and upon becoming acquainted with him, I told him that he was Ernest the
Seeker, which was the title of a story of mental unrest which William
Henry Channing was then publishing in _The Dial_.

Hecker, or, as I always called him and think of him, Isaac, had apparently
come to Brook Farm because it was a result of the intellectual agitation
of the time which had reached and touched him in New York. He had been
bred a baker, he told me, and I remember with what satisfaction he said to
me, 'I am sure of my livelihood, because I can make good bread.' His
powers in this way were most satisfactorily tested at the Farm, or, as it
was generally called, 'the Community,' although it was in no other sense a
community than an association of friendly workers in common. He was drawn
to Brook Farm by the belief that its life would be at least agreeable to
his convictions and tastes, and offer him the society of those who might
answer some of his questions, even if they could not satisfy his longings.

By what influence his mind was first affected by the moral movement known
in New England as Transcendentalism, I do not know. Probably he may have
heard Mr. Emerson lecture in New York, or he may have read Brownson's
'Charles Elwood,' which dealt with the questions that engaged his mind and
conscience. But among the many interesting figures at Brook Farm I recall
none more sincerely absorbed than Isaac Hecker in serious questions. The
merely aesthetic aspects of its life, its gayety and social pleasures, he
regarded good-naturedly, with the air of a spectator who tolerated rather
than needed or enjoyed them. There was nothing ascetic or severe in him,
but I have often thought since that his feeling was probably what he might
have afterwards described as a consciousness that he must be about his
Father's business.

I do not remember him as especially studious. Mr. Ripley had classes in