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"The man is not wholly evil - he has a Thesaurus in his cabin"
(quote from the children's book "Peter Pan" by JM Barrie,
in his description of "Captain Hook").
The first draft of the Thesaurus was written in 1805, two years before Webster
started on his dictionary. However, for a period of 47 years, Dr Roget used his
manuscript as his personal, secret, treasure trove. Not until he was 73 years
old did he decide to reveal and publish this great manuscript.
From the Preface to the first edition of Roget's Thesaurus, he states:
"It is now nearly fifty years since I first projected a system of verbal
classification similar to that on which the present work is founded.
Conceiving that such a compilation might help to supply my own deficiencies,
I had, in the year 1805, completed a classed catalogue of words on a small
scale, but on the same principle, and nearly in the same form, as the Thesaurus
now published. I had often during that long interval found this little
collection, scanty and imperfect though it was, of much use to me in literary
composition, and often contemplated its extension and improvement; but a sense
of the magnitude of the task, amidst a multiple of other avocations, deterred
me from the attempt. Since my retirement from the duties of Secretary to the
Royal Society, however, finding myself possessed of more leisure, and believing
that a repertory of which I had myself experienced the advantage might, when
amplified, prove useful to others, I resolved to embark in an undertaking which,
for the last three or four years, has given me incessant occupation . . . "
1852. |
