This work is an attempt to acquaint the reader with the fundamental principles of law laid down in the Mishnah. It is not designed to give an exhaustive treatment of the various branches of the law embodied in the present treatise. Of the numerous rules and theories of law laid down in works other than the Mishnah, only such as tend to convey a thorough com prehension of the Mishnaic principles have been given in the annotations. And for the like reason, no attempt has been made to deal with the subject of comparative jurisprudence.