“No, he does not love to be reminded that there was a time when it drew upon its head all the hatred felt by freethinkers, atheists, and encyclopaedists for the whole complex of Church, Catholicism, monk, Middle Ages⁠—you heard that the Masons were accused of obscurantism⁠—”

“Why? I should be glad to hear why, more precisely.”

“I will tell you. The Strict Observance meant the broadening and deepening of the traditions of the order, it meant referring its historical origin back to the cabalistic world, the so-called darkness of the Middle Ages. The higher degrees of Freemasonry were initiates of the ‘ physica et mystica ,’ the representatives of a magic natural science, they were in the main great alchemists.”

“I shall have to put on my thinking-cap and try to recall what alchemy is⁠—generally speaking, I mean. Alchemy: transmuting into gold, the philosopher’s stone, aurum potabile .”