The moral virtues are not the _summum bonum_, nor the totality of all forces at work in the development of man, nor actually the perfect way, though they are the gate of the way of perfection.

Now, the mystic claims to be in possession of the higher law which transcends the ethical, from which the ethical derives, and to which it must be referred for its reason.
That the lost secret of Freemasonry is concerned with special applications of this higher law which connect with mysticism, we, as mystics, do hold and can make evident in its proper time and place.
Here, and personally, I am concerned only with a comprehensive statement.

In addition to its body of moral law, which is founded in the general conscience, or in the light of nature, Masonry has a body of symbolism, of which the source is not generally known, and by which it is identified with movements and modes of thought, and with evolutionary processes, having reference to regions already described as transcending the ethical world and concerned with the spiritual man.
From every Masonic candidate, ignoring the schismatic and excommunicated sections, there is required a distinct attitude of mind towards the world without and the world within.

He is required to believe in the existence of a Supreme Intelligence, with which his essential nature corresponds in the possession of an indestructible principle of conscious or understanding life.

Beyond these doctrines, Masonry is wholly unsectarian; it recognises no other dogmas; it accredits no form of faith.