From this point of view the Talmud is a great maze and apparently the simplest roads lead off into strange, winding by-paths. It is hard to deduce any distinct system of ethics, any consistent philosophy, any coherent doctrine. Yet patience rewards the student here too, and from this confused medley of material, he can build the intellectual world of the early mediæval Jew. In the realm of doctrine we find that "original sin," "vicarious atonement," and "everlasting punishment," are denied. Man is made the author of his own salvation. Life beyond the grave is still progressive; the soul is pre-existent. A suggestion of the wit and wisdom of the Talmud may be gathered from the following quotations:-- A single light answers as well for a hundred men as for one. The ass complains of cold even in July. A myrtle in the desert remains a myrtle. Teach thy tongue to say, "I do not know." Hospitality is an expression of Divine worship. Thy friend has a friend, and thy friend's friend has a friend; be discreet. Attend no auctions if thou hast no money. Rather flay a carcass, than be idly dependent on charity. The place honors not the man, 'tis the man who gives honor to the place. Drain not the waters of thy well while other people may desire them. The rose grows among thorns. Two pieces of coin in one bag make more noise than a hundred. The rivalry of scholars advances science. Truth is heavy, therefore few care to carry it. He who is loved by man is loved by God. Use thy noble vase to-day; to-morrow it may break. The soldiers fight and the kings are heroes. Commit a sin twice, it will seem a sin no longer. The world is saved by the breath of the school children. A miser is as wicked as an idolater. Do not make woman weep, for God counts her tears. The best preacher is the heart; the best teacher time; the best book the world; the best friend God. The philosophy in the Talmud, rather than the philosophy of it, has been made the subject of separate treatment just as the whole of the Agada has been drawn out of the Talmud and published as a separate work. What is the Talmud to the Jew to-day? It is literature rather than law. He no longer goes to the voluminous Talmud to find specific injunction for specific need. Search in that vast sea would be tedious and unfruitful. Its legal portion has long been codified in separate digests. Maimonides was the first to classify Talmudic law. Still later one Ascheri prepared a digest called the "Four Rows," in which the decisions of later Rabbis were incorporated. But it was the famous Shulchan Aruch (a prepared table) written by Joseph Caro in the sixteenth century, that formed the most complete code of Talmudic law enlarged to date, and accepted as religious authority by the orthodox Jews to-day.