To Charles Augustus Strong
C/o B. S. & Co.
123 Pall Mall S.W. Queen’s Acre
Windsor, England. August 5, 1914
Dear Strong,
What are we going to do? In vain Aristippus dwelt in foreign republics, to escape the cares of citizenship. They held him up and trounced him just the same when there was a row. How are you going to get back, and what of your father’s trip through France? As for me, I am stranded here, and mean to go to Oxford and stay there until the war is over, if I can find rooms. Mrs. Bowler, at 66 the High, can take me only for a few days. The worst of it is that I left every thing at the apartment unpacked, my winter clothes and my new letter of credit: however, I have £50 left which will do until my brother can send me more from America, if he is able to get there. I haven’t had word from him for some time. I suppose you will write to Françoise and give her directions; I am sending her a line merely to tell her not to expect me for the present.
At first this terrible situation in Europe made me quite sick and speechless, as if I had lost some dear friend; but now that the battle is well engaged my sporting blood is up, and I feel a pleasing horror at it all, and one seems to be living a greater life amid such fearful events and constant excitement. What is one to expect, and what is one to hope for? I hardly know; but it looks as if perhaps the Germans, in their sincerity and courage, had lost their heads, and become infatuated by the sense of duty and power. And I can’t help wishing the French well, and the poor blameless Belgians! It is fortunate that the Italians are out of it; but I see Captain Mahan thinks they will have to intervene, and against their allies!
God be with us all!
Yours ever, G.S.
From The Letters of George Santayana: Book Two, 1910-1920. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2001.
Location of manuscript: Rockefeller Archive Center, Sleepy Hollow NY.