wholly congenial to his natural inclinations. And again: "There was
nothing ascetic or severe in him; but I have often thought since that
his feeling was probably what he might have afterward described as a
consciousness that he must be about his Father's business."

These words are significant testimony to the nobility of the
impression made on others by Father Hecker's personality in early
manhood. Even if our only addition to such scanty knowledge of his
life at Brook Farm as could be gathered from his own conversations in
later years were this happily-touched sketch, it could hardly be more
interesting than it is. But, fortunately, it does not stand alone.
Its fine recognition of the lofty purity of his nature is everywhere
borne out by the unpremeditated and candid self-revelations of the
diary. Their characteristic trait is everywhere aspiration--a sense
of joy in elevation above the earthly, or a sense of depression
because the earthly weighs him down. Then come eager glances of
inquiry in every direction for the satisfaction of his aspirations,
little by little narrowing down to the Catholic Church, wherein the
dove of Mr. Curtis's image was finally to rest his foot for ever. And
in all this he scarcely at all mentions a dread of the Divine wrath
as a motive for his flight. It is not out of the city of destruction,
but toward the celestial city that he goes. He is drawn by what he
wants, not hounded by what he fears. Always there is the reaching out
of a strong nature toward what it lacks--a material for its strength
to work on, a craving for rational joy, coupled with an
ever-increasing conviction that nature cannot give him such a boon.
Men who knew Father Hecker only in his royal maturity, sometimes
cavilled at his words of emphatic faith in guileless nature; but they
had only to know him a little better to learn his appreciation of the
supernatural order, and his recognition of its absolute and exclusive