a stone which I knew to be a touchstone, and which I
have tried. In a word, from the marks made by his shoes on flints of
another kind, I concluded that he was shod with silver eleven deniers
fine."

All the judges admired Zadig for his acute and profound discernment.
The news of this speech was carried even to the king and queen. Nothing
was talked of but Zadig in the antechambers, the chambers, and the
cabinet; and though many of the magi were of opinion that he ought to
be burned as a sorcerer, the king ordered his officers to restore him
the four hundred ounces of gold which he had been obliged to pay. The
register, the attorneys, and bailiffs, went to his house with great
formality, to carry him back his four hundred ounces. They only
retained three hundred and ninety-eight of them to defray the expenses
of justice; and their servants demanded their fees.

Zadig saw how extremely dangerous it sometimes is to appear too
knowing, and therefore resolved that on the next occasion of the like
nature he would not tell what he had seen.

Such an opportunity soon offered. A prisoner of state made his escape,
and passed under the window of Zadig's house. Zadig was examined and
made no answer. But it was proved that he had looked at the prisoner
from this window. For this crime he was condemned to pay five hundred
ounces of gold; and, according to the polite custom of Babylon, he
thanked his judges for their indulgence.

"Great God!" said he to himself, "what a misfortune it is to walk in a
wood through which the queen's spaniel or the king's horse has passed!
how dangerous to look out at a window! and how difficult to be happy in
this life!"

THE ENVIOUS MAN

Zadig resolved to comfort himself by philosophy and friendship for the
evils he had suffered from fortune. He had in the suburbs of Babylon a
house elegantly furnished, in which he assembled all the arts and all
the pleasures worthy the pursuit of a gentleman. In the morning his
library was open to the learned. In the evening his table was
surrounded by good company. But he soon found what very dangerous
guests these men of letters are. A warm dispute arose on one of
Zoroaster's laws, which forbids the eating of a griffin. "Why," said
some of them, "prohibit the eating of a griffin, if there is no such an
animal in nature?" "There must necessarily be such an animal," said the
others, "since Zoroaster forbids us to eat it." Zadig would fain have
reconcile