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 reconciled them by saying, "If there are no
griffins, we cannot possibly eat them; and thus either way we shall obey
Zoroaster."

A learned man who had composed thirteen volumes on the properties of the
griffin, and was besides the chief theurgite, hastened away to accuse
Zadig before one of the principal magi, named Yebor, the greatest
blockhead and therefore the greatest fanatic among the Chaldeans. This man
would have impaled