Chitan's Price

A passage from The Purpose of Man, a collection of tracts written by the ninth-century (CA.) Epicharitan philosopher Medron, reading: "If men strive ultimately to create and obtain value for themselves, then we must know this desire. Let us consider the gendori of Sarne, and the price required by these men to abandon their existing conceptions of value. Chitan Anthon-Solien, though regarded as a vulgar and venal man by many of you, possessed a sharp and clever mind, and in his perception of a man's own self-assignation of worth I regard him as my predecessor. When your neighbour speaks to you of the price of the gendori he will perhaps say that the name Daharai was sold by each sibling for four tacs of silver and a golden drenon. He will no doubt disparage them, and claim even that the Daharai have lost their place in iein. But for twice this offered sum the gendori defied Chitan nine months, because simple currency alone would not sate them. The breaking of their order had broken the image of many of these men, and so they ascribed little to themselves. Not until the king stood before them and offered those men the promise of a new image did they assent, for with this promise the old and broken image possessed no worth in their esteem, though even that had been greater than what they saw in gold. So consider Chitan's price, and consider where it lies within yourself and within those around you."