Horace Walpole turns to the letters and argues that: Walpole's numerous letters are often used as a historical resource. In one, dating from 28 January 1754, he coined the word serendipity which he said was derived from a "silly fairy tale" he had read, "The Three Princes of Serendip". The oft-quoted epigram, "This world is a comedy to those that think, a tragedy to those that feel", is from a letter of Walpole's to Anne, Countess of Ossory, on 16 August 1776. The original, fuller version appeared in a letter to Sir Horace Mann on 31 December 1769: "I have often said,
The Three Princes and their Beasts The Three Princes and their Beasts The Three Princes and their Beasts is a Lithuanian fairy tale included by Andrew Lang in "The Violet Fairy Book". The actual source was "Von den drei Brüdern und ihren Thieren" from August Leskien und K. Brugman, in "Litauische Volkslieder und Märchen" (1882). Three princes had a stepsister. The four went hunting one day and were about to shoot a wolf when it offered to give each prince a cub if they did not. The same thing happened with a lioness, a fox, a hare, a boar and a bear. Then they came to