George Ticknor, Life, letters and journals of George Ticknor
George Hillard, Ed.

[117] assure you my hopes have not fixed on any particular person, yet I know very well that in any country, and most of all in America, marriage is a sine qua non to happiness, and that there are not many persons to whom it would be more necessary than to me. This, then, is the condition to which I ought to look forward; but for this the professorship is no sufficient provision. I cannot, therefore, accept it, unless you are able and willing to make up the income to the amount necessary to support a family.

The second point is, the Spanish part. Here is at once a new subject of study proposed to me, to which I have paid no attention since I have been here, and which I have not taken into the plan of my studies and travels in Europe. If I am to be a professor in this literature, I must go to Spain; and this I cannot think of doing, without your full and free consent. This winter I must remain here, of course; the next summer I must be in France, and the next winter in Italy. I willingly give up Greece, but still I find no room for Spain. If I go there as soon as the spring will make it proper, in 1818, and establish myself at the University of Salamanca, and stay there six months, which is the shortest time in which I could possibly get a suitable knowledge of Spanish literature, my whole time will be absorbed, and England and Scotland will be sacrificed. This last I ought not to do; and yet, the thought of staying six months longer from home is absolutely intolerable to me. If it comes to my mind when I sit down to dinner, my appetite is gone; or when I am going to bed, I get no sleep. Yet, if I take this place, I must do it, and I do not question I could carry it properly through; for, after the last six months here, I do not fear anything in this way; or at least ought not to; but are you willing? Without your consent, I will not for an instant think of it.

Finally, are you satisfied with the office and the occupation? For myself, I say freely, that the occupation would be pleasant to me, and that I doubt not, in this office, I could, better than in any other, fulfil my duties to God and my neighbor; but still, if you be not satisfied, I do not desire it.

The case, then, stands precisely thus: you, my dear father, have done so much for me, and have made so many sacrifices for me, that I have no other wish than so to spend the remainder of the time we may live together in the world as will most promote your happiness and my mother's. An offer is made to me of an establishment for life, which necessarily implies farther exertions and sacrifices on your part. I do not ask them, I do not desire them. I can live happy