Ernst and Falk: Dialogues for Freemasons, Continuation

Falk.

Why not? People have for long enough turned confidentialities Heimlichkeiten; mundane secrets or private affairs into the Secret Geheimniß; the essential, incommunicable mystery.

Ernst.

How do you mean that?

Falk.

The Secret of Freemasonry Freymaurerey, as I have already told you, is that which the Freemason cannot bring across his lips, even if it were possible that he wished to do so. But confidentialities are things that can indeed be expressed, and which were hidden only at certain times and in certain countries—partly concealed out of envy, suppressed out of fear, or kept silent out of prudence.