ANAGRAM

The letters of a word or phrase so transposed as to make a different word or phrase. The manufacture of anagrams out of proper names or other words has always been a favorite exercise, sometimes to pay a compliment---as when Doctor Burney made Honor est a Nilo out of Horatio Nelson, the Latin phrase meaning Honor is from the Nile, and alluding to his victory at that river on August 1, 1798-and sometimes for purposes of secrecy, as when Robert Bacon concealed under an anagram one of the ingredients in his recipe for gunpowder, that the world might not too easily become acquainted with the composition of so dangerous a material.

The same method was adopted by the adherents of the house of Stuart when they manufactured their system of high degrees as a political engine, and thus, under an anagrammatic form, they made many words to designate their friends or, principally, their enemies of the opposite party. Most of these words it has now become impossible to restore to their original form, but several are readily decipherable.

Thus, among the assassins of the Third Degree, who symbolized, with them, the foes of the monarchy, we recognize Romvel as Cromwell, and Hoben as Bohun, Earl of Essex. It is only thus that we can ever hope to trace the origin of such words in the high degrees as Tercy, Stolkin, Morphey, etc. To look for them in any Hebrew roots would be a fruitless task. The derivation of many of them, on account of the obscurity of the persons to whom they refer, is, perhaps, forever lost; but of others the research for their meaning may be more successful.