HIS LIFE AT CONCORD "I HAVE been groping in darkness, seeking where Thou wast not, and I found Thee not.

But, O Lord my God, _Thou hast found me_--leave me not." These words are part of a long prayer written by Isaac Hecker in his diary April 23, 1844, after his arrival at Concord, Mass.

He appears to have gone directly there from Carlisle, Pa., where he had spent some days with the Rev.William Herbert Norris, whose published letter to "A Sincere Enquirer" had excited in the young man a hope that he might find in him a teacher whose deep inward experiences would be complemented by the adequate external guaranty that he was seeking.

We have already noted that he was disappointed.

He states the reason very suggestively in a letter written at the time: "Alas, that men should speak of those things they are most ignorant of! What hopes did he not awaken in my bosom as I read his letter to a Sincere Enquirer, and how were they blasted when I met him and found that it was not he, but Hooker, Newman, Paul, etc.! It is a sad fact that many believe, but very few give themselves up to what they believe so that they may have the substance of their belief." Isaac Hecker's business in Concord had, as usual, two sides.
Externally it meant going on with Greek and Latin, under the guidance of the lately deceased George P.Bradford, a scholar of rare acquirements, whose acquaintance he had made at Brook Farm the previous year.