To Cyril Coniston Clemens
Via S. Stefano Rotondo, 6
Rome. June 2, 1952
It is quite true that I am a materialist in cosmology: my taste need not be materialistic on that account. Every naturalist must assume that spirit has arisen naturally in the world of nature and astronomy; and I have settled convictions, and have had them since I was 20, on that point. But religions have always appealed to me as myths more or less expressing the fortunes of spirit in the world that generates it, as in theology the Holy Ghost “proceeds” from the Father (Matter) and from the Son (Form) but suffers a good deal (as Christ did by being incarnate.) Cf. my book on The Idea of Christ. It is only through having roots in the natural world that such ideas have, for me, any truth or beauty.
As to Mark Twain’s “The Prince and the Pauper.” It is evidently a sentimental tale, perfectly false, set at a moment when England was being debauched by Henry V and all the bishops but one, and when Mark Twain could not possibly feel what was at stake. I could never bring myself to read it. Shall I send it back?
From The Letters of George Santayana: Book Eight, 1948–1952. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2008.
Location of manuscript: William R. Perkins Library, Duke University, Durham NC.