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CLASSIFIED AND ARRANGED AS TO FACILITATE THE
EXPRESSION OF IDEAS AND ASSIST IN

LITERARY COMPOSITION.

BY

PETER MARK ROGET,

LATE SECRETARY OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY; AUTHOR OF THE "BRIDGEWATER TREATISE ON
ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE PHYSIOLOGY," ETC.

REVISED

AND

EDITED,

WITH A LIST OF

Foreign Words Defined in English, and other Additions,

BY

BARNAS SEARS, D. D.,

SECRETARY OF THE MASSACHUSETTS BOARD OF EDUCATION.

NEW AMERICAN, FROM THE THIRD STEREOTYPED LONDON, EDITION,
WITH ADDITIONS AND IMPROVEMENTS,

GOULD

BOSTON:

AND

LINCOLN.

NEW YORK: SHELDON AND COMPANY.

CINCINNATI: GEO. S. BLANCHARD.

REF

FE

1591 .27

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1854, by
GOULD AND LINCOLN,

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts.

Farlow Reference Lebrary
From Dr. Thauter

STEREOTYPED AT THE

DOSTON STEREOTYPE

Relid 5/26/66

JUN 2 % 1966

FOUNDRY.

PUBLISHERS' ADVERTISEMENT

то

THE NEW AMERICAN

EDITION.

Ir has been the design of the Publishers, in preparing the present edition if Roget's Thesaurus, to reproduce from the new and stereotyped London edi. tion the subject-matter of the original work, UNABRIDGED AND ENTIRE, though with variations of arrangement, and with numerous and valuable additions. In the first American edition, which was especially intended to subserve the ends of education, all the phrases, and some of the words, contained in the English edition, were omitted, for reasons stated in the American Editor's Preface. These omitted portions have been restored in the present volume in an Appendix; not merely from a deference to the views of critics and scholars whose opinions are entitled to respect, but from a conviction that such a course accords with the nature of the work as an English Thesaurus, and also will greatly enhance its usefulness, without diminishing its value as an instrument of education. In addition to the obvious impossibility of setting up an absolute standard of purity for the conduct of such a work as this, a consideration already suggested in the Preface of the first edition,— it is evident that the words and phrases now restored, however obnoxious many of them may be to the censure of the classical reader, have nevertheless an admitted currency both in life and in certain departments of literature. Hence they certainly have some legitimate place in a complete Thesaurus of the language; and, by rendering service to certain classes of writers and readers, necessarily contribute to promote the objects of the work. These remarks seem applicable even to such expressions as may be entitled vulgarisms. For "if a novelist or a dramatist," to adopt the words of the author in his Introduction," proposed to delineate some vulgar personage, he would wish to have the power of putting into the mouth of the speaker expressions that would accord with his character; just as the actor, who had to personate a peasant, would choose for his attire the most homely garb, and would have just reason to complain if the theatrical wardrobe furnished him with no suitable costume." On the other hand, it is believed that any apprehended injury to the taste of students and younger readers is obviated by the method used to incorporate into the present American edition the expressions now under consideration. Standing, as these expressions now do, apart from the rest of the work, in a separate list, with their position in the language clearly defined, they can only enrich the resources, without misleading the

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