To Benjamin F. Hazen
Via Santo Stefano Rotondo, 6,
Rome. August 21, 1947
Dear Mr. Hazen,
Your article about my philosophy—not about The Last Puritan—in Cronos goes very much into the heart of things and represents my views accurately: the only side of my sentiment, if not my doctrine, which you neglect is the enthusiasm for Greece and for England which I felt in my middle years, and which appeared principally in The Life of Reason and Dialogues in Limbo, as well as in Soliloquies in England and the Last Puritan. I have outgrown that enthusiasm, so that you, standing at the end, do well, perhaps, to ignore it; yet the sentiment remains an ingredient in my humanism. It keeps me from being a cynic about the possibilities of mankind. You were lucky to strike upon my Introduction to Spinoza; it set you out on the right key: whereas many of my American friends, who strike the key of The Life of Reason, never understand my true meaning.
You have chosen the better part, and I am much gratified at what you say about my last book, and about the analogy between “Realms” and the Christian Trinity. If I am able to finish the book I am still at work on you will get a different final impression, however, more naturalistic and humane.
Yours sincerely,
G Santayana
From The Letters of George Santayana: Book Seven, 1941-1947. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2006.
Location of manuscript: Unknown.