What is promised regarding the secret arts, parts or points of Freemasonry?

What is promised regarding the secret arts, parts or points of Freemasonry?

• A. I will reveal them to everyone in the lodge.
• B. I will memorize them but not reveal.
• C. I will not write, indite, print, cut, carve, hack, hew, etch, letter or engrave the same, upon anything movable or immovable whereby or whereon the least, letter or character may become legible or intelligible to myself or any other person under the whole canopy of heaven, whereby the secrets of Freemasonry may become unlawfully communicated.
• D. I will engrave them on a stone.

Answer: (C)

In Freemasonry, the vows surrounding the secret arts, parts or points are about guarding secrecy at all times. The promise is that I will not write, engrave, or otherwise mark the secrets anywhere in a way that could make them legible or understandable to anyone, so the secrets cannot be unlawfully communicated. This mirrors the idea that the knowledge is conveyed by memory, signs, and gestures rather than by written description, ensuring it stays protected and not easily shared. The other ideas don’t fit as well because they would expose or risk disclosure of the secrets: revealing them to everyone in the lodge would undo the protection of secrecy; merely memorizing them without a commitment not to reveal leaves open the possibility of sharing; and engraving them on a stone is a concrete act of revealing or recording, which the vow prohibits. The strongest, most precise fit is the one that explicitly prohibits writing or engraving the secrets anywhere, so nothing can make them legible or communicated unlawfully.

In Freemasonry, the vows surrounding the secret arts, parts or points are about guarding secrecy at all times. The promise is that I will not write, engrave, or otherwise mark the secrets anywhere in a way that could make them legible or understandable to anyone, so the secrets cannot be unlawfully communicated. This mirrors the idea that the knowledge is conveyed by memory, signs, and gestures rather than by written description, ensuring it stays protected and not easily shared.

The other ideas don’t fit as well because they would expose or risk disclosure of the secrets: revealing them to everyone in the lodge would undo the protection of secrecy; merely memorizing them without a commitment not to reveal leaves open the possibility of sharing; and engraving them on a stone is a concrete act of revealing or recording, which the vow prohibits. The strongest, most precise fit is the one that explicitly prohibits writing or engraving the secrets anywhere, so nothing can make them legible or communicated unlawfully.