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 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 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 heart with its sharp and venomed tongue.  “Alas,” said he, “I have long lain on these dry and prickly herbs, I am now on the bed of roses; but what shall be the serpent?”

JEALOUSY

Zadig’s calamities sprung even from his happiness and especially from his merit.  He every day conversed with the king and Astarte, his august comfort.  The charms of his conversation were greatly heightened by that desire of pleasing, which is to the mind what dress is to beauty.  His youth and graceful appearance insensibly made an impression on Astarte, which she did not at first perceive.  Her passion grew and flourished in the bosom of innocence.  Without fear or scruple, she indulged the pleasing satisfaction of seeing and hearing a man who was so dear to her husband and to the empire in general.  She was continually praising him to the king.  She talked of him to her women, who were always sure to improve on her praises.  And thus everything contributed to pierce her heart with a dart, of which she did not seem to be sensible.  She made several presents to Zadig, which discovered a greater spirit of gallantry than she imagined.  She intended to speak to him only as a queen satisfied with his services and her expressions were sometimes those of a woman in love.