Besides Pirkei Avot, this treatise is the only collection of precepts from the period of the Talmud and the Midrashim, and is therefore of great importance in any estimate of the earliest ethical views of the old rabbis. Zunz appropriately characterizes the treatise: "The Derek Ereẓ, Zuṭa, which is meant to be a mirror for scholars, is full of high moral teachings and pithy worldly wisdom which philosophers of to-day could study to advantage." The treatise deals mainly with man's relation to man, and is moral rather than religious in nature. A few quotations from it will illustrate its character: