given by the Jewish Encyclopædia, the word Freemasonry is not once mentioned. But in the curious portrait of the great Ba'al Shem appended, we see him holding in his hand the pair of compasses, and before him, on the table at which he is seated, the double triangle or Seal of Solomon known amongst Jews as "the Shield of David," which forms an important emblem in Masonry.
Moreover, it is significant to find in the Royal Masonic Encyclopædia by the Rosicrucian Kenneth Mackenzie that a long and detailed article is devoted to Falk, though again without any reference to his connexion with Freemasonry. May we not conclude that in certain inner masonic circles the importance of Falk is recognized but must not be revealed to the uninitiated? Mr. Gordon Hills, in the above-quoted paper contributed to the Ars Quatuor Coronatorum, indulges in some innocent speculation as to the part Falk may have played in the masonic movement. "If," he observes, "Jewish Brethren did introduce Cabalistical learning into the so-called High Degrees, here we have one, who, if a Mason, would have been eminently qualified to do so."
Falk inded was far more than a Mason, he was a high initiate--the supreme oracle to which the secret societies applied for guidance. All this was disclosed a few years ago in the correspondence between Savalette de Langes and the Marquis de Chefdebien referred to in the previous chapter. Thus in the dossiers of the leading occultists supplied by Savalette we find the following note on the Ba'al