Ernst and Falk: Dialogues for Freemasons, Continuation

Ernst.

All the more then, what could have moved you to lead me onto this ice? The German idiom "auf das Glatteis führen" (to lead someone onto the ice) means to mislead someone or place them in a precarious, slippery situation. To present such illusions to me, when you knew their baselessness original: "Ungrund" only too well?

Falk.

Your frustration makes you quite unjust—could I have spoken with you about Freemasonry original: "Freymaureren" without making it understood in more than one way how useless it is for every honest man to become a Freemason—how unnecessary even?—yes, how harmful.

Ernst.

That may well be.

Falk.

Could I have failed to tell you that one can perform the highest duties of Masonry Falk is beginning to argue that the true "work" of a Mason does not require the formal institution of the Lodge. The sentence continues on the next page with the word "fulfill" or "perform."