To Curt John Ducasse
OPERE DEL REGIME
ROMA VILLA CELIMONTANA
Rome. March 11, 1932
Thank you very much for your pamphlet, with which I am in general agreement. Especially at the end, I think you hit the nail on the head about the “social” intention of the artist. When he is pleased with his work he cries, Oh, look! like a child pointing at a donkey.—You can’t tell what you want to say till (at least mentally) you have said it.
From The Letters of George Santayana: Book Four, 1928–1932. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2003.
Location of manuscript: The John Hay Library, Brown University, Providence RI