"God bless thee, my son; I will give thee the greatest jewel I have.
For I will impart unto thee, for the love of God and men, a relation
of the true state of Salomon's House. Son, to make you know the true
state of Salomon's House, I will keep this order. First, I will set
forth unto you the end of our foundation. Secondly, the preparations
and instruments we have for our works. Thirdly, the several
employments and functions whereto our fellows are assigned. And
fourthly, the ordinances and rites which we observe.

"The end of our foundation is the knowledge of causes, and secret
motions of things; and the enlarging of the bounds of human empire, to
the effecting of all things possible.

"The Preparations and Instruments are these. We have large and deep
caves of several depths: the deepest are sunk six hundred fathom: and
some of them are digged and made under great hills and mountains: so
that if you reckon together the depth of the hill and the depth of the
cave, they are (some of them) above three miles deep. For we find,
that the depth of a hill, and the depth of a cave from the flat, is
the same thing; both remote alike, from the sun and heaven's beams,
and from the open air. These caves we call the Lower Region; and we
use them for all coagulations, indurations, refrigerations, and
conservations of bodies. We use them likewise for the imitation of
natural mines; and the producing also of new artificial metals, by
compositions and materials which we use, and lay there for many years.
We use them also sometimes, (which may seem strange,) for curing of
some diseases, and for prolongation of life in some hermits that
choose to live there, well accommodated of all things necessary, and
indeed live very long; by whom also we learn many things.