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Being now at ease about that which he considered as not only the first, but, in our social condition, the most valuable part of the Library, Mr. Ticknor began to give proof that his instincts as a scholar were only held in abeyance by his judgment as a citizen.
In April, 1860, he gave to the Library 2,400 volumes of works of such a high character that he made it a condition that two thousand of them should not circulate, and in October of the same year he presented to it one hundred and forty-three volumes, forming a special collection on Moliere, with similar restrictions; while in October, 1864, he gave one hundred and sixty volumes of Provencal literature, under still more stringent conditions.
In 1861, also, being consulted as to the conditions to be attached to a bequest of money to the Library, he reverted to an idea, entertained by him long before, which was adopted, and the income was required to be expended for books, none of which should have been published less than five years.
Finally, by his last will he gave to this institution, which he had cherished and had done all in his power to perfect, the invaluable collection of Spanish books, to the formation of which he had devoted so much of his time and his fortune.
Of these, by his own direction, not a volume is to be allowed to leave the Library building.
His desire to put culture within the reach of those who are least apt to seek it and least able to acquire it, and his belief that they could be trusted to use carefully what was bestowed generously, this desire and this belief inspired his action for the Library for the first six or eight years of its development; but when the principles he thus contended for were vindicated by experience, and put beyond danger, he turned to work for the more scholarly and studious class, of which he himself was a member.
He hoped that the principle of funding donations of money, and the example of giving collections of works on special subjects, would lead to further gifts of both kinds; and he trusted that the disinterested and broad views for the administration of the Library, which had been established and continued during
Boston, J. R. Osgood and company, 1876.
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