To Miguel de Unamuno
Ávila, Spain. 28 de Diciembre, 1913¹

Sr Don Miguel de Unamuno²
Muy Señor mio: Acaba de llegar á mis manos el tomo de su obra “El sentimiento trágico de la vida” que ha tenido V. la amabilidad de dedicarme. Estimo en lo que vale este obsequio inesperado, y me apresuro á darle las mas expresivas gracias. Basta con ojear el primer capitulo para cerciorarse de que brilla en esta obra cómo siempre su conocido ingenio, y anticipo el mas exquisito gusto en saborearla, admirando detenidamente, los variados horizontes que descubre y la espontaneadad de pensamiento que la distingue.
Hace dos años que dejé la Cátedra que ocupaba en América para renovar, despues de largo intérvalo, los Wanderjahre estudiantiles. Siendo español y encontrandome en este momento en ciudad tan puramente castellana cómo Avila, no he querido escribir á V. sinó en la lengua materna, aunque sea con la torpeza propria de quien se sirve habitualmente de otro idioma.
Me es muy grata esta ocasión de enviarle un saludo respetuoso y de profesarme su atento y seguro servidor q.b.s.m³
Jorge Ruiz de Santayana

1. Translation:
Dear Sir: I have just received a copy of your work “The Tragic Sense of Life” which you have had the kindness to dedicate to me. I know the worth of this unexpected gift, and I hasten to express my most sincere thanks. It is enough to glance through the first chapter to realize that as always your well-known talent shines in this work and I look forward to the greatest pleasure when I savor it, admiring at length the varied horizons it opens and the spontaneity of thought that distinguishes it.
Two years have passed since I left the professorship that I had in America, to renew, after a long interval, my student years of travel. Being Spanish and finding myself at this time in a city so purely Castillian as Ávila, I have not wanted to write to you except in the mother-tongue, even though it be with the clumsiness of a person who usually uses another language.
I take great pleasure in this opportunity to send you a respectful greeting as your faithful servant who kisses your hand.
2. The distinguished Spanish poet, novelist, playwright, and critic Miguel de Unamuno y Jugo (1864-1936) was educated at the University of Madrid and was professor of Greek at the University of Salamanca. Del sentimiento trágico de la vida en los hombres y en los pueblos, his best-known work, was published in Madrid in 1913.
3. Que besa su mano.

From The Letters of George Santayana:  Book Two, 1910-1920.  Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2001.
Location of manuscript: University of Salamanca, Casa Museo Unamuno, Salamanca, Spain