To Daniel MacGhie Cory
Via Santo Stefano Rotondo, 6
Rome. April 15, 1945
Two robust sergeants, send by Freidenberg, who tomorrow becomes a Warrant Officer, have just brought me your letter of April 4, with the enclosed order for the remainder of the “escrow” in the Bank. I hope it will be enough to pay for your holidays in Maine. I have written to Mr. Wheelock, saying that I wish all my royalties to be paid to you for the present, since international banking seems to be impossible, and is likely to remain difficult for some time. My own account with Brown Shipley & Co has been “transferred to the Custodian of enemy property,” according to an inscription in red across an old cheque in favour of Miss Tindall, which she has returned. She is now willing to receive lire, so that I shall clear all indebtedness to her as soon as she returns Part II of the Idea of Christ, which she is now copying.
Your father’s sentiments about English speech prove the relativity of morals and aesthetics. He might object to an English accent in you, if it were noticeable, but in Mrs. Cory he ought to regard it as an interesting and agreeable natural fact, like bird-notes. And in this case they are so much lighter and sweeter!
From The Letters of George Santayana: Book Seven, 1941-1947. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2006.
Location of manuscript: Butler Library, Columbia University, New York NY.