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 HEDLEY

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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