To George Sturgis
Hotel Danieli
Venice, Italy. September 15, 1939
I was wrong in my confidence that there would be no war this year. I felt that this government, the Italian, was bent on peace, and didn’t imagine that the Germans would go ahead alone. It seems madness, or have they something more up their sleeves? I see the British government is making a crusade of the matter. They feel as they did 100 years ago, or more, about Napoleon, and earlier about Spain and No Popery. But the world is in a different phase, and it is England now that is fighting for tradition. Perhaps, if they win, they may find that tradition undermined at home by the very effort to defend it, and impossible to restore abroad.
However, we shall see, or you will; because if they are to fight to a finish, I may not be there to celebrate. However, I am well and cheerful.
From The Letters of George Santayana: Book Six, 1937-1940. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2004.
Location of manuscript: The Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge MA