THEO. Very naturally, since although the reform (in its present shape) may be called new, the men and women to be reformed are the same human, sinning natures as of old. As already said, the earnest _working_ members are few; but many are the sincere and well-disposed persons, who try their best to live up to the Society’s and their own ideals. Our duty is to encourage and assist individual fellows in self-improvement, intellectual, moral, and spiritual; not to blame or condemn those who fail. We have, strictly speaking, no right to refuse admission to anyone—especially in the _Esoteric Section_ of the Society, wherein “he who enters is as one newly born.” But if any member, his sacred pledges on his word of honour and immortal _Self_, notwithstanding, chooses to continue, after that “new birth,” with the new man, the vices or defects of his old life, and to indulge in them still in the Society, then, of course, he is more than likely to be asked to resign and withdraw; or, in case of his refusal, to be expelled. We have the strictest rules for such emergencies. ENQ. Can some of them be mentioned? THEO. They can. To begin with, no Fellow in the Society, whether exoteric or esoteric, has a right to force his personal opinions upon another Fellow. “It is not lawful for _any officer of the Parent Society_ to express in public, by word or act, any hostility to, or preference for, any one section,[13] religious or philosophical, more than another. All have an equal right to have the essential features of their religious belief laid before the tribunal of an impartial world. And no officer of the Society, in his capacity as an officer, has the right to preach his own sectarian views and beliefs to members assembled, except when the meeting consists of his co-religionists. After due warning, violation of this rule shall be punished by suspension or expulsion.” This is one of the offenses in the Society at large. As regards the inner section, now called the _Esoteric_, the following rules have been laid down and adopted, so far back as 1880. “No Fellow shall put to his selfish use any knowledge communicated to him by any member of the first section (now a higher ‘degree’); violation of the rule being punished by expulsion.” Now, however, before any such knowledge can be imparted, the applicant has to bind himself by a solemn oath not to use it for selfish purposes, nor to reveal anything said except by permission. ENQ. But is a man expelled, or resigning, from the section free to reveal anything he may have learned, or to break any clause of the pledge he has taken?