ity.
The Eternal-Absolute is ever creating new forms of expressing itself."

In the next chapter we shall have occasion to give Father Hecker's
choice of an epitaph for Dr. Brownson. We think that the sentences
just quoted are worthy to be his own.

In the middle of July Bishop McCloskey returned to New York, and
Isaac waited upon him without delay. Their first long conversation
made it plain to the bishop that the young man had very little need
of further preliminary instruction, and it was settled that
conditional baptism should be administered to him within a fortnight.
That the nature of Isaac Hecker's vocation also revealed itself to
this prudent adviser is also evident from this entry, made in the
diary as soon as the visit was ended:

"He said that my life would lead me to contemplation, and that in
this country the Church was so situated as to require them all to be
active. I did not speak further on this subject with him. He asked
whether I felt like devoting myself to the order of the priesthood,
and undergoing their discipline, self-denial, etc., and becoming a
missionary. I answered that all I could say was that I wished to live
the life given me, and felt like sacrificing all things to this; but
could not say that the priesthood would be the proper place for me.

"I feel that if, for a certain length of time, and under the
discipline of the Church, I could have the conditions for leading the
life of contemplation, it would be what the Spirit now demands.
Whether I shall not be compelled back to this if I attempt to follow
some other way, I am not perfectly sure. The bishop intimated that in
Europe there were brotherhoods congenial to the state of mind that I
am in. If so, and I could remain there for a certain length of time,
why should I not go? I will inquire further about it when next I
speak with the bishop.

"There is a college at Fordham where there is to be a commencement
to-morrow, which the bishop invited me to go and see. Perhaps I shall
find this place to be suitable, and may be led to examine and try it.
The Lord knows all; into His hands I resign myself."

His impressions of the Catholic college at Fordham he does not
record. The next entry in the diary is, as usual, taken up with the
large topics which for the most part excluded particular incidents
from mention. What his strict abstinence from permitted pleasures,
and the rigorous self-discipline which he had so long practised,
meant