THE DOG AND THE HORSE

Zadig found by experience that the first month of marriage, as it is written in the book of Zend, is the moon of honey, and that the second is the moon of wormwood.  He was some time after obliged to repudiate Azora, who became too difficult to be pleased; and he then sought for happiness in the study of nature.  “No man,” said he, “can be happier than a philosopher who reads in this great book which God hath placed before our eyes.  The truths he discovers are his own, he nourishes and exalts his soul; he lives in peace; he fears nothing from men; and his tender spouse will not come to cut off his nose.”

Possessed of these ideas he retired to a country house on the banks of the Euphrates.  There he did not employ himself in calculating how many inches of water flow in a second of time under the arches of a bridge, or whether there fell a cube line of rain in the month of the Mouse more than in the month of the Sheep.  He never dreamed of making silk of cobwebs, or porcelain of broken bottles; but he chiefly studied the properties of plants and animals; and soon acquired a sagacity that made him discover a thousand differences where other men see nothing but uniformity.

One day, as he was walking near a little wood, he saw one of the queen’s eunuchs running toward him, followed by several officers, who appeared to be in great perplexity, and who ran to and fro like men distracted, eagerly searching for something they had lost of great value.  “Young man,” said the first eunuch, “hast thou seen the queen’s dog?” “It is a female,” replied Zadig.  “Thou art in the right,” returned the first eunuch.  “It is a very small she spaniel,” added Zadig; “she has lately whelped; she limps on the left forefoot, and has very long ears.”  “Thou hast seen her,” said the first eunuch, quite out of breath.  “No,” replied Zadig, “I have not seen her, nor did I so much as know that the queen had a dog.”

Exactly at the same time, by one of the common freaks of fortune, the finest horse in the king’s stable had escaped from the jockey in the plains of Babylon.  The principal huntsman and all the other officers ran after him with as much eagerness and anxiety as the first eunuch had done after the spaniel.  The principal huntsman addressed himself to Zadig, and asked him if he had not seen the king’s horse passing by.  “He is the fleetest horse in the king’s stable,” replied Zadig; “he is five feet high, with very small hoofs, and a tail three feet and a half in length; the studs on his bit are gold of twenty-three carats, and his shoes are silver of eleven pennyweights.”  “What way did he take? where is he?” demanded the chief huntsman.  “I have not seen him,” replied Zadig, “and never heard talk of him before.”