As the monks were the masters of all that little learning which was
then extant, and had their whole lives entirely disengaged from
business, it is no wonder that several of them, who wanted genius
for higher performances, employed many hours in the composition of
such tricks in writing as required much time and little capacity. I
have seen half the "AEneid" turned into Latin rhymes by one of the
beaux esprits of that dark age: who says, in his preface to it,
that the "AEneid" wanted nothing but the sweets of rhyme to make it
the most perfect work in its kind. I have likewise seen a hymn in
hexameters to the Virgin Mary, which filled a whole book, though it
consisted but of the eight following words


Tot tibi sunt, Virgo, dotes, quot sidera coelo.
Thou hast as many virtues, O Virgin, as there are stars in heaven.


The poet rang the changes upon these eight several words, and by
that means made his verses almost as numerous as the virtues and
stars which they celebrated. It is no wonder that men who had so
much time upon their hands did not only restore all the antiquated
pieces of false wit, but enriched the world with inventions of their
own. It is to this age that we owe the production of anagrams,
which is nothing else but a transmutation of one word into another,
or the turning of the same set of letters into different words;
which may change night into day, or black into white, if chance, who
is the goddess that presides over these sorts of composition, shall
so direct. I remember a witty author, in allusion to this kind of
writing, calls his rival, who, it seems, was distorted, and had his