VI. 



ON THE METHOD OF ZADIG: 



RETROSPECTIVE PROPHECY AS A FUNCTION OF SCIENCE. 

 "Une marque plus sure quo toutcs celles de Zadig." CUVIER.* 



IT is a usual and a commendable practice to preface 

 the discussion of the views of a philosophic thinker by 

 some account of the man and of the circumstances which 

 shaped his life and coloured his way of looking at 

 things ; but, though Zadig is cited in one of the most 

 important chapters of Cuvier's greatest work, little is 

 known about him, and that little might perhaps be bet- 

 ter 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 decipher- 

 ers 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 more conspicuous mer- 



* " Discours sur les revolutions de la surface du globe," Rechcrches sur 

 las ossemens fossitcs, Ed. iv. t. i. p. 185. 



