Ernst and Falk: Dialogues for Freemasons

Ernst.

And could you then know what you know,
without having been initiated? original: "aufgenommen" — literally "taken up" or admitted into the Masonic order.

Falk.

Why not? — Freemasonry is
nothing arbitrary, nothing dispensable: but
rather something necessary, which is grounded
in the nature of man and civil society German: "bürgerliche Gesellschaft." In the 18th century, this referred to the organized state and the social contracts that bind people together..
Consequently, one must be able to arrive
at it through one’s own reflection just as
readily as one is led to it through
instruction.

Ernst.

Freemasonry would be nothing
arbitrary? — Does it not have words and
signs and customs, which could all be
otherwise, and are therefore arbitrary? Ernst is pointing out the distinction between "natural" truths (which cannot change) and "conventional" rituals (which are invented by people).