The next entry is undated, but it was probably made on the last day
of May. It has served to fix the proximate time of the illness and
disquiet which led to his first withdrawal from business and home.

"Wednesday.--About ten months ago--perhaps only seven or eight--I
saw (I cannot say I dreamed; it was quite different from dreaming; I
was seated on the side of my bed) a beautiful, angelic being, and
myself standing alongside of her, feeling a most heavenly pure joy.
It was as if our bodies were luminous and gave forth a moon-like
light which sprung from the joy we experienced. I felt as if we had
always lived together, and that our motions, actions, feelings, and
thoughts came from one centre. When I looked towards her I saw no
bold outline of form, but an angelic something I cannot describe,
though in angelic shape and image. _It was this picture that has left
such an indelible impression on my mind._ For some time afterward I
continued to feel the same influence, and do now so often that the
actual around me has lost its hold. _In my state previous to my
vision I should have married ere this, for there are those I have
since seen who would have met the demands of my mind._ But now this
vision continually hovers over me and prevents me, by its beauty,
from accepting any one else; for I am charmed by its influence, and
conscious that, should I accept any other, I should lose the life
which would be the only one wherein I could say I live."

Those of our readers who are either versed in mystical theology or
who have any wide knowledge of the lives of the Church's more
interior saints, with neither of which Isaac Hecker had at this time
any acquaintance, will be apt to recall here St. Francis of Assisi
and his bride, the Lady Poverty, the similar occurrences related by
Henry Suso of himself, and the mystic espousals of St. Catharine. We