d.
But they failed to win him to their opinion, and were too enlightened
to seek to influence him except by argument. Father Hecker ever held
the very highest views on the dignity of the priesthood, considering
its vocation second to none. But while he was irresistibly inclined
to a state of retirement quite incompatible with the duties of the
secular priesthood in America, he also felt the most urgent need of
constant advice and companionship for guidance in his interior life.
These seemingly contradictory requirements he hoped to find united in
a religious community, and Bishop McCloskey emphatically assured him
that his anticipations would not be disappointed. In addition to
this, Isaac Hecker had at least some premonitions of an apostolic
vocation calling for a wider range of activity than can be usually
compassed by the diocesan clergy. But we have often heard him say
that the immediate impulse which induced his application to be made a
Redemptorist was need of "intimate and careful spiritual guidance."

His director therefore became satisfied that he should become a
religious, and turned his attention to the Society of Jesus, giving
him the lives of St. Ignatius and St. Francis Xavier to read, and,
doubtless, answered his inquiries about that order. "But," he said in
after years, "I had no vocation to teach young boys and felt unfitted
for a student's life"; added to this was the certainty of the
postponement of any public activity on his part for many years if he
became a Jesuit.

After mentioning that he had read the life of St. Francis Xavier, he
says that an acquaintance had written him that a German priest,
living in Third Street, wanted to see him. This was one of the
Redemptorist Fathers who were newly established in the city. This
priest, whose name is not given, undertook to assume direction of
Isaac, and was very urgent with him to make a spiritual retreat with
a view to deciding his vocation. "He is a very zealous person--too
much so it seems to me," is the comment in the diary, and the answer
was a refusal. But what he saw in the community pleased and attracted
Isaac, for everything was poor and plain, and there was an air of
solitude. However, he would by no means change his spiritual adviser,
writing, "I strive to follow my spiritual director or else I should
be fearful of my state. All my difficulties, sins, and temptations I
make him acquainted with. . . . Though the world has no particular
hold