Anagram (Gr. ava, backward, and letter), the transposition of the letters forming a word or sentence into a new word or sentence having some bearing upon the subject of the former one; as, Honor est a Nilo, formed from the letters in the name of Horatio Nelson. To make a true anagram, every letter of the original words must be retained in the transposition, and no new one must be added. In ancient times anagrams were regarded as prophetic, or as embodying a direction to the man on whose name they were made; it is said that Pierre de St. Louis became a Carmelite monk on finding that his name, Ludovicus Bartelemi, could be transposed into Carmelo se devoiret. Satirical anagrams were very common in the 16th and 17th centuries; Camden, the English historian, devoted a treatise to them, and many of the most learned men spent their leisure in making them upon the names of their contemporaries. Perhaps the best anagram ever made is the one which transposes Pontius Pilate's question to Christ - Quid est Veritas? (What is the truth?) - into the answer, Est vir qui adest (It is the man who is before you). The following are a few excellent anagrams: Arthur Wellesley, duke of Wellington - '"Let well-foiled Gaul secure thy renown." Napoleon Bonaparte - "No, appear not at Elba." Louis Napoleon Bonaparte - "Arouse, Albion; an open plot." For some curious anagrams, and their history, see the introduction to "Macaronic Poetry," by James Appleton Morgan (New York, 1872).