For all his exertions abroad he received very gratifying testimonials from the Trustees, on his arrival at home, the votes and reports on the subject being contained in the Fifth Annual Report.
After his return Mr. Ticknor wished if possible to avoid entering again into the active operations of the Library, hoping that his friends Mr. Everett and Mr. Greenough, with the assistance of Mr. Jewett, could secure the well-being of the institution without more than his presence and support in the Board; but he could not be released, and therefore accepted the position of chairman of the committee for the removal of the books to the new Library building.
This might, at first sight, seem to imply only a supervision of mechanical work, but it involved much more. It involved, at one point, the assertion of the principle which, in Mr. Ticknor's mind, lay at the bottom of the whole special character of the institution. A separate and accessible hall and library-room had been prepared, on the lower floor of the new building, for the popular part of the collection of books, by Mr. Ticknor's suggestion when he was on the Commission for the building. He now urged the preparation of a separate index to the books of this department, to be furnished before a complete catalogue of the whole mass of books could be got ready. This interfered with the more striking idea of a large and imposing volume, exhibiting to the public the whole wealth of the Library in one catalogue. Mr. Ticknor, however, prevailed, and the popular collection, with its separate rooms and its separate index, being ready and open to the public more than a year before the rest could be opened,1 was very welcome, and so eagerly used that the
