"Truth crushed to Earth shall rise again, The Eternal years of God are hers." Can it be that there is no great truth back of all these struggles and aspirations of the human soul? That there is no possible realization back of these soulful endeavors? Is Tantalus, after all, the creator and Father of Man? inspired only by love of disappointment, defeat, and despair, in his children? _For one, I do not believe it._ To plant these aspirations in the soul of man, and doom them to everlasting disappointment and defeat, would brand the creator of man as an Infinite Liar, instead of a Loving Father. The earnest student must first learn to recognize, and to discriminate; for the "blind leaders of the blind" are always legions. This power of discrimination, to which I have referred, goes deeper, and means far more, than most persons ever realize, and this is why so many are continually deceived. It is the light of understanding, of spiritual intelligence, within the soul of man. It may be likened to a traveler in a foreign country, and a strange land, suddenly hearing one speaking fluently his own language, his native tongue. It is impossible to deceive him. In this case, however, it is not the mere words, the inflection or pronunciation, but the ideas, sentiments, and principles expressed. "Liberty, Fraternity, Equality," for example; or sympathy, Charity, and loving kindness. The "sign of the Master" is at once recognized by one already prepared to receive and to understand it. The soul that really desires truth and wisdom above all things, has thereby developed the power to recognize it. This is the discrimination referred to. It is not what someone else tells you, or what another claims. It is what _you_ discern and recognize, and the teaching and the life are in perfect harmony, like chords in music; and they strike a harmonic chord in you, that may be first a surprise, and soon a great joy and a bright light. It is not a question of authority, and of credentials, but of intrinsic reality. You must know how to assay and test the gold yourself. This is where the "Alchemy of the Great Work" comes in, and here lies the beginning of Adeptship, the preparation for the "Great Work." I can demonstrate this from a score of old books, some of them going back many centuries. It has also been symbolized and picturegraphed 'til the imagination ran riot, and ingenuity and fancy became lost, like ideas in a fantasy of words. I know of but one place, one Institution, in modern times, where these essential truths of the Great Work have been preserved as a consistent whole, and that is in the symbolism of Free Masonry, but the craft long ago lost the real interpretation, though many to-day are on the lines that lead to it.