The first and principal cause that has brought the Society into disrepute and opened the door to numberless abuses is the total absence of discernment in the selection of the individuals that seek for an admittance therein. Every applicant is indiscriminately received as a member of the brotherhood. No previous examination takes place for ascertaining the dispositions, capacity, and science of the postulant. No inquiry is ever made regarding the motives that may have induced him to forsake the world and take so important a step. His vocation is exposed to no trial. He has but to present himself and he is sure to be immediately received, provided he consent to conform exteriorly to the usual practices of his brethren. No account is taken of his former conduct. The very fact of his applying to be admitted into the society of the perfect atones amply for all past irregularities. The only respectability inherent in the modern Talapoins is that derived from the sacred yellow dress he wears. It may aptly be said of him that he is monk by the fact of his wearing the canonical dress. The houses of the order are, in many instances, filled with worthless individuals totally unfit for the profession, who have been induced by the basest motives to enter into them, chiefly by laziness, idleness, and the hope of spending quietly their time beyond the reach of want, and without being obliged to work for their livelihood. In confirmation of this, I will mention the following instance. During the second year of my stay in Burmah, I had with me, in the capacity of servant, an old stupid native. On a certain day he gravely told me that he intended to leave my service and become a Phongyie. I laughed at first at what I considered to be very presumptuous and impertinent language. The old man, however, kept his word. Having left my house a few days after our conversation on the subject of his new vocation, I heard no more of him till it happened a few months after that I met him in a monastery, attired in the full dress of a Phongyie, and so proud of his new position that he hardly condescended to put himself on a footing of equality with his former master.