War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy [232]
“Yes, I…I…want renewal,” Pierre uttered with difficulty.
“Very well,” said Smolyaninov, and he went on at once: “Do you have any idea of the means by which our holy order can help you to achieve your goal?…” the rhetor asked calmly and quickly.
“I…hope…for guidance…help…in my renewal,” Pierre said in a trembling voice and speaking with difficulty, owing to his excitement and to being unused to speaking about abstract subjects in Russian.
“What is your notion of Freemasonry?”
“I presume that Freemasonry is the fraternité and equality of men with virtuous goals,” said Pierre, embarrassed, even as he was speaking, by the unsuitability of his words to the solemnity of the moment. “I presume…”
“Very well,” the rhetor said hastily, evidently fully satisfied with this reply. “Have you sought the means of achieving your goal in religion?”
“No, I considered it incorrect and did not follow it,” Pierre said, so softly that the rhetor did not hear and asked him what he had said. “I was an atheist,” Pierre replied.
“You seek the truth in order to follow its laws in life; consequently, you seek wisdom and virtue, is that it?” the rhetor said after a moment’s silence.
“Yes, yes,” Pierre agreed.
The rhetor cleared his throat, folded his gloved hands on his chest, and began to speak.
“Now I must reveal to you the main goal of our order,” he said, “and if this goal coincides with yours, it will be useful for you to enter our brotherhood. The first main goal and withal the foundation of our order, on which it is established and which no human power can cast down, is the preservation and handing on to posterity of a certain important mystery…which has come down to us from ancient times and even from the first man, on which mystery, perhaps, the fate of the human race depends. But as it is the nature of this mystery that no one can know it and use it unless he has been prepared by long and diligent self-purification, not everyone can hope soon to attain it. Therefore we have a second goal, which consists in preparing our members as much as possible, setting their hearts to rights, purifying and enlightening their reason by means revealed to us by tradition from men who labored in search of this mystery, and thereby making them capable of apprehending it.
“In purifying and setting to rights our members, we try, thirdly, to set to rights the whole human race, offering it, through our members, an example of piety and virtue, and thereby trying with all our might to oppose the evil that reigns in the world. Think it over, and I will come to you again,” he said and left the room.
“To oppose the evil that reigns in the world…” Pierre repeated, and he pictured his future activity on this path. He pictured people such as he himself had been two weeks ago, and he mentally addressed to them a didactic and admonitory speech. He pictured depraved and unfortunate people whom he helped in word and deed; he pictured oppressors whose victims he saved. Of the three goals mentioned by the rhetor, this last one—setting mankind to rights—was especially close to Pierre. The certain important mystery which the rhetor had mentioned, though it aroused his curiosity, did not seem essential to him; and the second goal, purifying and setting himself to rights, interested him little, because at that moment he enjoyed feeling himself already fully set to rights from his former vices and ready only for the good.
Half an hour later the rhetor came back to transmit to the seeker the seven virtues, corresponding to the seven steps of Solomon’s temple, which every Mason was supposed to cultivate in himself. These virtues were: (1) discretion, keeping the secrets of the order; (2) obedience to the higher ranks of the order; (3) good morals; (4) love of mankind; (5) courage; (6) generosity; and (7) love of death.