To David Page
C/o Brown Shipley & Co.
123, Pall Mall, London, S.W.1
Rome. February 19, 1936
Dear Mr. Page,
I feel like a dethroned monarch, there are so many about nowadays. My own Sovereign, King Alfonso, is living here in Rome, like me: but we do not exchange sighs. In fact, I am not clear how, having a Sovereign of my own (although deposed) I could loyally have become a sovereign of another country, even if you had really proposed to raise me to that eminence. Let us be satisfied, from this valley of tribulation, to salute the undisturbed summits of the always possible and the truly best. But please don’t put me down as a member of any party. I renounce them all.
Yours sincerely,
G Santayana
From The Letters of George Santayana: Book Five, 1933-1936. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2003.
Location of manuscript: Butler Library, Columbia University, New York NY.