Amherst August 20. 1825.
Rev. & Dear Sir
Before I received your note of the 18th, I had become quite uneasy with myself, & I began to fear that something would prevent you from coming to Amherst, in time for us to confer further with you on the subject of the professorship. Accordingly I sat down two days ago, & wrote you in reply to your letter of July 27th, & engaged Mr. Dickinson to carry it to you this day, on his way to Greenfield. The truth is, that as I would not visit Conway, I ought to have written by Col. Graves, or at least by Coffin. My apologies, that I confidently expected to see you here as it now appears I should have done, but for the illness which has prevented you from coming.
Your long & interesting letter, in reply to mine, made us all read, as we saw in it the painful struggles of your mind & found so much to discourage our hopes of having you soon associated with us in our great work. If your health is really so preca-
When Edward Hitchcock was offered a professorship at Amherst College, the college's second president, Heman Humphrey, wrote to describe the position more fully, in answer to questions Hitchcock had about the amount of work involved, given his health concerns. Humphrey wondered if perhaps Hitchcock might be hired on with slightly less of a workload than that of the other professors. However, throughout his life, Hitchcock seemed to feel he was always on the verge of complete collapse, while at the same time producing prodigious amounts of high-quality work and taking on physical challenges that would have daunted most men his age.