Mystic masonry, or, The symbols of freemasonry and the greater ...

The Great Lodge. 235
voice, in the expression of the eye ;
in short, no man
possesses character. Character is that which he altogether
is, and not something apart from himself.
One need not be a Master to discover all this; he
needs only to observe, to think, and to reason on
what he sees. In even the ordinary walks of life
the Artist, the Musician, the Mechanic, all recognize
their fellows by signs that are familiar and unfailing.
It can hardly be imagined that in the higher
science, and in the case of the deeper student or
Adept, the signs of character should be less pronounced
or less plain, or that the Adept, possessed
of far finer senses and a wider range of knowledge,
should fail in interpreting them. The individual
who is really sincere and devout will not fail to
recognize sincerity and true devotion in an acquaintance
or in any character in history that possessed
these virtues. Hence it is that the Student of the
Sacred Science or Occultism, though not himself an
Adept, learns to recognize by unfailing signs those
in the present or in the past who really know the
true wisdom. Its signs and symbols are not the
stolen Shibboleths by which the real student can be
betrayed. Every Mason knows enough of the picture
language or Art Speech to be able to speak of
many things in the presence of others without re-