The thinkers of the Age of Enlightenment, based on the premise that truth can only be secured from experience, maintained that Tradition, the voice of the past, the authority exerted by the ancient thinkers, could only cause harm as it constituted a prejudice hindering a clear unimpeded vision. Furthermore, as a consequence of their anti-historic attitude, the enlightened concluded that prior to the eighteenth century there had only been errors, barbarism, obscurantism. But on the contrary, Freemasonry is the most recent form of Tradition, and similar to all traditional forms gathers and conveys in an uninterrupted chain all aspects present from the beginning, unchanged by the ravages of time, beyond the realm of history and time. In the context of Tradition the transmitting of primary principles occurs in a vertical fashion, from super humans to humans, implying perfection from its very outset. The means best suited to instelling knowledge of the truth of a higher order associated with this Tradition is represented by symbolism, a tool that has been rejected or ignored by the modern world, which views truths as belonging to the order of pure intellectuality
Fabio Venzi in Studies In Traditional Freemasonry p. 31/2