But his sweet and candid expression, his gentle and affectionate manner, were very winning.

He had an air of singular refinement and self-reliance combined with a half-eager inquisitiveness, and upon becoming acquainted with him, I told him that he was Ernest the Seeker, which was the title of a story of mental unrest which William Henry Channing was then publishing in the _Dial._ "Hecker, or, as I always called him and think of him, Isaac, had apparently come to Brook Farm because it was a result of the intellectual agitation of the time which had reached and touched him in New York.

He had been bred a baker, he told me, and I remember with what satisfaction he said to me, 'I am sure of my livelihood because I can make good bread.' His powers in this way were most satisfactorily tested at the Farm, or, as it was generally called, 'the Community,' although it was in no other sense a community than an association of friendly workers in common.

He was drawn to Brook Farm by the belief that its life would be at least agreeable to his convictions and tastes, and offer him the society of those who might answer some of his questions, even if they could not satisfy his longings.
"By what influences his mind was first affected by the moral movement known in New England as transcendentalism, I do not know.

Probably he may have heard Mr.Emerson lecture in New York, or he may have read Brownson's _Charles Elwood,_ which dealt with the questions that engaged his mind and conscience.