failed 'to see the wood for the trees,' and may have lost the clue of
the lexicographical evolution. Let me then in conclusion recapitulate
the stages which have been already indicated. These are: the glossing
of difficult words in Latin manuscripts by easier Latin, and at length
by English words; the collection of the English glosses into
Glossaries, and the elaboration of Latin-English Vocabularies; the
later formation of English-Latin Vocabularies; the production of
Dictionaries of English and another modern language; the compilation
of Glossaries and Dictionaries of 'hard' English words; the extension
of these by Bailey, for etymological purposes, to include words in
general; the idea of a Standard Dictionary, and its realization by Dr.
Johnson with illustrative quotations; the notion that a Dictionary
should also show the pronunciation of the living word; the extension
of the function of quotations by Richardson; the idea that the
Dictionary should be a biography of every word, and should set forth
every fact connected with its origin, history, and use, on a strictly
historical method. These stages coincide necessarily with stages of
our national and literary history; the first two were already reached
before the Norman Conquest; the third followed upon the recognition of
English as the official language of the nation, and its employment by
illustrious Middle English writers. The Dictionaries of the modern
languages were necessitated first by the fact that French had at
length ceased to be the living tongue of any class of Englishmen, and
secondly by the other fact that the rise of the modern languages and
increasing intercourse with the Continent made Latin no longer
sufficient as a common medium of international communication. The
consequences of the Renascence and of the New Learning of the
sixteenth century appear in the need for the Dictionaries of Hard
Words at the beginning of the seventeenth; the literary polish of the
age of Anne begat the yearning for a standard dictionary, and inspired