dinary meetings, so
that it became necessary to discontinue them. Mr. Furnivall,
then, in conjunction with certain members of the
Philological Society, founded the Early English Text
Society. The Society possessed the inestimable advantage of
having among its founders Mr. Richard Morris (afterwards the
Rev. Dr. Morris), who entered with fervour into the scheme,
and produced a large amount of magnificent work for the
Society. Dr. Furnivall put the objects of the Society
forward very tersely when he said that none of us should
rest "till Englishmen shall be able to say of their early
literature what the Germans can now say with pride of
theirs--'every word of it is printed, and every word of it
is glossed.'"

The Society prospered, and in 1867 an Extra Series was
started, in which were included books that had already been
printed, but were difficult to obtain from their rarity and
price.

One hundred and twenty-six volumes have been issued between
1864 and 1884, eighty-two volumes of the Original Series and
forty-four of the Extra Series, and there can be no doubt
that the publications of the Society have had an immense
influence in fostering the study of the English language.
The prefaces and glossaries given with each work contain an
amount of valuable information not elsewhere to be obtained.

These books throw light upon the growth of the language, and
place within the reach of a large number of readers works of
great interest in the literature of the country. The
greatest work undertaken by the Society is the remarkable
edition of "William's Vision of Piers the Plowman," which
Prof. Skeat has produced with an expenditure of great labour
during nearly twenty years. The last part, containing
elaborate notes and glossary, was issued in 1884.

The subjects treated of are very various. There is a fair
sprinkling of Romances, which will always be amongst the
most interesting of a Society's publications. Manners and
Customs are largely illustrated in a fair proportion of the
Texts, as also are questions of Social and Political
History. Perhaps the least interesting to the general reader
are the Theological Texts, which are numerous, but the
writers of these were thoroughly imbued with the spirit of
their times, and