HEDLEY
187
HEDONISM
The period of preparation and study thus begun
was one of acute suffering to him, and of perplexity to
his superiors. His native bent was towards philosophy
and theology, and he had from his boyhood informally
exercised himself in these studies; but when he came
to the formal study of ecclesiastical sciences he was
halted and tortured by an inexplicable obscuration of
the mind. However, in spite of the fears and doubts
of some who did not understand him, he was recom-
mended for Holy orders, and was ordained priest by
Bishop Wiseman. After spending one year as a
parish priest and chaplain in England, he returned to
New York in March, 1851, as one of a band of Re-
demptorist missionaries assigned to work in the
United States. The tide of immigration was then at
its height, and for years Father Hecker antl his four
companions. Fathers Walworth, Hewit, Deshon, and
Baker, were engaged in continuous and very arduous
labours amid the rapidly in-
creasing Catholic population.
Father Hecker was deficient, at
first, in some of the niceties of
elocution, and he was never re-
markable for those surges of
emotion and imagination that
are usually associated with ora-
torical power, but he was un-
rivalled as an instructor, per-
suasive in the highest degree,
earnest, humorous, and apt in
illustration; and he soon de-
veloped into a forceful, intense,
and magnetic pul)lic speaker.
He was much in demand as a
lecturer and exponent of Catho-
lic truth, and for years he was
eagerly welcomed by overflowing
audiences in New York, Boston,
Detroit, St. Louis, Chicago, and
other large cities. The novelty
of the lectures and the courage
of the lecturer, as well as his skill
in presenting doctrinal and his-
torical themes, assiu'ed his suc-
cess in the career for which he
had long prayed and labovu-ed.
He became an apo.stle primarily
to the Gentiles, and then to those
of the household of the Faith.
Meanwhile, a misunderstanding had arisen between the American Redemptorists and their superiors. In order to seek a final and authoritative settlement of the difficulty, I<\>ther Hecker went to Rome as the representative of the American Fathers, to lay their case before the superior general of the order. Upon his arrival, he found the general and his council ex- tremely hostile, and on the third day he was expelled from the order. I'ius IX dispensed Hecker and his four companions from their vows as Redemptorists, and authorizcil and encouraged them to form a new congregation devoted to missionary work in the United States, in dependence upon the hierarchy. St. Paul was chosen patron of the new institute, which is called legally "The Missionary Society of St. Paul the Apostle in the State of New York". Father Hecker was elected superior of the society, and so continued until his death. He worked, during the prime of his life, with immense energy. In addition to his duties as superior, he continued his work as a lecturer; he notably promoted the apostolate of the press among Catholics in America; he organized the Catholic Publication Society, founded and edited "The Catholic World" magazine, directed "The Young Catholic", a paper for children, anrl created a new movement in Catholic literary activities. He was the author of three books: "Questions of the
Isaac Thomas Hecker
Soul", "The Aspirations of Nature", "The Church
and the Age". However varied his works, his object
in view was always simple: the propagation of Catho-
licity.
Father Hecker's work has been likened to Cardinal Newman's, by the cardinal himself — "I have ever felt", Newman wrote to Father Hewit on the occasion of Father Hecker's death, "that there was a sort of unity in our lives, that we had both begun a work of the same kind, he in America and I in England". In spite of some obvious differences in the character of the two men antl of their work, the comparison is justifiable. Newman, better than anyone else, it has been said, made Catholic dogmas and practices ac- ceptable to the English mind, which had long been estranged from Catholicity on the pretence that the Church was a foreign institution. Hecker, a man of and from the people, strove unceasingly to recommend the Catholic Faith to the demo- cratic American people, who had lieen reared in hostility to the Church on the pretence that she was foreign and anti-democratic. He was an ardent American, in lo\'e with American institutions, but he was likewise absolutely and uncompromisingly Catholic. He won the respect and con- fidence of his non-Catholic countrymen to a surprising ex- tent, while at the same time eliciting repeated letters of ap- ]iroval from the highest authori- ties of the Church at Rome. The regrettable controversy on " Americanism", in which Father Hecker's name was mentioned, is discussed elsewhere in this work (seeTESTEM Benevolenti.e). It suffices to say here that, on the occasion of the issue, by Leo XIII, of the Brief "Testem Benevolentiic", the hierarchy in the United States all but unani- mously gave spontaneous tes- timony that Father Hecker had never countenanced any devia- tion from, or minimizing of. Catholic doctrines. And it is quite generally recognized by American Catholics that among the notal>le champions of the Holy See in the nineteenth century none was more loyal, none spent himself more generously, than Father Hecker, in upholding its dignity and extending its sway.
The Life of Father Hecker, with an Introduction by the Most Rev. John Ireland. D.D.. Abp. of St. Paid (New York. 1S91); Barry, Father Hecker, Founder of the Paulists, repriated from The DiAlin Review for July, 1892 (New York, 1892) ; Sedgwick, Father Hecker in Beacon Biographies .SVrtVs (Boston, 1901): Keane, Isaac Thomas Hecker in The Catholic World, XXXIV (New York, 1889); Elliott. Life of L^nac Thomas Hecker in The Catholic World, LI-LIV (New York, 1890, 1891).
Michael. Paul Smith.
Hedley, John Cuthbert.
CESE OP.
See Newport, Dio-
Hedonism (vSovri, pleasure), the name given to the
group of ethical systems that hold, with various modi-
fications, that feelings of pleasure or happiness are the
highest and final aim of conduct; that, consequently,
those actions which increase the sum of pleasure are
thereby constituted right, and, conversely, what in-
creases pain is wrong.
History. — The father of Hedonism was Aristippus of CjTene. He taught that pleasure is the universal and ultimate oljject of endeavour. By pleasure he meant not merely sensual gratification but also the
