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