er, it is not
the mere words, the inflection or pronunciation, but the ideas,
sentiments, and principles expressed.

"Liberty, Fraternity, Equality," for example; or sympathy, Charity, and
loving kindness.

The "sign of the Master" is at once recognized by one already prepared to
receive and to understand it. The soul that really desires truth and
wisdom above all things, has thereby developed the power to recognize it.

This is the discrimination referred to. It is not what someone else tells
you, or what another claims. It is what _you_ discern and recognize, and
the teaching and the life are in perfect harmony, like chords in music;
and they strike a harmonic chord in you, that may be first a surprise, and
soon a great joy and a bright light.

It is not a question of authority, and of credentials, but of intrinsic
reality. You must know how to assay and test the gold yourself. This is
where the "Alchemy of the Great Work" comes in, and here lies the
beginning of Adeptship, the preparation for the "Great Work." I can
demonstrate this from a score of old books, some of them going back many
centuries.

It has also been symbolized and picturegraphed 'til the imagination ran
riot, and ingenuity and fancy became lost, like ideas in a fantasy of
words.

I know of but one place, one Institution, in modern times, where these
essential truths of the Great Work have been preserved as a consistent
whole, and that is in the symbolism of Free Masonry, but the craft long
ago lost the real interpretation, though many to-day are on the lines that
lead to it.

The whole symbolism and ritual of the Blue Lodge in Masonry is, from
beginning to end, _a symbol of the journey of the human soul on this
earth_, from darkness to light; from sin to righteousness; from ignorance
to wisdom and understanding.

In other words, it is an exact _theorem_ and solution of the _Magnum
Opus_; a symbol of the philosophy and accomplishment of the GREAT WORK.

The science and the theology of the present day have been briefly
contrasted. Neither of them pretends to give us any real science of the
human soul.

Science says frankly she "does not know." Theology bids us believe and
obey; trust and hope. Philosophy speculates and reasons, while amusing
itself with the kaleidoscope of "postulates" and "categories."

Science must deal with facts, demonstrate their actuality, and classify
them; that is, find their natural order and sequence.

In psyc