Every time he looked at the Church he was greeted with the spectacle of unity and uniformity, of discipline and order.

These are elements which always have been, and probably always will be, most attractive to the classes called educated, to men seeking for external notes of truth, flying from disorder, fearful of rebellion.

But to Isaac Hecker, the only external note which deeply attracted him was that of universal brotherhood.

If he were to bow his knee with joy to Jesus Christ, it would be because all, in heaven and earth or hell, should one day bend in union with him.
It takes an intimate knowledge of Catholicity to perceive the interior transformation of humanity by its supernatural aids.

On the one hand, the influence of Isaac Hecker's Brook Farm surroundings was to persuade him to confide wholly in nature, which there was very nearly at its unaided best.