He Who Hears.....

Freemasonry is "Veiled in allegory and illustrated by symbols" because these are the surest ways by which moral and ethical truths may be taught. It is not only with the brain and the mind that the initiate must take in freemasonry but also with the heart.

Mind speaks to mind with spoken or written words. Heart speaks to heart with words which cannot be written or spoken. These words are symbols; words which mean little to the indifferent, much to the understanding.

The body has five senses through which the mind may learn; the mind also has imagination. That imagination may see further than eyes and hear sounds fainter than may be caught by ears. To the imagination symbols become as plain as printed words to the eye. Nothing else will do; no words can be as effective (unless they are themselves symbols); no teachings expressed in language are as easily learned by the mind as those which come via the symbol through the imagination.

Take away from Freemasonry its symbols and but the husk remains, the kernal is gone. He who hears but the words of Freemasonry misses their meaning entirely.