320 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



Mr. Ticknor, son of Elisha Ticknor, an intelligent and public-spirited 

 man, one of those who first opened the doors of the public schools to 

 all the children of Boston under the age of seven, was born in Boston, 

 August 1, 1791. His father, a classical scholar, had been a teacher, 

 and knew how safely to indulge the extraordinary power of application 

 and attainment of his son, and to kindle within him the fire which 

 always continued to burn, without checking his uncommon vivacity 

 and playfulness, so that he was graduated at Dartmouth College, after 

 a full and successful course, in 1807, at the age at which most boys in 

 those days entered college. 



Returning to Boston, he pursued his studies for three years under 

 the care of the Rev. Dr. Gardiner, a worthy pupil of Dr. Parr, and 

 was filled with that enthusiastic love of the Greek and Latin classics 

 which he always retained. " His brightness, industry, ardor, and per- 

 severance," says a friend who knew, " combined with agreeable, re- 

 spectful, and gentlemanly manners," made him a favorite with Dr. 

 Gardiner, who procured for his young friend admission to the Anthol- 

 ogy Club, of which he was president, thus placing him amongst much 

 older persons, the best scholars and most distinguished men of letters 

 of their day. 



He then devoted three years to the study of the law, in the office of 

 William Sullivan, a good lawyer and a true gentleman, and was ad- 

 mitted to the bar in 1813. As it was impossible for him to do anything 

 superficially, he gave promise of distinction in that profession. But, 

 while he could not but retain the fruits of the severe mental discipline 

 which faithful study gives, and gained from it, doubtless, something 

 of the skill and wisdom with which he always managed his own affairs, 

 as well as a safe guide in all his investigations, he preferred literature. 



He went abroad in April, 1815, with his friend Edward Everett, and, 

 after a few weeks in London, just at the time of the battle of Waterloo, 

 hastened through Holland, stopping chiefly to buy books, to Gottingen, 

 where they lived in contiguous rooms in the house of his favorite 

 teacher, Bouterwek, whose highest work he was destined to surpass. 

 At Gottingen he labored faithfully in his philological studies, from 

 August in that year to March, 1817, during which time he became 

 perfectly familiar with the German language. 



In Paris, in the summer of 1817, in Rome through the following 

 winter, and in Madrid from May to September, 1818, he studied with 

 equal energy. During his residence on the continent, and in Edin- 



