Sir Alistair Thorne was a man of vast wealth and even vaster certainty. To Alistair, the world was a series of problems to be solved with stone and mortar. His final project, he decided, would be his masterpiece: "The Spire of Perpetual Silence," a towering, mock-Gothic lighthouse built in the center of a landlocked forest, miles from any ocean.
The traveler looked at the empty hearth and the stone walls that held no heat, then back at the starving old man."I see," the traveler said. "The building is a folly, but the man who built it... he is the true work of art." Sir Alistair Thorne was a man of vast
As the years passed, the construction drained his inheritance. He sold his carriage, his fine wines, and eventually his city estate to pay for the intricate gargoyles that would never be seen by anyone but the squirrels. His friends stopped visiting, weary of his lectures on "sublime uselessness." The traveler looked at the empty hearth and