love
        so much, is dead.”  “How so?” “Your fine palfrey, while
        being exercised in the court, became frightened, and in
        running fell into the well.”  “Ah, who startled the
        horse?” “It was your son, Damaiseau, who fell at its
        feet from the window.”  “My son!—­O Heaven!  Where, then,
        were his servant and his mother?  Is he injured?” “Yes,
        sire, he has been killed by falling.  And when they went
        to tell it to madame, she was so affected that she fell
        dead also without speaking.”  “Rascal! in place of flying
        away, why hast thou not gone to seek assistance, or why
        didst thou not remain at the chateau?” “There is no more
        need, sire; for Marotte, in watching madame, fell
        asleep.  A light caused the fire, and there remains
        nothing now.”—­Truly a delicate way of “breaking ill
        news”!

The Samradian sect of fire-worshippers, who believe only in the “ideal,” anticipated Bishop Berkeley’s theory, thus referred to by Lord Byron (Don Juan, xi, 1): 

  When Bishop Berkeley said, “there was no matter,”
    And proved it—­’twas no matter what he said;
  They say, his system ’tis in vain to batter,
    Too subtle for the airiest human head.

Some amusing anecdotes regarding this singular sect are given in the Dabistan, a work written in Persian, which furnishes a very impartial account of the principal religions of the world:  A Samradian said to his servant:  “The world and its inhabitants have no actual existence—­they have merely an ideal being.”  The servant, on hearing this, took the first opportunity to steal his master’s horse, and when he was about to ride, brought him an ass with the horse’s saddle.  When the Samradian asked:  “Where is the horse?” he replied:  “Thou hast been thinking of an idea; there was no horse in being.”  The master said:  “It is true,” and then mounted the ass.  Having proceeded some distance, followed by his servant on foot, he suddenly dismounted, and taking the saddle off the back of the ass placed it on the servant’s back, drawing the girths tightly, and, having forced the bridle into his mouth, he mounted him, and flogged him along vigorously.  The servant having exclaimed in piteous accents:  “What is the meaning of this, O master?” the Samradian replied:  “There is no such thing as a whip; it is merely ideal.  Thou art thinking only of a delusion.”  It is needless to add that the servant immediately repented and restored the horse.—­Another of this sect having obtained in marriage the daughter of a wealthy lawyer, she, on finding out her husband’s peculiar creed, purposed to have some amusement at his expense.  One day the Samradian brought home a bottle of excellent wine, which during his absence she emptied of its contents and filled again with water.  When the time came for taking wine, she poured out the water into a gold