on of a solar myth.

Voltaire tells us that, disenchanted with life by sundry 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 animals about him sharpened his naturally
good powers of observation and of reasoning; until, at length, he
acquired 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 knowledge could tend to nothing but
the increase of a man's own welfare and the good of his fellow-men. But
Zadig was fated to experience the vanity of such expectations.

"One day, walking near a little wood, he saw, hastening that
way, one of the Queen's chief eunuchs, followed by a troop of
officials, who appeared to be in the greatest anxiety, running
hither and thither like men distraught, in search of some
lost treasure.

"'Young man,' cried the eunuch, 'have you seen the Queen's dog?'
Zadig answered modestly, 'A bitch, I think, not a dog.'
'Quite right,' replied the eunuch; and Zadig continued, 'A very
small spaniel who has lately had puppies; she limps with the
left foreleg, and has very long ears.' 'Ah! you have seen her
then,' said the breathless eunuch. 'No,' answered Zadig, 'I have
not seen her; and I really was not aware that the Queen
possessed a spaniel.'

"By an odd coincidence, at the very same time, the handsomest
horse in the King's stables broke away from his groom in the
Babylonian plain. The grand huntsman and all his staff were
seeking the horse with as much anxiety as the eunuch and his
people the spaniel; and the grand huntsman asked Zadig if he had
not seen the King's horse go that way.

"'A first-rate galloper, small-hoofed, five feet high;
tail three feet and a half long; cheek pieces of the bit of
twenty-three carat gold; shoes silver?' said Zadig.

"'Which way did he go? Where is he?' cried the grand huntsman.

"'I have not seen anything of the horse, and I never heard of
him before,' replied Zadig.

"The grand huntsman and the chief eunuch made sure that Zadig
had stolen both t