Adieu! A heart-warm, fond adieu! Dear Brothers of the Mystic Tie Ye favored, ye enlightened few Companions of my social joy!
The immortal verse of Robert Burns, written in his farewell to his brethren of St. James Lodge, Tarbolton, Scotland, first popularized, if it did not originate, the three words now universally recognized by all English speaking Freemasons as expressing the very essence of the Fraternity.
But to recognize is one thing; to define is quite another, as any man may discover who attempts to describe a perfume, a sunset, a symphony, so another may smell, see, hear with the speaker.
What IS the Mystic Tie? Is it an obligation, taken before an Altar? Is it a Covenant, entered into between a man and men, before God and his fellows? Is it a thing that one can hold in his hand and see with his eye? Is it a matter of that land of the inner life, in which a man thinks the thoughts he never tells and learns the truths he cannot teach?
To every man, even the most extrovert and obvious-minded, comes at times a spiritual experience. Tongue-tied in the grip of emotion, few phrase it. But it happens; and none who reads these lame words but will admit it to himself at least, no matter how vociferously he denies it aloud.
Fraternally, Philip Carter / Facebook / Great is Truth and mighty above all things (I Esdras 4:41)