Preamble

We, believing that the most binding duty of man is the improvement of his intellectual, moral, and, above all, social being; and that the bond of mutual and unreserved friendship will promote and preserve their cultivation in the highest degree; and also believing that secrecy is the only shield to protect us from the scrutinizing curiosity of the world; and that friendship, to be lasting, must be limited in the number of its participants, do hereby ordain and resolve ourselves into a fraternity, having for its purpose the cultivation of these principles and capacities of our nature.

The chief characteristics of this fraternity shall be honorable and confiding friendship; a friendship founded on mutual esteem and dependence—defended by that charity which, while it pardons the faults of each, endeavors to improve and reform; which friendship we will perpetuate by the veil of eternal secrecy.