And in all this he scarcely at all mentions a dread of the Divine wrath as a motive for his flight.

It is not out of the city of destruction, but toward the celestial city that he goes.

He is drawn by what he wants, not hounded by what he fears.

Always there is the reaching out of a strong nature toward what it lacks--a material for its strength to work on, a craving for rational joy, coupled with an ever-increasing conviction that nature cannot give him such a boon.
Men who knew Father Hecker only in his royal maturity, sometimes cavilled at his words of emphatic faith in guileless nature; but they had only to know him a little better to learn his appreciation of the supernatural order, and his recognition of its absolute and exclusive competency to satisfy nature's highest aspirations.

Reading these early journals, we have constantly recalled the later days when he so often, and sometimes continually, repeated, "Religion is a boon!" No one could know that better than he who had so deeply felt the want it satisfies.
The diary was begun in the middle of April, 1843, when Isaac had just returned to Brook Farm after a fortnight spent at home.