SOLOMON'S HOUSE. 129 



SOLOMON'S HOUSE.* 



By FRANCIS BACON. 



f\ OD 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 moun- 

 tains: 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 con- 

 servations of bodies. We use them likewise for the imitation of natural 

 mines; and the producing also of new artificial metals, by composi- 

 tions 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. 



We have burials in several earths, where we put divers cements, 

 as the Chinese do their porcellain. But we have them in greater variety, 

 and some of them more fine. We have also great variety of composts, 

 and soils, for the making of the earth fruitful. 



We have high towers; the highest about half a mile in height; 

 and some of them likewise set upon high mountains; so that the 

 vantage of the hill with the tower is in the highest of them three 



* From the ' New Atlantis,' published in 1627. The text of the edition of 

 Ellis and Spedding is followed. 

 VOL. lxii. 9. 



