course was not figurative enough, and that he did not
make the rocks and mountains to dance with sufficient agility.

"He is dry." said they, "and void of genius: he does not make the flea to
fly, and stars to fall, nor the sun to melt wax; he has not the true
Oriental style." Zadig contented himself with having the style of reason.
All the world favored him, not because he was in the right road or
followed the dictates of reason, or was a man of real merit, but because
he was prime vizier.

He terminated with the same happy address the grand difference between the
white and the black magi. The former maintained that it was the height of
impiety to pray to God with the face turned toward the east in winter; the
latter asserted that God abhorred the prayers of those who turned toward
the west in summer. Zadig decreed that every man should be allowed to turn
as he pleased.

Thus he found out the happy secret of finishing all affairs, whether of a
private or a public nature, in the morning. The rest of the day he
employed in superintending and promoting the embellishments of Babylon. He
exhibited tragedies that drew tears from the eyes of the spectators, and
comedies that shook their sides with laughter; a custom which had long
been disused, and which his good taste now induced him to revive. He never
affected to be more knowing in the polite arts than the artists
themselves; he encouraged them by rewards and honors, and was never
jealous of their talents. In the evening the king was highly entertained
with his conversation, and the queen still more. "Great minister!" said
the king. "Amiable minister!" said the queen; and both of them added, "It
would have been a great loss to the state had such a man been hanged."

Never was a man in power obliged to give so many audiences to the ladies.
Most of them came to consult him about no business at all, that so they
might have some business with him. But none of them won his attention.

Meanwhile Zadig perceived that his thoughts were always distracted, as
well when he gave audience as when he sat in judgment. He did not know to
what to attribute this absence of mind; and that was his only sorrow.

He had a dream in which he imagined that he laid himself down upon a heap
of dry herbs, among which there were many prickly ones that gave him great
uneasiness, and that he afterwards reposed himself on a soft bed of roses
from which there sprung a serpent that wounded him to the h