That caused me some pain but no regret, and instead of feeling sorrow, you will, I hope, be contented that I should continue the path that will make me better." Concerning Isaac Hecker's residence at Brook Farm, which was begun about the middle of the following January, we shall have more to say hereafter.

At present our concern is chiefly with those explanations of his conduct and motives which the anxieties of his family continually forced him to attempt.

There is, however, among the papers belonging to this period one which, although found with the letters, was evidently so included by mistake, and at some later date.

It is an outpouring still more intimate than he was able to make for the enlightenment of others, and is the first vestige of a diary which has been found.

But it seems plain that his longing for what he continually calls "communion," and the effort to divine the will of Providence in his regard, must frequently have urged him to that introspective self-contemplation so common to natures like his before their time for action has arrived.