social duties, ritual, are all dealt with in one and the same code. The
fault of this conception is, that by associating things of unequal
importance, both the mind and the conscience may become incapable of
discriminating the great from the small, the external from the
spiritual. Another ill consequence was that, as literature corresponded
so closely with life, literature could not correct the faults of life,
when life became cramped or stagnant. The modern spirit differs from the
ancient chiefly in that literature has now become an independent force,
which may freshen and stimulate life. But the older ideal was
nevertheless a great one. That man's life is a unity; that his conduct
is in all its parts within the sphere of ethics and religion; that his
mind and conscience are not independent, but two sides of the same
thing; and that therefore his religious, ethical, æsthetic, and
intellectual literature is one and indivisible,--this was a noble
conception which, with all its weakness, had distinct points of
superiority over the modern view.

The Mishnah is divided into six parts, or Orders (_Sedarim_); each Order
into Tractates (_Massechtoth_); each Tractate into Chapters (_Perakim_);
each Chapter into Paragraphs (each called a _Mishnah_). The six Orders
are as follows:

ZERAIM ("Seeds"). Deals with the laws connected with Agriculture, and
opens with a Tractate on Prayer ("Blessings").

MOED ("Festival"). On Festivals.

NASHIM ("Women"). On the laws relating to Marriage, etc.

NEZIKIN ("Damages"). On civil and criminal Law.