It was a characteristic trait of his to expect good results from reliance on human virtue, and his whole success as a persuades of men was largely to be explained by the subtle flattery of this trustful attitude towards them.

At Brook Farm the mind of Isaac Hecker was eagerly looking for instruction.

It failed to get even a little clear light on the more perplexing problems of life, but it got something better--the object-lesson of good men and women struggling nobly and unselfishly for laudable ends.

Brook Farm was an attempt to remove obstructions from the pathway of human progress, taking that word in the natural sense.
Even afterwards, when he had known human destiny in its perfect supernatural and natural forms, and when the means to compass it were in his possession and plainly competent for success, his memory reproduced the scenes and persons of Brook Farm in an atmosphere of affection and admiration, though not unmingled with amusement.

He used not infrequently to quote words heard there, and cite examples of things done there, as lessons of wisdom not only for the philosopher but also for the ascetic.