eat one: thanks to his care and energy, the Public
Library already has become a most valuable aid to study, and perhaps
the best library in the country, besides promising to be one of the
few great ones of the world. During his lifetime Mr. Ticknor gave many
valuable collections to the library, and in his will he left it his
own unique Spanish library and a generous bequest for the further
purchase of books. From the first he was quite as generous with his
time and knowledge. The diary he kept during his last stay abroad is
full of references to his interest in the library and to the constant
attention he gave to its affairs. He returned to Boston in September,
1857. The remaining years of his life he spent at home, enjoying
the company of his friends, corresponding with those abroad, and
encouraging interest in letters in every way. He died in the full
possession of his faculties, in his eightieth year, January 26, 1871.

The editors of these memoirs appear to have performed their task with
great discretion and good taste. It has probably not been a difficult
one, consisting mainly in selecting from abundant and well-ordered
material, while suppressing what was too private or too trivial for
publication. What they have had to say of Mr. Ticknor's character
is expressed with a proper warmth of feeling, but without any
extravagance of eulogy. His life, as they justly remark, was
distinguished by "an unusual consistency in the framework of mind and
character" and "an unusually steady development of certain elements
and principles." What he from the first set himself to attain lay
within the compass of his capacity as well as of his means and
opportunities. Thus he had no external hinderances to contend against,
and no inward misgivings to struggle with. No man, we imagine, was
ever less troubled with self-dissatisfaction. He felt the limits of
his faculties and qualities, if he felt them at all, only as useful
and secure defences. Within them there was all the completeness that
could be gained by persevering exercise and culture. There is not a
page of his journals and letters that does not bear testimony to his
earnest, careful and profitable study of men and books, while we doubt
if a remark can be found in them that shows either sympathetic insight
or subtle discrimination. His intellect had all its resources at
command, but it had more of rigor than of vigor, more of formal
precision in its methods than of well-direct