German philosophy and metaphysics, in Kant and Spinoza, and Isaac used to
look in, as he turned wherever he thought he might find answers to his
questions. He went to hear Theodore Parker preach in the Unitarian Church
in the neighboring village of West Roxbury. He went to Boston, about ten
miles distant, to talk with Brownson, and to Concord to see Emerson. He
entered into the working life at the Farm, but always, as it seemed to me,
with the same reserve and attitude of observation. He was the dove
floating in the air, not yet finding the spot on which his foot might
rest.

The impression that I gathered from my intercourse with him, which was
boyishly intimate and affectionate, was that of all 'the apostles of the
newness,' as they were gayly called, whose counsel he sought, Brownson was
the most satisfactory to him. I thought then that this was due to the
authority of Brownson's masterful tone, the definiteness of his views, the
force of his 'understanding,' as the word was then philosophically used in
distinction from the reason. Brownson's mental vigor and positiveness were
very agreeable to a candid mind which was speculatively adrift and
experimenting, and, as it seemed to me, which was more emotional than
logical. Brownson, after his life of varied theological and controversial
activity, was drawing towards the Catholic Church, and his virile force
fascinated the more delicate and sensitive temper of the young man, and, I
have always supposed, was the chief influence which at that time affected
Hecker's views, although he did not then enter the Catholic Church.

He was a general favorite at Brook Farm, always equable and playful,
wholly simple and frank in manner. He talked readily and easily, but not
controversially. His smile was singularly attractive and sympathetic, and
the earnestness of which I have spoken gave him an unconscious personal
dignity. His temperament was sanguine. The whole air of the youth was that