R. Juda, the prince of the rabbins, committed to writing all these traditions, and arranged them under six general heads, called orders or classes. The subjects are indeed curious for philosophical inquirers, and multifarious as the events of civil life. Every _order_ is formed of _treatises_; every _treatise_ is divided into chapters, every _chapter_ into _mishnas_, which word means mixtures or miscellanies, in the form of _aphorisms_. In the first part is discussed what relates to _seeds_, _fruits_, and _trees_; in the second, _feasts_; in the third, _women_, their duties, their _disorders_, _marriages_, _divorces_, _contracts_, and _nuptials_; in the fourth, are treated the damages or losses sustained by beasts or men; of _things found_; _deposits_; _usuries_; _rents_; _farms_; _partnerships_ in commerce; _inheritance_; _sales_ and _purchases_; _oaths_; _witnesses_; _arrests_; _idolatry_; and here are named those by whom the oral law was received and preserved. In the fifth part are noticed _sacrifices_ and _holy things_; and the sixth treats of _purifications_; _vessels_; _furniture_; _clothes_; _houses_; _leprosy_; _baths_; and numerous other articles. All this forms the MISHNA. The GEMARA, that is, the _complement_ or _perfection_, contains the DISPUTES and the OPINIONS of the RABBINS on the oral traditions. Their last decisions. It must be confessed that absurdities are sometimes elucidated by other absurdities; but there are many admirable things in this vast repository. The Jews have such veneration for this compilation, that they compare the holy writings to _water_, and the Talmud to _wine_; the text of Moses to _pepper_, but the Talmud to _aromatics_. Of the twelve hours of which the day is composed, they tell us that _God_ employs nine to study the Talmud, and only three to read the written law! St. Jerome appears evidently to allude to this work, and notices its "Old Wives' Tales," and the filthiness of some of its matters. The truth is, that the rabbins resembled the Jesuits and Casuists; and Sanchez's work on "_Matrimonio_" is well known to agitate matters with such _scrupulous niceties_ as to become the most offensive thing possible. But as among the schoolmen and casuists there have been great men, the same happened to these Gemaraists. Maimonides was a pillar of light among their darkness. The antiquity of this work is of itself sufficient to make it very curious. A specimen of the topics may be shown from the table and contents of "Mishnic Titles." In the order of seeds, we find the following heads, which present no uninteresting picture of the pastoral and pious ceremonies of the ancient Jews.