136 Otf THE METHOD OF ZADIG. 



its strict historical accuracy is perhaps hardly to be reck- 

 oned. 



Happily Zadig is in the position of a great many 

 other philosophers. 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 conceptions 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 Moab- 

 dar and all the rest of the story to be unhistorical, and 

 reduce Zadig himself to the shadowy condition of a solar 

 myth. 



Yoltaire tells us that, disenchanted with life by sun- 

 dry 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 particular attraction for the lonely student ; 

 incessant and patient observation of the plants and ani- 

 mals about him sharpened his naturally good powers of 

 observation and of reasoning; until, at length, he ac- 

 quired a sagacity which enabled him to perceive endless 

 minute differences among objects which, to the untutored 

 eye, appeared absolutely alike. 



It might have been expected that this enlargement of 

 the powers of the mind and of its store of natural knowl- 



