JAMES R. OSGOOD AND COMPANY,
LATE TICKNOR & FIELDS, AND FIELDS, OSGOOD, & Co.

PREFACE.

THE

HE preparation of this Memoir was originally undertaken by me, in compliance with the wishes of Mr. Ticknor's family. This selection was determined mainly by my long intimacy with him. Mr. Ticknor survived most of his contemporaries, and at his death there was no one, of those who had known him in early youth, who was both willing and able to write a biography of their friend. My task was to be principally that of selection from a very rich mass of journals and correspondence. When, however, the first ten chapters only had been completed, I was suddenly seized by illness, which withdrew me from all literary labor. After an interval of some months the work was necessarily assumed by others. Sinco it approached its conclusion, my health having much improved, the manuscript has been submitted to me, and I have been able to give it a faithful perusal and cordial acceptance.

The ten chapters prepared by me were stereotyped before my illness, and the early direction thus given to the first portion of the book determined some points of its entire character. Its form and appearance were necessarily then settled, and the proportions to be assumed by the other parts were in great measure fixed. The next six or eight chapters were only partially sketched. The transition may be felt, and needs to be thus explained.

When the work was resumed, it was undertaken by Mrs. Ticknor and her eldest daughter, who, thenceforward, devoted themselves conscientiously to the task.

Some readers may think that a memoir largely prepared by

the immediate relatives of its subject, though it has the ad-
vantage of their complete familiarity with the mental and
moral traits of the person portrayed, is apt to be colored by
their affection and sympathy, even at the partial sacrifice of
truth. It is indeed difficult for those who saw him from so
near a point to write with judicial coldness and fairness of
one who was loved and honored in life. As in life we accept
the fact that in each of us there are weaknesses to be par-
doned, and not to be dragged into light, so in reading of one
gifted and useful to his generation, we do not need to be told
that he was human.

But forewarned is forearmed. The compilers of this work
have striven to make it a truthful sketch, and to paint Mr.
Ticknor as he was. As the Memoir consists mainly of his
writings, their responsibility has been chiefly that of selection.
I think it will be admitted by Mr. Ticknor's surviving friends,
that the picture herein given of him is faithful in outline, and
not too warmly colored.

Kind friends have furnished letters and information, and
thanks are due to many for help of different kinds. Some of
these are already gone beyond the reach or need of human
gratitude, and those who remain are conscious of a heavy loss
in the deprivation of their sympathy, and of the interest they
would have felt in this memorial of their friend.

One controlling purpose prevailed in Mr. Ticknor's life, that
of acquiring knowledge and the power of using it for the ben-
efit of others, and it is hoped that this will be found dis-
tinctly developed in these pages, amid all the varying experi-
ences described in their contents. At the University of Göt-
tingen, in the brilliant society which was opened to him in
Europe, and in his library or his lecture-room at home, he
was constantly seeking knowledge as a means of usefulness;
his was the spirit of Chaucer's Oxford scholar,

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"Gladly wolde he lerne, and gladly teche."

BOSTON, December, 1875.

GEORGE S. HILLARD.