When I first saw this puzzle the word †dx††w looked like 'esteem' to me, and I went from there. If that's the case then 8xd occurs twice as does 8x, suggesting 8 = I giving ITS and IT. x6 is possibly TO giving 6 = 0. The word 8nd)Pxd is now I_S_ _ TS and the only word I could see was INSULTS. A bit more plugging away and we come up with the quote:
Injuries may be atoned for and forgiven but insults admit of no compensation;
they degrade the mind in its own esteem and force it to recover its level by revenge.
Junius
Adam Spencer's book The Number Games is available at www.adamspencer.com.au. Note: Shipping is not available to NZ.