This section is from the book "Facts Worth Knowing", by Robert Kemp Philip. Also available from Amazon: Inquire Within for Anything You Want to Know.
2443. Rebuses are a class of enigmas generally formed by the first, sometimes the first and last, letters of words, or of transpositions of letters, or additions to words. Dr. Johnson, how-over, represents Rebus to be a word represented by a picture. And putting the Doctor's definition and our own explanation together, the reader may glean a good conception of the nature of the Rebus. Example: -
The father of the Grecian Jove:
A little boy who's blind; The foremost land in all the world,
The mother of mankind; A poet whose love-sonnets are
Still very much admired; -The initial letters will declare
A blessing to the tired.
Answer - Saturn; Love; England Eve: Plutarch. The initials form sleep.
 
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