It is possible--nay, as the reader may be inclined to believe with us as the story of his inner life goes on, it is even probable--that the more he was taught by God the less he was able to receive from men.
It is certain, however, that he seriously regretted and soon set himself to rectify the deficiencies of his early training.

This was one of the reasons which took him to Brook Farm.

In the first entry of the earliest of his diaries which has been preserved he thus speaks of his hidden longing after knowledge.

He was twenty-three when these sentences were written, and he had been at Brook Farm for several months: "If I cast a glance upon a few years of my past life, it appears to me mysteriously incomprehensible that I should be where I am now.

I confess sincerely that, although I have never labored for it, still, something in me always dreamed of it.