But, work as we will, this symbolic Word--this knowledge of divine Truth--is never thoroughly attained in this life, or in its symbol, the Master Mason's lodge. The corruptions of mortality, which encumber and cloud the human intellect, hide it, as with a thick veil, from mortal eyes. It is only, as I have just said, beyond the tomb, and when released from the earthly burden of life, that man is capable of fully receiving and appreciating the revelation. Hence, then, when we speak of the recovery of the Word, in that higher degree which is a supplement to Ancient Craft Masonry, we intimate that that sublime portion of the masonic system is a symbolic representation of the state after death. For it is only after the decay and fall of this temple of life, which, as masons, we have been building, that from its ruins, deep beneath its foundations, and in the profound abyss of the grave, we find that divine truth, in the search for which life was spent, if not in vain, at least without success, and the mystic key to which death only could supply. And now we know by this symbolism what is meant by masonic _labor_, which, too, is itself but another form of the same symbol. The search for the Word--to find divine Truth--this, and this only, is a mason's work, and the WORD is his reward. Labor, said the old monks, is worship--_laborare est orare_; and thus in our lodges do we worship, working for the Word, working for the Truth, ever looking forward, casting no glance behind, but cheerily hoping for the consummation and the reward of our labor in the knowledge which is promised to him who plays no laggard's part. Goethe, himself a mason and a poet, knew and felt all this symbolism of a mason's life and work, when he wrote that beautiful poem, which Carlyle has thus thrown into his own rough but impulsive language. "The mason's ways are A type of existence,-- And to his persistence Is as the days are Of men in this world. "The future hides in it Gladness and sorrow; We press still thorow, Nought that abides in it Daunting us--onward. "And solemn before us Veiled the dark portal, Goal of all mortal; Stars silent rest o'er us Graves under us silent. "While earnest thou gazest Come boding of terror, Comes phantasm and error, Perplexing the bravest With doubt and misgiving. "But heard are the voices, Heard are the sages, The worlds and the ages; 'Choose well; your choice is Brief and yet endless. "'Here eyes do regard you, In eternity's stillness; Here is all fullness, Ye, brave to reward you; Work and despair not.'" * * * * * And now, in concluding this work, so inadequate to the importance of the subjects that have been discussed, one deduction, at least, may be drawn from all that has been said.