6 ON THE METHOD OF ZADIG I 



which perilously suggests a contradiction in terms 

 the word "prophecy" being so constantly, in 

 ordinary use, restricted to " foretelling." Strictly, 

 however, the term prophecy applies as much to 

 outspeaking as to foretelling ; and, even in the 

 .restricted sense of "divination/* it is obvious that 

 the essence of the prophetic operation does not 

 lie in its backward or forward relation to the 

 course of time, but in the fact that it is the 

 apprehension of that which lies out of the sphere 

 of immediate knowledge ; the seeing of that which, 

 to the natural sense of the seer, is invisible. 



The foreteller asserts that, at some future time, 

 a properly situated observer will witness certain 

 events ; the clairvoyant declares that, at this 

 present time, certain things are to be witnessed a 

 thousand miles away ; the retrospective prophet 

 (would that there were such a word as "back- 

 teller ! ") affirms that, so many hours or years ago, 

 such and such things were to be seen. In all 

 these cases, it is only the relation to time which 

 alters the process of divination beyond the limits 

 of possible direct knowledge remains the same. 



No doubt it was their instinctive recognition of 

 the analogy between Zadig's results and those ob- 

 tained by authorised inspiration which inspired the 

 Babylonian magi with the desire to burn the philoso- 

 pher. Zadig admitted that he had never either seen 

 or heard of the horse of the king or of the spaniel 

 of the queen ; and yet he ventured to assert in 



