Pierre goes into the Freemasons because he wanted social existence, and he sees the tragedy of Russian society and wished to change it in some way. Freemasons had seven virtues to act on themselves. Discretion, the keeping of the secrets of the order. Obedience to those of higher ranks in the Order. Morality. Love of mankind. Courage. Generosity, and the love of death. Pierre was glad to abide by the rules until he finds out that most people involved in the freemasonry are not different from those he knew. Those seeking for wealth and power. He categorized the members into 4 categories. First, those who did not take an active part in the affairs, but were exclusively occupied with the mystical science of the being of God, elements and so forth. This class consisted of the elders whom Pierre admired. The second would be the class he would put himself in. Those seeking and vacillating, trying to find the right path of freemasonry. The third category was those of the majority who found nothing in Freemasonry, but ceremonies and external outlook. The last category was composed of many who had lately joined the Freemasons. They had no belief in whatever. They just joined merely to associate with the wealthy and young to get connections in society. He became fed up with this type of people and returned to the life he had. But through this he had gained new goals for himself, to conquer anger by calmness and deliberation, to vanquish lust by self-restraint and repulsion, and to withdraw form worldliness except for the service of the state, family duties, relations with friends and the management of affairs. .
As mentioned above, there are virtues to follow as a Mason, but in those virtues were followed to accomplish the three fold aim, which is the preservation and supply of the mystery, the purification and reformation of oneself for its reception, and the improvement of the human race by striving for such purification.