General Rules of the Freemasons, with a Discourse on the Purpose of Masonry

[found among the] different kinds of the same, is the mother of friendship.

The Freemasons original: "Freymaurer" should therefore make it their earnest concern to think about the things they encounter in a fairly similar way; this is the cement original: "Kütt" (Kitt); a classic Masonic metaphor for the bonding force of brotherly love that holds the "living stones" of the fraternity together of their union, the source of their pleasure, and that which makes their lives bearable and their days precious.

A Brother who wishes to sharpen his intellect original: "Verstand" and one day serve the Order with it must judge the things and objects he encounters exactly as they truly are. The surest means for this is to separate them from the outward appearances under which they present themselves to his eyes. The differences of social rank and of fortune count for nothing in his estimations, even if prudence — demands that he conceal this A reminder that while Masons believe in internal equality, they must still navigate the rigid social hierarchies of the 18th-century world with "prudence" or "Klugheit". In this way, vice remains as hateful to him in high nobility as it is in the dust; and virtue in a peasant's smock original: "Küttel" (Kittel); a simple, coarse garment, symbolizing the working poor remains as amiable as it is on the throne.