s of a mere dictionary, and his interests are not restricted to
theology. Aetas draws him into an account of the various ages of the
world, regnum into a view of its kingdoms. Carmen provokes 7 columns,
31/2 folio pages, on metres; lapis 2 columns on precious stones. Italy
receives 2 columns, and 3/4 of a column are given to St. Paul.
Contrariwise there is often great brevity in his interpretations:
'Samium locus est', 'heroici antiqui', 'mederi curare'. His treatment
of miraculum is interesting; 'A miracle is to raise the dead to life;
but it is a wonder (mirabile) for a fire to be kindled in the water,
or for a man to move his ears.' The next heading is mirabilia, for
which his examples are taken from the ends of the earth. He begins:
'Listen. Among the Garamantes is a spring so cold by day that you
cannot drink it, so hot at night that you cannot put your finger into
it.' A fig-tree in Egypt, apples of Sodom, the non-deciduous trees of
an island in India--these are the other travellers' tales which serve
him for wonders.

The alphabetical method did not hold its own without struggle. It
prevailed in Robert Stephanus' Latin _Thesaurus_ (1532), the most
considerable work of its kind that had been compiled since the
invention of printing; but Dolet's Commentaries on the Latin Tongue
(1536), are practically a reversion to the arrangement by roots. Henry
Stephanus' Greek _Thesaurus_ (1572) and Scapula's well-known
abridgement of it (1579) are both radical; and as late as the
seventeenth century this method was employed in the first Dictionary
of the French Academy, which was designed in 1638 but not published
till 1694. That, however, was its last appearance. The preface to the
Academy's second Dictionary (1700 and 1718), after comparing the two
methods, says: 'The arrangement by roots is the most scientific, and
the most instructive to the student; but it is not suited to the
impatience of the French people, and so the Academy has felt obliged
to abandon it.'[11] The ordinary user of dictionaries to-day would be
surprised at being called impatient for expecting the words to be put
in alphabetical order.

[11] Cf. R.C. Christie, _Etienne Dolet_, ch. xi.

In mediaeval times there was one very real obstacle to the use of the
alphabetical method, and that was the uncertainty of spelling. Both
Papias and Balbi allude to it in their prefaces; but it did not deter
them from their enterprise. Even in the days of printing