his questions. He went to hear Theodore Parker preach in
the Unitarian Church in the neighboring village of West Roxbury. He
went into 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 toward 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 of goodness. I do not think that the
impression made by him forecast his career, or, in any degree, the
leadership which he afterwards held in his Church. But everybody who
knew him at that time must recall his charming amiability.

"I think that he did not remain at Brook Farm for a whole year, and
when later he went to Belgium to study theology at the seminary of
Mons he wrote me many letters, which I am sorry to say have
disappeared. I remember that he labored with friendly zeal to draw me
to his Church, and at his request I read the life and some writing of
St. Alphonse of Liguori. Gradually our correspondence declined when I