That done, his peace not merely returned, but he felt that it rested on more solid grounds than heretofore.

Yet, curiously enough, it is at this point we come upon almost the first trace of his stopping seriously to consider the adverse sentiments of others with regard to any proposed action on his part.

Now that he means to range himself, he turns to look back at the disorderly host which he is quitting, not so much, or at least not primarily for the sake of the order and regularity and solidity of that to which it is opposed, but because a true instinct has taught him that unity is the external mark of truth, as equilibrium is the test of a just balance.

In his diary of June 11, 1844, after recording that he has just returned from Boston, where he has seen the bishop and his coadjutor, Bishop John Bernard Fitzpatrick, and received from the latter a note of introduction to the president of Holy Cross College, at Worcester, Mass., he adds: "I intend to stay there as long as it seems pleasant to me, and then go on to New York and there unite myself with the Church.
"I sigh, and feel that this step is the most important of my life.

My highest convictions, my deepest wants, lead me to it; and should I not obey them?
There is no room to harbor a doubt about it.