I see the case as it stands, and feel I am losing my interior life from the false position in which I am placed.
"The human ties and the material conditions in which I am should unquestionably be sacrificed to the divine interior relation to the One, the Love-Spirit, which, alas! I have so sensibly felt.

Can a man live in the world and follow Christ?
I know not; but, as for me, I find it impossible.

I feel more and more the necessity of leaving the society and the distracting cares of a city business for a silent and peaceful retreat, to the end that I may restore the life I fear I am losing.

Our natural interests should be subject to our human ties; our human ties to our spiritual relations; and who is he who brings all these into divine harmony?
"How shall I make the sacrifice which shall accomplish the sole end I have, and should have, in view?
Thrice have I left home for this purpose, and each time have returned unavoidably so, at least, it seems to me.

Once more, I trust, will prove a permanent and immovable trial." To some, a most striking incidental proof of his inaptitude for the ordinary layman's life, is found in the subjoined extract from the memoranda.