e sole fundamental
principle of all religion, its very essence, divested of creed and
dogma, but also inherent in the nature of symbolical Masonry, and
"inwrought in the whole system of Masonic ceremonies."

As mystics, however, we consider that the ethical standard of Masonry
will produce good citizens to society and good brethren to the
Fraternity, but it will not produce saints to Christ. There is an
excellence which is other than the moral, and stands to morality in
precisely the same relation that genius bears to talent. The moral
virtues are not the _summum bonum_, nor the totality of all forces at
work in the development of man, nor actually the perfect way, though
they are the gate of the way of perfection. Now, the mystic claims to be
in possession of the higher law which transcends the ethical, from which
the ethical derives, and to which it must be referred for its reason.
That the lost secret of Freemasonry is concerned with special
applications of this higher law which connect with mysticism, we, as
mystics, do hold and can make evident in its proper time and place.
Here, and personally, I am concerned only with a comprehensive
statement. In addition to its body of moral law, which is founded in the
general conscience, or in the light of nature, Masonry has a body of
symbolism, of which the source is not generally known, and by which it
is identified with movements and modes of thought, and with
evolutionary processes, having reference to regions already described as
transcending the ethical world and concerned with the spiritual man.
From every Masonic candidate, ignoring the schismatic and excommunicated
sections, there is required a distinct attitude of mind towards the
world without and the world within. He is required to believe in the
existence of a Supreme Intelligence, with which his essential nature
corresponds in the possession of an indestructible principle of
conscious or understanding life. Beyond these doctrines, Masonry is
wholly unsectarian; it recognises no other dogmas; it accredits no form
of faith. Now, Mysticism is a body of spiritual methods and processes,
based, like the Masonic body of ethical methods and processes, on these
same doctrines. Every man who believes in God and immortality is the raw
material of a mystic; every man who believes that there is a
discoverable way to God is on the path of conscious mysticism. As this
path has been pursued in all ages and nations by persons o