Originally posted by D_Emissary56
Let us go to a 33rd degree Freemason for some answers. Manly P. Hall wrote: "Freemasonry is a fraternity within a fraternity-an outer organization
concealing an inner brotherhood of the elect...the one visible and the other invisible. The visible society is a splendid camaraderie of 'free and
accepted' men enjoined to devote themselves to ethical, educational, fraternal, patriotic and humanitarian concerns. The invisible society is a
secret and most august fraternity whose members are dedicated to the service of an...arcanum arcandrum (sacred secret)."
It's true that that was written by Hall, but saying that it was written by a 33° Mason is a little misleading. Brother Hall received the 33° in
1990; but he wrote the above quote in 1929, 25 years before he became a Mason (he was initiated as a First Degree Entered Apprentice in 1954).
When his books were reprinted shortly before his death, he wrote new introductions to them, where he concedes that at the time he originally wrote
them, his only knowledge of Freemasonry came from a few books he'd checked out at his local public library. The disclaimer is significant because it
demonstrates that the above was
not written by a 33° Mason, but was written instead by a young man who had no personal experience with
Freemasonry, and just assumed that everything he read about it at the time was true.
Past Grand Registrar Walter Wilmshurst further explained that those seeking higher knowledge "must be prepared to divest himself of all past
preconceptions and thought habits and, with childlike meekness and docility, surrender his mind to the reception of some perhaps novel and unexpected
truths..."
I've never read this before, but I'd wager that if truer words have ever been spoken, there weren't many of them.