Ah! old must dye. A death’s head on your hand you neede not weare, A dying head you on your shoulders beare. You need not one to mind you, you must dye, You in your name may spell mortalitye. Younge men may dye, but old men, these dye must; ’Twill not be long before you turne to dust. Before you turne to dust! ah! must! old! dye! What shall younge doe when old in dust doe lye? When old in dust lye, what N. England doe? When old in dust doe lye, it’s best dye too. In an Elegy written by Rev. John Cotton on the death of John Alden, a magistrate of the old Plymouth Colony, who died in 1687, the following _phonetic_ anagram occurs:— John Alden—End al on hi. The Calvinistic opponents of Arminius made of his name a not very creditable Latin anagram:— Jacobus Arminius, Vani orbis amicus; (The friend of a false world.) while his friends, taking advantage of the Dutch mode of writing it, _H_arminius, hurled back the conclusive argument, Habui curam Sionis. (I have had charge of Zion.) Perhaps the most extraordinary anagram to be met with, is that on the Latin of Pilate’s question to the Saviour, “What is truth?”—St. John, xviii. 38. Quid est veritas? Est vir qui adest. (It is the man who is before you.) Live, vile, and evil, have the self-same letters; He lives but vile, whom evil holds in fetters. If you transpose what ladies wear—§Veil§, ’Twill plainly show what bad folks are—§Vile§. Again if you transpose the same, You’ll see an ancient Hebrew name—§Levi§. Change it again, and it will show What all on earth desire to do—§Live§. Transpose the letters yet once more, What bad men do you’ll then explore—§Evil§. PERSIST. A lady, being asked by a gentleman to join in the bonds of matrimony with him, wrote the word “§Stripes§,” stating at the time that the letters making up the word stripes could be changed so as to make an answer to his question. The result proved satisfactory. When _I cry that I sin_ is transposed, it is clear, My resource _Christianity_ soon will appear. The two which follow are peculiarly appropriate:— Florence Nightingale, Flit on, charming angel. John Abernethy, Johnny the bear. T I M E I T E M M E T I E M I T