ANAGRAM (from the Greek area, backwards, and gramma, writing), the transposition of the letters of a word, phrase, or short sentence, so as. to form a new word or.sentence. It originally signified a simple reversal of the order of letters, but has long borne the sense in which it is now used. The Cabalists attached great importance to anagrams, believing in some relation of them to the character or destiny of the persons from whose names they were formed. Plato entertained a similar notion, and the later Platonists rivaled the Cabalists in ascribing to them mysterious virtues. Although now classed among follies, or at best among ingenious trifles, anagrams formerly employed the most serious minds, and some of the puritanical writers commended the use of them. Cotton Mather, in his elegy on the death of John 'Wilson, the first pastor of Boston, in New England, mentions The hest anagrams are such as have, in the new order of letters, some signification appropriate to that from which they are formed. It was a great triumph of the medheval anagrammatist to find in Pilate's question, " Quid est veritas?" (What is truth?) its own answer: "Ettt rir qui Mat" (It is the man who is here). Anagrams, in the days of their popularity, were much employed, both for complimentary and for satirical purposes; and a little straining was often employed in the omission, addition, or alteration of let ters, although, of course, the merit of an A. depended much upon its accuracy.
I. Disraeli (Curiosities of Literature, vol. iii.) has a chapter on anagrams, which, as an exercise of ingenuity, he ranks far above acrostics. Among a great many considered by him worthy of record, are the following: The mistress of Charles IX. of France was named Marie Touchet ; this became le charme tout (I charm every one), "which is histor ically just." The flatterers of James I. of England proved his right to the British mon archy, as the descendant of the mythical king Arthur, from his name Charles James Stuart, which becomes claims Arthur's scat. An author, in dedicating a book to the same monarch, finds that in James Stuart lie has a just master. "But, perhaps, the hap piest of anagrams was produced on a singular person and occasion. Lady Eleanor Davies, the wife of the celebrated Sir John Davies, the poet, was a very extraordinary character. She was the Cassandra of her age, and several of her predictions warranted her to conceive she was a prophetess. As her prophecies in the troubled times of Charles I. were usually against the government, she was at length brought by them into the court of high commission. The prophetess was not a little mad, and fancied the spirit of Daniel was in her, from an A. she had formed of her name,