LED BY THE SPIRIT
THE earliest of the letters so fortunately preserved by the affection
of Isaac Hecker's kindred is addressed to his mother, from Chelsea,
and bears date December 24, 1842. After giving some details of his
arrival, and of the kindly manner in which he had been received, he
writes:*
[* We have corrected some slight errors of orthography and
punctuation in these early letters. They were of the sort to be
expected from a self-trained youth, as yet little used to the written
expression of his thoughts. They soon disappear almost entirely.]
"But as regards your advice to write my thoughts to you, that is an
impossibility which I cannot govern or control. This ought not to be
so, but so it is. Am I to blame? I feel not. And what if I could
tell? It might be only a deep dissatisfaction which could not be made
intelligible, or at least not be felt as it is felt by me. Let us be
untroubled about it. A little time, and, I hope, all will pass away,
and I be the same as usual. We all differ a little, at least in our
characters; hence there is nothing surprising if our experiences
should differ. I feel that a little time will be my best remedy,
which I trust we will await without much anxiety. Resignation is
taught when we cannot help ourselves. Take nothing I have said
discouragingly. Turn fears into hopes and doubts into faith, and we
shall be better if not happier. There is no use in allowing our
doubts and fears to control us; by fostering them we increase them,
and we want all our time for something better and higher."
Two days later he writes more fully, and this letter we shall give
almost entire:
"Chelsea, December 26, 1842.--BROTHERS: I want to write to you, but
what is the use of scrawling on paper if I write what I do not
feel--intend? It is worse than not writing. And yet why I should be
backward I don't know. The change that I have undergone has been so
rapid and of such a kind; that may be the reason. I feel that as I
now am perhaps you cannot understand me. I am afraid lest your
conduct would be such that under present circumstances I could not
stand under it. Do not misunderstand me. If I have ever appreciated
anything in my life, it is the favor and indulgent treatment you have
shown me in our business. I know that I have never done an equal
share in the work which was for us all to do. I have always been
conscious of this. I hope you will receive this as it is written, for
I am open. Daily am I losing that disposition which was attributed to
me of self-approval. . . . There is no reason why I should distrust
your dispositions toward me but my own feelings, and it is these that
have kept me back, that and the change my mind is undergoing. This is
so continuous, and at the same time so firmly fixed, that I am unable
to keep back any longer. I had hopes that my former life would
return, so that I would be able to go on as usual, although this
tendency has always been growing in me. But I find more and more that
it is not possible. I would go back if I could, but the impossibility
of that I cannot express. To continue as I am now would keep me
constantly in an unsettled state of health, especially as my future
appears to be opening before me with clearness. I say sincerely that
I have lost all but this one thing, and how shall I speak it? My mind
has lost all disposition to business; my hopes, life, existence, are
all in another direction. No one knows how I tried to exert myself to
work, or the cause of my inability. I was conscious of the cause, but
as it was supposed to be a physical one, the reason of it was sought
for, but to no purpose. In the same circumstances now I should be
worse. When I say my mind cannot be occupied as formerly, do not
attribute it to my wishes. This is what I fear; it makes me almost
despair, makes me feel that I would rather die than live under such
thoughts. I never could be happy if you thought so. My future will be
my only evidence. _My experience, which is now my own evidence, I
cannot give you._ To keep company with females--you know what I
mean--I have no desire. I have no thought of marrying, and I feel an
aversion to company for such an end. In my whole life I have never
felt less inclined to it. If my disposition ran that way, marrying
might lead me back to my old life, but oh! that is impossible. To
give up, as I have to do, a life which has often been my highest aim
and hope, is done with a sense of responsibility I never imagined
before. This, I am conscious, is no light thought. It lies deeper
than myself, and I have not the power to control it. I do not write
this with ease; it is done in tears, and I have opened my mind as I
have not done before. How all this will end I know not, but cannot
but trust God. It is not my will but my destiny, which will not be
one of ease and pleasure, but one which I contemplate as a perpetual
sacrifice of my past hopes, though of a communion I had never felt.
Can I adopt a course of life to increase and fulfil my present life?
I am unable to give this decision singly. You will, I hope, accept
this letter in the spirit I have written it. I speak to you in a
sense I never have spoken to you before. In this letter I have opened
as far as I could my inmost life. My heart is full and I would say a
great deal more. Truly, a new life has opened to me, and to turn
backward would be death. Not suddenly has it undergone this change,
but it has come to that crisis where my decision must be made; hence
am I forced to write this letter. For its answer I shall wait with
intense anxiety. Hoping you will write soon, my love to all.--ISAAC."
The next letter, though addressed to his brothers, was apparently
intended for the whole family, and begins with more than Isaac's
customary abruptness:
"Chelsea, December 28, 1842.--I will open my mind so that you can
have the materials to judge from as well as myself. I feel unable to
the task of judging alone correctly. I have given an account of my
state of mind in my former letter, but will add that what is there
said describes a permanent state, not a momentary excitement. You may
think that in a little time this would pass away, and I would be able
to resume my former life; or, at least, you could so adapt things at
home that although I should not precisely occupy myself as then,
still it might be so arranged as to give me that which I feel
necessary in order to live somewhat contented.
"I am sorry to say I can in no way conceive such an arrangement of
things at home. Why? I hate to say it, yet we might as well come to
an understanding. I have grown out of the life which can be received
through the accustomed channels of the circle that was around me. I
am subject to thoughts and feelings which the others had no interest
in; hence they could not be expressed. There can be no need to tell
you this--you all must have seen it. How can I stop my life from
flowing on? You must see the case I stand in. Do not think I have
less of the feelings of a brother and a son. My heart never was
closer, not so close as it is now to yours. . . .
"Do not think this is imagination; in this I have had too much
experience. The life that was in me had none to commune with, and I
felt it was consuming me. I tried to express this in different ways
obscurely, but it appeared singular and no one understood me. This
was the cause of my wishing to go away, hoping I would either get
clear of it or something might turn up, I knew not what. One course
was advised by the doctor, and you all thought as he did--that was to
keep company with the intention of getting married. This was not the
communion that I wanted or that was congenial to my life. Marrying
would not, I am convinced, have had any permanent effect. It was not
that which controlled me, then or now. It is altogether different; it
is a life in me which requires altogether different circumstances to
live it. This is no dream; or, if it is, then have I never had such
reality. . . .
"When I wrote last it struck me I might secure what I need at Brook
Farm, but that would depend greatly upon how you answer my letter. If
you do as perhaps you may, I will go and see whether I could be
satisfied and how it is, and let you know.
"So far had I written when your letter came. . . . You appear to ask
this question: What object have you in contemplation? _None further
than to live a life agreeable to the mind I have, which I feel under
a necessity to do."_
"Chelsea, December 30, 1842.--TO MOTHER: I am sorry to hear that you
feel worried. My health is good, I eat and sleep well. That my mind
is not settled, or as it used to be, is no reason to be troubled, for
I hope it is not changing for the worse, and I look forward to
brighter days than we have seen in those that are gone. I was
conscious my last letter was not written in a manner to give you
ease; but to break those old habits of our accustomed communion was
to me a serious task, and done under a sense of duty, to let you know
the cause of the disease I was supposed to labor under. That is past
now, and I hope we shall understand each other, and that our future
will be smooth and easy. The ice has been broken. 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. We make some brief extracts
from this document which illustrates, still more plainly than any of
the letters, the fact that the interior pressure to which he was
subjected had for its uniform tendency and result his vivid
realization of the Incarnation of God in Jesus Christ. It is written
in a fine, close hand on a sheet of letter-paper, which it entirely
covers, and bears date January 10, 1843:
"Could I but reveal myself unto myself! What shall I say? Is life
dear to me? No. Are my friends dear to me? I could suffer and die for
them, if need were, but yet I have none of the old attachment for
them. I would clasp all to my heart, love all for their humanity, but
not as relatives or individuals. . . . Lord, if I am to be anything,
I am, of all, most unfit for the task. What shall I do? Whom shall I
cry to but Him who has given me life and planted this spirit in me?
Unto Thee, then, do I cry from the depths of my soul for light to
suffer. If there is anything for me to do, why this darkness all
around me? I ask not to be happy. I will forego, as I always had a
presentiment I must do, all hopes which young men of my age are prone
to picture in their minds. If only I could have a ray of light on my
present condition! O Lord! open my eyes to see the path Thou wouldst
have me walk in. . . .
"Jan. 11.--True life is one continuous prayer, one unceasing
aspiration after the holy. I have no conception of a life insensible
to that which is not above itself lofty. I would not take it on
myself to say I have been 'born again,' but I know that I have passed
from death to life. Things below have no hold upon me further than as
they lead to things above. It is not a moral restraint that I have
over myself, but it is such a change, a conversion of my whole being,
that I have no need of restraint. Temptations still beset me--not
sensual, but of a kind which seek to make me untrue to my life. If I
am not on my guard I become cold. May I always be humble, meek,
prayerful, open to all men. Light, love, and life God is always
giving, but we turn our backs and will not receive. . . .
"Who can measure the depths of Christ's suffering--alone in the
world, having that which would give life everlasting, a heaven, to
those who would receive it, and yet despised, spit upon, rejected of
men! Oh! how sweet must it have been to His soul when He found even
one who would accept a portion of that precious gift which He came to
the world to bestow! Well could He say, 'Father, forgive them; they
know not what they do.' He would give them life, but they would not
receive. He would save them, but they rejected Him. He loved them,
and they despised Him. Alas! who has measured even in a small degree
the love of Christ and yet denied His superiority over man! His love,
goodness, mercy are unbounded. O Lord! may I daily come into closer
communion with Thy Son, Jesus Christ."
On the 22d of February he addresses both of his parents in reply to a
letter sent by his brother John, detailing some of their troubles on
this head. He writes:
"It is as great a difficulty for me to reconcile my being here with
my sense of duty towards you. . . . Since I must speak, let me tell
you that I have at present no disposition to return. Neither are the
circumstances that surround me now those which will give me
contentment; but I feel that I am here as a temporary place, and that
by spring something will turn up which I hope will be for the
happiness of us all. What it will be I have not the least idea of
now. It is as impossible for me to give you an explanation of that
which has led me of late as it would be for a stranger. All before me
is dark, even as that is which leads me now and has led me before.
One sentiment I have which I feel I cannot impart to you. It is that
I am controlled. Formerly I could act from intention, but now I have
no future to design, nothing in prospect, and _my present action is
from a present cause, not from any past._ Hence it is that while my
action may appear to others as designed, to me it is unlooked-for and
unaccountable. I do not expect that others can feel this as I do. I
am tossed about in a sea without a rudder. What drives me onward, and
where I shall be driven, is to me unknown. My past life seems to me
like that of another person, and my present is like a dream. Where am
I? I know not. I have no power over my present, I do not even know
what it is. Whom can I find like myself, whom can I speak to that
will understand me?
"This makes me still, lonely; and I cannot wish myself out of this
state. I have no will to do that--not that I have any desire to. All
I can say is that I am in it. What would be the effect of necessity
on me, I know not, whether it would lead me back or lead me on. My
feeling of duty towards you is a continual weight upon me which I
cannot throw off--it is best, perhaps, that I cannot. All appears to
me as a seeming, not a reality. Nothing touches that life in me which
is seeking that which I know not."
TO GEORGE HECKER.--"Brook Farm, March 6, 1843.--What was the reason
of my going, or what made me go? The reason I am not able to tell.
But what I felt was a dark, irresistible influence upon me that led
me away from home. What it was I know not. What keeps me here I
cannot tell. It is only when I struggle against it that a spell comes
over me. If I give up to it, nothing is the matter with me. But when
I look to my past, my duty toward you all, and consider what this may
lead me to, and then attempt to return, I get into a state which I
cannot speak of . . .
"By attempt to return I mean an attempt to return to my old life, for
so I have to call it--that is, to get clear of this influence. And
yet I have no will to will against it. I do not desire it, or its
mode of living, and I am opposed to its tendency.
"What bearing this has upon the question of my coming home you will
perceive. As soon as I can come, I will. If I should do so now, it
would throw me back to the place from which I started. Is this fancy
on my part? All I can say is that if so the last nine or ten months
of my life have been a fancy which is too deep for me to control."
After paying his family a visit in April, he writes to them on his
return:
"Brook Farm, April 14, 1843.--Here I am alone in my room once more.
I feel settled, and begin to live again, separated from everything
but my studies and thoughts, and the feeling of gratitude toward you
all for treating me so much better than I am aware of ever having
treated you. May I ever keep this sense of obligation and
indebtedness. My prayer is, that the life I have been led to live
these few months back may prove to the advantage of us all in the
end. I sometimes feel guilty because I did not attempt again to try
and labor with you. But the power that kept me back, its hold upon
me, its strength over me, all that I am unable to communicate, makes
my situation appear strange to others, and to myself irreconcilable
with my former state. Still, I trust that, in a short period, all
things will take their peaceful and orderly course."
TO GEORGE HECKER.--"Brook Farm, May 12, 1843.--How much nearer to
you I feel on account of your good letter you cannot estimate--nearer
than when we slept in the same bed. Nearness of body is no evidence
of the distance between souls, for I imagine Christ loved His mother
very tenderly when He said, 'Woman, what have I to do with thee?'"
"I have felt, time and again, that either I would have to give up the
life that was struggling in me, or withdraw from business in the way
that we pursue it. This I had long felt, before the period came which
suddenly threw me involuntarily out of it. Here I am, living in the
present, without a why or a wherefore, trusting that something will
shape my course intelligibly. I am completely without object. And
when occasionally I emerge, if I may so speak, into actual life, I
feel that I have dissipated time. A sense of guilt accompanies that
of pleasure, and I return inwardly into a deeper, intenser life,
breaking those tender roots which held me fast for a short period to
the outward. In study only do I enter with wholeness; nothing else
appears to take hold of my life." . . . "I am staying here,
intentionally, for a short period. When the time arrives" (for
leaving) "heaven knows what I may do. I am now perfectly dumb before
it. Perhaps I may return and enter into business with more
perseverance and industry than before; perhaps I may stay here; it
may be that I shall be led elsewhere. But there is no utility in
speculating on the future. If we lived as we should, we would feel
that we lived in the presence of God, without past or future, having
a full consciousness of existence, living the 'eternal life.' . . .
"George, do not get too engrossed with outward business. Rather
neglect a part of it for that which is immortal in its life,
incomparable in its fulness. It is a deep, important truth: 'Seek
first the kingdom of God, and then all things will be added.' In
having nothing we have all."
TO MRS. HECKER.--"Brook Farm, May 16, 1843.--DEAR MOTHER: You will
not take it unkind, my not writing to you before? I am sure you will
not, for you know what I am. Daily I feel more and more indebted to
you for my life, especially when I feel happy and good. How can I
repay you? As you, no doubt, would wish me to-by becoming better and
living as you have desired and prayed that I should, which I trust,
by Divine assistance, I may.
"Mother, I cannot express the depth of gratitude I feel toward you
for the tender care and loving discipline with which you brought me
up to manhood. Without it, oh! what might I not have been? The good
that I have, under God, I am conscious that I am greatly indebted to
thee for; at times I feel that it is thou acting in me, and that
there is nothing that can ever separate us. A bond which is as
eternal as our immortality, our life, binds us together and cannot be
broken.
"Mother, that I should be away from home at present no doubt makes
you sorrowful often, and you wish me back. Let me tell you how it is
with me. The life which surrounds me in New York oppresses me,
contracts my feelings, and abridges my liberty. Business, as it is
now pursued, is a burden upon my spiritual life, and all its
influence hurtful to the growth of a better life. This I have felt
for a long time, and feel it now more intensely than before. And the
society I had there was not such as benefited me. My life was not
increased by theirs, and I was gradually ceasing to be. I was lonely,
friendless, and without object in this world, while at the same time
I was conscious of a greater degree of activity of mind in another
direction. These causes still remain. . . .
". . . I feel fully conscious of the importance of making any change
in my life at my present age--giving up those advantages which so
many desire; as well as the necessity of being considerate, prudent,
and slow to decide. I am aware that my future state here, and hence
hereafter, will greatly depend upon the steps I now take, and
therefore I would do nothing unadvised or hastily. I would not
sacrifice eternal for worldly life. At present I wish to live a true
life, desiring nothing external, seeing that things external cannot
procure those things for and in which I live. I do not renounce
things, but feel no inclination for them. All is indifferent to
me--poverty or riches, life or death. I am loosed. But do not on this
account think I am sorrowful; nay, for I have nothing to sorrow for.
Is there no bright hope at a distance which cheers me onward and
beckons me to speed? I dare not say. Sometimes I feel so--it is the
unutterable. Yet I remain contented to be without spring or autumn,
youth or age. One tie has been loosened after another; the dreams of
my youth have passed away silently, and the visions of the future I
then beheld have vanished. I feel awakened as from a dream, and like
a shadow has my past gone by. With the verse at the bottom of the
picture you gave me, I can say:
"'Oh! days that once I used to prize,
Are ye forever gone?
The veil is taken from my eyes,
And now I stand alone.'
"But I would not recall those by-gone days, nor do I stand alone. No!
Out from this life will spring a higher world, of which the past was
but a weak, faint shadow."
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