This was a family trait.

In a letter written to us last September in answer to a question, Mr.
Charles A.Dana incidentally refers to a visit he paid Isaac Hecker at his mother's house.

"It was a very interesting family," he writes, "and the cordiality and sweetness of the relations which prevailed in it impressed me very greatly." The entry we are about to quote opens with an odd echo from a certain school of mysticism with which Isaac about this time became familiar: "July 22, 1843 .-- Man requires a new birth--the birth of the feminine in him.
"The question arises in my mind whether it is necessary for me to require the concurrence of my brothers in the views of life which now appear to demand of me their actualization.
"Can I not adopt simple garmenture and diet without their doing so?
Must I needs have their concurrence?
Can I not leave results to themselves?
If my life is purer than that of those around me, can I not trust to its own simple influence?
"But if there is a great difference of spirit, can we live together?
Does not like seek like?
In money matters things must certainly be other than they have been.

We must agree that no accounts shall be kept between ourselves, let the consequences be what they may.

I would rather suffer evils from a dependence on the spirit of love than permit that of selfishness to exist between us.