To Paul Arthur Schilpp
Hotel Bristol
Rome. April 13, 1939
Dear Mr. Schilpp— I have your letter of March 28– and also the one addressed to “Dr.” Daniel Cory, which I will forward to him in a day or two. He is at this moment on his way from London to Florence, and I am not quite sure what his address will be in the latter place, but he will send it to me as soon as he settles down. He is not a doctor, nor even a college graduate, but when a very young man, taking some odd courses at Columbia, he came across my Scepticism & Animal Faith and was very much taken with it. He began, therefore, in what I think the right path; but his philosophic innocence is now lost, and he has departed in various ways from my highway. However, he understands my views, and knows me personally very well; he is also (more than I) an expert in the theory of perception and knowledge, having been thoroughly and painfully drilled in it by my friend C. A. Strong.
Under a separate cover I am sending you typewritten copies of the pieces from the Triton Edition which we are agreed to use in the proposed 1937–1940 volume about me. I have made the necessary corrections. As you suggest a change of title for the “Brief History of my Opinions” it occurs to me that, especially with the three pages added (I think they will go perfectly as a continuation, not a footnote) the whole might be called “A General Confession”. Or is that too facetious? You know it is the phrase used by Catholics when, on great festive occasions, they make a review of all their past sins.
Yours sincerely,
G Santayana
From The Letters of George Santayana: Book Six, 1937-1940. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2004.
Location of manuscript: Morris Library, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale