The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-07-03

wrote and SAID was too precious-even
sacred-to be illuminated. So it was 10
Els associates for. their own edi1cation
and solace. Yet publication was indis-
Greet to say the Least, although it has
proved more troublesome to the strenuous
writer of the preface of Father Hecker's
life than to the author of the book
When the announcement went the
round OF the press that Archbishop Ire
land was going to explain "Hectorism"
In France, the multitude wondered what
that was-and yerily they knew no more
about Heckerfsm. Only the minority
knew that, never dreaming Of the
proportions it would assume, nor what
trying perturbation 1t would cause his
grace of st. Paul, when the masked bat
teries threw off the feint, arl began vol
| Iey1ng into "Americanism," rife with dire
heresies.
In all his teaching and preaching Fa-
Their Hecker was unquestionably ortho-
| doX. He had striven too sedulously for
the faith to relax his hold on the least
lota OF It, When he spoke of the in
SEPARATION of the Holy Ghost in him, per
sorally, to few, or intimated it in the
written notes he left, no one In this land
with the understanding heart regarded
1t as heterodox, but simply the eXaltation
Of soul on high spiritual plane. On
the 4th OF March in the Associated Press
news Of the pope, he is quoted as recall
ing the prophecy of Mile. Conedon that
the Archangel Gabriel had announced to
her THAT he would die Immediately after
President Faure
Perhaps" .. said his holiness, "Gcd's Will
spoke through her mouth"
(Mlle. COnedon is now a retired and
prosperous impOstor) More likely it
spoke through Father Hecker's. In con-
| sidering all the early influences of the
great Paulist's life, A. Bronson Alcott
| seems to have attracted him to such an
extent that he wasted time, effort and
| some money to sustain him. before the
| glamor was dispelled.
! To give an idea of AIcott's talk at times
| it will be better to cite an example of
it rather than attempt to describe it.
He was visiting Mr.. James Gather Of
| the noVelisD and remarked: Life is the
dispersion of the entities and the concen-
| tration of the diversities"
Mr.. James differed and the two were
soon deep in mysticism. Mr. Alcott could
not bear to have his sayings translated
into common sense, and said sharply:
| You'll continue a sinner to all eternity;
you are damaged goods" and asserted
that he himself was one with Jesus and
PythagOras.
Mr. James retorted: You say YOU and
Jesus are one. Have you ever said 4 am
| the resurrection and the life?' "
yes; often" was the reply.
| Has any one ever believed your" The
question was unanswered.
When the passage was reported to
| Emerson his comment was characteristic
Mr.. AlcOtt is a man of vanity but he
| IS the most spiral flame that God has ever
lighted in these parts"
Carlyle heard the Emersonian saying,
and his grim humor was moved to lin
| eXtinguishable laughter" He usually
asked New England visitors to Chelsea If
! they had any news of the spiral flame
Nearly all the queer original thinkers
Of that period (about a half century
| back, whether Panthesists, Contests
| FOurierists, and the rest, We're generally
elassed as Transcendentalists, although
| well informed people knew the difference.
The school of Kant was held answerable
for the name, but even there it was semi
| applicable, because by it Kant implied
that which does not indeed originate
from experience, but IL yet connected
! with it, because it contains the grounds
of the possibility of experience. The
term Transcendent he applied to that
! which cannot be connected with exper-
| fence, but transcends the limit of the pos
sibil1ty of experience. Both definitions
were swallowed without a qualm, and
| many of the enthusiasts had spells of
talking which were supposedly directed
by some spiritual aff1atus, beyond all pos
sibility of experience. However, the great
body Of Americans never took them sari-
ously, /. E., the prose run mad dis
! courses
It IS scarcely effective for this genera
ton to have an insight of that remarkable
group Of persons called TranscendentaI-
lists, who sought to etherealize New Eng
! land about fifty years ago, representing
| among them the Vast chain of being,
! which from God began nations ethereal
| human, angel, man"
i Il
derstands, as it really was, that peculiar
environment of Isaac Hecker, while a
wayfarer to find his place in Gods serv-
| ice. One must have seen and heard ANA
been among the leaders and speakers of
the cult, together with those they inf1u-
enced-say in the parlors of H G. O.
! Blake in Worcester, Mass Then the lee
ture was the propaganda for any theory
that can glimmer in the mind OF man.
For years there had been much discus
sion OF one Fourier, and his schemes of
| cooperative living in a phalanstery, until
| it lead to the experiment of Brook farm.
| where Isaac Hec5er baked the bread and
| had plain living and high thinking for
! a while
What discussions there must have been
on fate, free will and foreknowledge alb
soiute, although no record of them is
| known to u.s.
The Yankee, who is restless, and who is
nothing if not practical, could not be held
! long working on the cooperative Dhelan-
| sterian plan. There was no money in it,
| and neither was any Interior gain mani
| fest. The oracIes could hardly hold out
endlessly in giving to the beautiful, spirit
ual phantasma which passed for some
| thing akin to religion, the vital force of
simple Christianity.
Outside Of the phalanStery, Platonian
Emerson told his listener to hitch his
wagon to a STAR but the owner of The
| vehicle had nothing to hitch to- Gradual
| ly Isaac Hecker felt that despite his en-
deavOr he was still far from his souls
| desire, and albeit he left Brook farm.
yet he was so subject to the influence
of A. Bronson AIcOtt as to dream of a
new community of Alcotts devising at
| Fruitland, Worcester county, Mass This
| was to be his final disillusion Thereafter
| he was nearing step by step a religious
order OF his own founding. grounded on
an inalienable vocation, and an eternal
| guerdon
How grieved he would be if he knew
the trouble his sayings and written notes
| (the harmless echo of an early and long
vanished day. had caused his steadfast
friend, Archbishop ireland, who had to
face the combined onslaught of three
| countries in serried array.
However, 1t is clear to the apprehen-
sion of this republic that so called Heck
erism was the least part of the animus
Of the attack, inasmuch as it was almost
in the gigantic and menacing perspective
of "Americanism," the always handy and
overworked foreign bugaboo.
Pope Benedict XIV. is quoted as hay
ing said: eff God gives me the grace to
win heaven, as soon as 1 nave consoled
myself with the Beatific Vision, my Gu
ricsity will lead me to look for Savona-
rOl3 >