OX THE METHOD OF ZADIG. 467 



most perfect mill conceivable will not produce flour if only pea-pods 

 are put into it, pages on pages of formulas will not give an exact 

 result from inexact data." 



--*- 



OX THE METHOD OF ZADIG: 



RETROSPECTIVE PROPHECY AS A FUNCTION OF SCIENCE. 



By Professor T. II. HUXLEY. 



" Une marque plus sure que toutes celles de Zadig." Cuviee.* 



IT is a usual and a commendable practice to preface tbe discussion 

 of the views of a philosophic thinker by some account of the man 

 and of the circumstances which shaped his life and colored his way of 

 looking at things ; but, though Zadig is cited in one of the most im- 

 portant chapters of Cuvier's greatest work, little is known about him, 

 and that little might perhaps be better authenticated than it is. 



It is said that he lived at Babylon in the time of King Moabdar ; 

 but the name of Moabdar does not appear in the list of Babylonian 

 sovereigns brought to light by the patience and the industry of the 

 decipherers of cuneiform inscriptions in these later years ; nor indeed 

 am I aware that there is any other authority for his existence than 

 that of the biographer of Zadig, one Arouet de Voltaire, among whose 

 most conspicuous merits strict historical accuracy is perhaps hardly to 

 be reckoned. 



Happily Zadig is in the position of a great many other philoso- 

 phers. What he was like when he was in the flesh, indeed whether 

 he existed at all, are matters of no great consequence. What we care 

 about in a light is that it shows the way, not whether it is lamp or 

 candle, tallow or wax. Our only real interest in Zadig lies in the con- 

 ceptions of which he is the putative father ; and his biographer has 

 stated these with so much clearness and vivacious illustration that we 

 need hardly feel a pang, even if critical research should prove King 

 Moabdar and all the rest of the story to be unhistorical, and reduce 

 Zadig himself to the shadowy condition of a solar myth. 



Voltaire tells us that, disenchanted with life by sundry domestic 

 misadventures, Zadig withdrew from the turmoil of Babylon to a 

 secluded retreat on the banks of the Euphrates, where he beguiled his 

 solitude by the study of nature. The manifold wonders of the world 

 of life had a peculiar attraction for the lonely student ; incessant and 

 patient observation of the plants and animals about him sharpened his 

 naturally good powers of observation and of reasoning ; until, at 



* " Discours sur les Revolutions de la Surface du Globe," "Recherches sur les Ossemcns 

 fossiles" ed. iv, t. i, p. 185. 



