Format of the Book

      The layout of this book is designed to allow the reader to make a side-by-side comparison with the original edition of Morals & Dogma by Albert Pike. Numbers within the margins indicate the beginning of the corresponding page in the original version of the text. The order of the paragraphs on each page follows the order of those in the original version with only a few exceptions. In order to complete independent ideas within a single paragraph or to improve the flow of the dialogue within a page or chapter, we occasionally felt it necessary to move a sentence from one paragraph to another or a paragraph from one page to another. In every case, these changes improved the readability and flow of ideas without (in our opinion) changing the original author's intent.

      We hope that this attention to detail provides everyone the opportunity to compare their own interpretation of the original text to the interpretation we have provided here.

      In a few instances, we have also updated or modified historical and illustrative references and examples that have either changed or become obsolete since Albert Pike's time. While this will no doubt incite dissention among the purists, our chief aim is to help the reader better understand these lessons as they may be applied today. In each case, we have made every effort to provide a more contemporary reference that will bear the same significance for a 21st century reader that the original text would have inspired in its time. We believe that Albert Pike would approve of these slight changes. From his own words on page 29-30 of this new edition (page 37 of the original work):

"…all truths are Truths of that Period and not truths for eternity. Whatever great fact had strength and vitality enough to make itself real, whether it be religion, morals, government, or whatever else, was a truth for that era and only as good as the men who were capable of receiving it."