To Lawrence Smith Butler
Via Santo Stefano Rotondo, 6
Rome. July 13, 1946
Dear Lawrence,
Your box has arrived, adding a lot to the luxury of life for a while, the variety of things–especially those Basle cookies–being a danger to the idea of asceticism that is appropriate to a monastery. I feel a little ashamed to have sent you any suggestions for a second box: don’t bother to send it unless it is fun to do so. For me it is childish fun to open a box and see what Santa Claus has provided. Nothing is wasted, because this establishment is not austere–for a religious house–and there are sometimes children attached to invalid parents, and always young Sisters and young lay nurses who have not vowed abstinence from sweets.
My days seem short. With nothing apparently to do, I seem always to be called away by visits, or letters, or meals, from what I had set myself to work upon. However, it is of no great consequence. I wish one of these interruptions might be caused by you.
Your old friend, G Santayana
From The Letters of George Santayana: Book Seven, 1941-1947. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2006.
Location of manuscript: The University Club, New York NY