wn at once set in. Perhaps he
had expected the very reverse of this. At all events, it was not many
days before it drew from him the complaint that in leaving Concord he
had also left behind him the great interior sweetness which had
buoyed him up. On August 11 he writes:

"How hard it has been for me to go through with all these solemn
mysteries and ceremonies without experiencing any of those great
delights which I have [before] felt. Why is this? Is it to try my
faith? O Lord! how long shall I be tried in this season of
desolation? Are these [delights] never to return? Have I acted
unworthily? What shall I do to receive these blessings again?"

Then he resolves to make a novena, fasting the while on bread and
water, to entreat their renewal. But at once a better mood sets in
and he adds:

"The highest state of perfection is to be content to be nothing.
Lord, give me strength not to ask of Thee anything that is pleasant
to me. I renounce what I have just asked for, and will try to do all
without the hope of recompense. If Thou triest my soul, let it not go
until it has paid the uttermost farthing."

"August 15, 1844.--To-day is the holyday of the Assumption of the
dear, Blessed Mary, Mother of our Lord and Saviour Jesus. Oh! may I
be found worthy of her regard and love."

"He that has not learned the bitterness of the drops of woe has not
learned to live. One hour of deep agony teaches man more love and
wisdom than a whole long life of happiness. . .

"In many faces I see passing through the crowded streets there seems
a veiled beauty, an angel quickening me with purer life as I go by
them in anxious haste. Do we not see the hidden worth, glory, and
beauty of others as our own becomes revealed to us? Would the Son of
God have been needed to ransom man if he were not of incomparable
value?"

One of the dreams that at this time occupied Isaac's mind was that of
undertaking a pilgrimage to Rome. He wrote to Henry Thoreau,
proposing that they should go in company, and felt regret when his
invitation was not accepted. His notion was to "work, beg, and travel
on foot, so far as land goes, to Rome. I know of no pleasanter,
better way, both for soul and body, than to make such a pilgrimage in
the old, middle-age fashion; to suffer hunger, storm, cold, heat--all
that can affect the body of flesh. If we receive hard usage, so much
the better will it be for us. Why thump one's own flesh here? Let it
be done for us by o