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LETTERS FROM CARDINAL NEWMAN

I

THE ORATORY, BIRMINGHAM, February 28, 1889.

MY DEAR FATHER HEWIT: I was very sorrowful at hearing of Father
Hecker's death. I have ever felt that there was this sort of unity in
our lives--that we had both begun a work of the same kind, he in
America and I in England, and I know how zealous he was in promoting
it. It is not many months since I received a vigorous and striking
proof of it in the book he sent me [_The Church and the Age_]. Now I
am left with one friend less, and it remains with me to convey
through you my best condolement to all the members of your society.

Hoping that you do not forget me in your prayers,
I am, dear Father Hewit,
most truly yours,
JOHN H. CARD. NEWMAN.

II

THE ORATORY, BIRMINGHAM, March 15, 1890.

DEAR FATHER HEWIT: In answer to your letter I am glad to be told what
is so interesting to me, viz., that the Life of Father Hecker is in
preparation. I had a great affection and reverence towards him, and
felt that which so many good Catholics must have felt with me on
hearing of his illness and death. I wish, as you ask me, that I could
say something more definite than this of his life and writings, but
my own correspondence with friends, and especially the infirmities of
my age, burden me and make it impossible for me to venture upon it.
This, alas! is all that I have left me now by my years towards the
fulfilment of welcome duties to the grateful memory of an effective
Catholic writer (I do not forget his work in England) and a
Benefactor, if I may use the term, to the Catholic Religion, whose
name will ever be held in honor by the Catholic Church.

Yours most truly,
J. H. N.

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RECOLLECTIONS OF FATHER HECKER BY THE ABBE XAVIER DUFRESNE, OF GENEVA

I

I first knew Father Hecker in 1873, meeting him at a Catholic
Congress held at Ferney and presided over by Monsignor Mermillod.
Father Hecker visited Geneva several times after that, living in the
closest intimacy with our family. He spent several weeks on a visit
with my father, Dr. Dufresne, at a chalet situated on Salane mountain
above Geneva, being at the time in feeble health and seeking recovery
by a prolonged sojourn in Europe. For this enforced inactivity he
recompensed himself by continual and earnest conversations, for the
purpose of gaining to his ideas all whom he believed capable of
understanding them, whether Protest