the branches.

In consequence of this tendency, we find men coming together in
tribes, in communities, in churches, in societies. Some gather
together to cultivate the arts; some to plan for the welfare of the
State; some to discuss religious themes; some to kindle their mirth;
some to advance their craft. So every active community is divided into
associations of artists, of merchants, of bookbinders, of carpenters,
of masons, of plasterers, of shipwrights, of plumbers. Do you cry out
against it? Then you cry out against a tendency divinely implanted.
Your tirades will accomplish no more than if you should preach to a
busy ant-hill or bee-hive a long sermon against secret societies.

Here we find in our path the oft-discussed question, whether
associations that do their work with closed doors, and admit their
members by pass-words, and greet each other with a secret grip, are
right or wrong. I answer that it depends entirely upon the nature of
the object for which they meet. Is it to pass the hours in revelry,
wassail, blasphemy, and obscene talk, or to plot trouble to the State,
or to debauch the innocent? Then I say, with an emphasis that no man
can mistake, "NO." But is the object the improvement of the mind,
or the enlargement of the heart, or the advancement of art, or
the defence of the government, or the extirpation of crime, or the
kindling of a pure-hearted sociality? Then I say, with just as much
emphasis, "YES."

There is no need that we who plan for the conquest of right over wrong
should publish to all the world our intentions. The general of an
army never sends to the opposing troops information as to the coming
attack. Shall we who have enlisted in the cause of God and humanity
expose our plans to the enemy? No! We will in secret plot the ruin of
all the enterprises of Satan and his cohorts. When they expect us by
day, we will fall upon them by night. While they are strengthening
their left wing, we will double up their right. By a plan of battle
formed in secret conclave, we will come suddenly upon them, crying:
"The sword of the Lord and of Gideon!"

Secrecy of plot and execution are wrong only when the object and
influence are nefarious. Every family is a secret society; every
business firm, and every banking and insurance institution. Those men
who have no capacity to keep a secret are unfit for positions of trust
anywhere. There are thousands of men whose vital need is culturing in
capacity to k