The importance of any document that throws light on the essential character of Buddhism will be at once confessed, when it is remembered that its doctrines are received, and its precepts obeyed, by Rome hundreds of millions of men. The writings of its priests are so vast in their extent, and appear in so many languages, that it is scarcely possible for one mind to make itself acquainted with them all. Hence the value of any authoritative treatise that presents in small compass a clear exposition of any one of its phases, whether it be its history, ethics, doctrines, or discipline. When we wish to know the practical working of any system as a rule of life, we do not refer to its legends so much as to its laws; and if a correct knowledge of them can be acquired, and they are known to be duly administered, we may infer, therefrom, almost with certainty, the kind of influence they must exercise upon the minds of the people among whom they obtain.