It is a complete arraignment of Isaac Hecker's spiritual condition.

It is gentle, considerate, choice of terms, but condenses all that could be said to show that his young friend had been deluded by a visionary temperament, applying to himself what he had read in mystical treatises and the lives of the saints.

The letter was indeed a deadly blow.

Father Heilig had been Brother Hecker's confessor for two years at Wittem, and had at least tacitly approved his spirit; and now came his condemnation.

No wonder that Isaac was profoundly distressed by it.