They found the Church together, went together into its vestibule, and were received nearly at the same time.

And then the wide liberties of a universal religion gave ample scope and large suggestion for the accentuation and development of their native differences.

Brownson was a publicist and remained so; Isaac Hecker was a mystic and remained so.

To the mysticism of the latter was added an external apostolate; the public activity of the former was, indeed, apostolic, but upon a field not only different from any he would himself have spontaneously chosen, but quite unlike.

Our reader already knows how grievous a loss to the public exposition of the Church in America this defection of Brownson's genius from its true direction seemed to Father Hecker.