Church--while I am not positive on the positive side, nor even in any
way as yet decided."

________________________




CHAPTER VII

STRUGGLES

THE citations thus far made from Isaac Hecker's youthful diary,
although penned at Brook Farm, bear few traces of that fact. They
might have been written in a desert for all evidence they give of any
special influence produced upon him by personal contact with others.
It is not until the middle of May, 1843, that he begins to make any
reference to his actual surroundings.

Before following him into these more intimate self-confidences, and
especially before giving in his own words an account of that peculiar
occurrence which so permanently affected his future, some preliminary
remarks seem necessary.

It has been said already, in an earlier chapter of this biography,
that but for some special intervention of Divine Providence, it is
more than probable that Isaac Hecker would have led the ordinary life
of men in the world, continuing, indeed, to cherish a high ideal of
the duties of the citizen of a free country, but pursuing it along
well-beaten ways. There is no doubt that, unless some such event as