To David Page
Via Santo Stefano Rotondo, 6
Rome. May 12, 1946
I am waiting expectantly to see the first number of The New Satyricon. If my article and letter about Many Nations in One Empire appear in it, they may serve as a second counter surprise to my friends and enemies, who think it so odd—(is it Conversion?) that I should write about Christ in my dotage! They little suspect that I am deep in the works of Stalin, and much impressed. It is a pity they should be cruel. If they were home-staying and peaceful, like Quakers or Boers, they (the Bolsheviks) would be admirable: so clear, so strong, so undazzled by finery!
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.