A Discourse on Anagrams as a Part of the Cabala

...times—alas!—and there are certain men, though overflowing with vice, who are drunk with wealth; they dare to intercept the letters of others and, as if the seal held no sacred weight, they break and violate them. This crime has been recognized: as a remedy, a safeguard is established, so that not only the subjects usually written about, but also the writers themselves—indeed, even those to whom or about whom one writes—may be artfully concealed.

Cities are enclosed and fortified to keep out enemies; within cities, houses are built to ward off thieves. Indeed, everyone keeps their own belongings in a cellar or a private room, and guards their jewelry and coins within the even tighter security of chests and lockboxes. Here, then, Proper Names are like jewels, worthy of a unique arrangement original: "synthemate," referring to a code or symbolic arrangement., whether for practical use or for mere play. In this way, either the pursuit of elegance or the demands of necessity will justify these tricks of letters.

I have already dealt with the Exchange of Letters—which properly constitutes CRYPTOGRAPHY From the Greek 'kryptos' (hidden) and 'graphein' (to write).—in a separate little book published some years ago. Regarding Transposition, which constitutes ANAGRAM-MAKING original: "Anagrammatismum," the process of rearranging the letters of a word or name to form a new phrase., I shall now treat in this Dissertation. I will be brief, as the subject matter is somewhat dry; yet I do so gladly, to make public that which has hitherto been either left unfinished or neglected by others.