Abhandlung über die allgemeine Zusammenkunft der Freymaurer, bei den Gesundbrunnen in Wilhelmsbad

find within it. The laws, therefore, by which the society is governed, must in turn be guided by justice, integrity, and utility.

The judicial estate richterliche Stand the professional class of judges and legal officials has the purpose of preserving for each person what belongs to him; the military estate Kriegsstand the professional class of soldiers and officers has the purpose of defending the fatherland against its enemies. All social estates in general have a purpose, and they must have one. One does not associate without necessity. It therefore belongs to the essence of a well-ordered society that it has a purpose. This purpose must be honest, useful, and just: for if it did not have these qualities, if it were founded on the opposite, then the society would not be well-ordered. There are such simple truths that one only needs to present them directly.

If every association has a purpose, the advancement of which the actions of all individual members should aim for, then it is necessary that every one of them must know this purpose; otherwise, it would not be possible for them to arrange their conduct according to the purpose. In a well-ordered association, it is therefore also essentially necessary that the members know the purpose for whose attainment they are united. (*)

(*) But if the members are partly minors, whom one wishes to lead with a benevolent hand toward a purpose

whose importance they can only feel in more mature years; if this noble purpose also, by its nature, if it is to be attained, must remain a secret to many weaker ones, and yet even the weaker ones can be helpful in its execution; then these must rely on the integrity, reason, and justice of their leaders, especially if this is told to them in advance upon their admission into the society, and they are free to enter under this condition or not. What would become of it if every soldier knew the plan for the campaign, or every child the plan of their education? And how many remain forever common soldiers, forever children! R. v. S. The initials likely refer to a specific contributor or Masonic authority, possibly reflecting the hierarchical views of the Strict Observance or similar rites.

However, if this society were of the kind that all those it takes into its bosom could only learn the purpose after a long period of probation Lehrprobe a trial period for an apprentice or initiate; if, in the meantime, one studied the character of each member, but during these years of apprenticeship one perceived negligence, laziness, frivolity, and uncertainty in one of them, would one not then have to halt this curious seeker on his path, because he could never become a useful member of the association? And if some of those to be admitted possessed honest qualities and gentle manners, but not enough intellectual capacity Verstandsfähigkeit the capacity for understanding or cognitive ability to reach the purpose of the society; would one then not have to assign them another place, at which