The Many Letters

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When Knyaz Brencis invited me to Greifberg castle, I expected to see the usual thing: the lavish riches I had beheld when visiting other rulers. I was surprised to discover that the Knyaz of Vale Sangora relished books and other writings above anything else.

And then he showed me things I hadn’t even dreamt of. In the span of his long, eventful lifetime, Knyaz Brencis was able to meet men of renown who had changed the face of the world. He even befriended many of them. I read letters addressed to him written by Marco Polo, Thomas Aquinas, and Dante Alighieri. These letters were fascinating disputes between great minds, but not without evident signs of respect and amiability.

After I read them, a thought occurred to me. We often measure a man’s worth by his riches or ambitions. But these are all but different forms of greed and vanity. What if instead we looked at who a man has as his friends? Birds of a feather flock together, after all.