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

[289]

So, you see, I go on, almost contrary to my principles, piling up old Spanish books on old Spanish books. Cui bono? Time will show. I add a few notes for an edition of my History, to be printed in a year or two, the stereotype plates now used to keep up with the demand being still satisfactory; as nobody knows enough about the subject to care for such little items as my present researches can afford. They are printing now 1,200 copies. But when I make a new edition I shall sacrifice the plates to my vanity of making the book as good as I can. Meantime, the old Spanish books do no harm; they amuse me, and they will be valuable in some public library hereafter. . . . .

To C. S. Daveis.

My dear Charles,—. . . . Since I wrote the preceding pages Cogswell has come in upon us for a few days; he looks a little thin and pale, as a man well may who has been in New York all summer, but he seems in good health and spirits. He has already gone with the ladies and Hillard in a boat to the other side of the lake, where they spend the forenoon in those cool woods, with ‘book, and work, and healthful play.’ I seldom join in these excursions. Four or five hours of good work in the forepart of the day, in our own quiet parlor, is as healthful for me as anything, and fits me to lounge with a few agreeable, intelligent habitues of the house, all the rest of the time. We have suffered from the heat, as all men in the United States have this summer, I suppose, but less than most of them. The thermometer has averaged about seven or eight degrees below the temperature from Boston to Baltimore. . . . .

To Sir E. Head, Bart.

My dear Sir Edmund,—I am delighted with the news¹ in your letter of the 23d ult., which has followed us here, after some delay. You now will remain on this continent yet some years longer, but it will be under circumstances so honorable to you that you will be content with what might otherwise grow burthensome. It is, too, a great