Author: David Spiech Page 242 of 283

To Ellen, George, and Josephine Sturgis
Cambridge, Massachusetts. December 25, 1911

Now in my bag, wheree’er I go,
Order will reign, tho’ tempests blow,
Or porters fling it to and fro;
For thanks to Ellen, George, and Jo,
Shirts ties and collars, cased in leather,
In roughest hands or foulest weather,
Can never get mixed up together.

So in my thoughts your loves abide
Each quite distinct, all side by side;
No jolts of chance or rolling tide
Shall e’er confuse them, nor divide.
G.S.

From The Letters of George Santayana:  Book Two, 1910-1920.  Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2001.
Location of manuscript: The Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge MA

To Cyril Coniston Clemens
Hotel Bristol
Rome. Christmas Eve, 1938

My dear Clemens,
All you do and say seems to illustrate a theory which, in my intention, applies only to the last and highest reaches of the Spiritual life, and which I myself am incapable of practising. The truth no longer interests you unless you can turn it into a pleasing fiction. This interview with me I suppose is the same of which, years ago, you sent me a rough draft, where I suggested some corrections in view of that lower and servile criterion, truth.¹ But probably in the interval the force of inspiration has been again at work, and you have produced a sheer poem.
. . . .
I return your Foreword, as I keep no files, the extreme modesty of my apartment (it’s not very cheap) precludes anything but a waste-paper basket.
I am at work on my last volume of formal philosophy, The Realm of Spirit; but if life lasts even longer, I daresay I shall find it impossible not to keep on writing something or other.
Yours sincerely,
G Santayana

1. Cyril Clemens, George Santayana: An American Philosopher in Exile, with a foreword by Joseph F. Thorning, S.J. (Webster Groves, Mo.: International Mark Twain Society, 1937). Proofs of this six-page pamphlet, containing Santayana’s handwritten corrections, are in the Perkins Library of Duke University.

From The Letters of George Santayana:  Book Six, 1937-1940.  Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2004.
Location of manuscript: William R. Perkins Library, Duke University, Durham NC

To George Sturgis and Family
Rome, Italy. 23 December 1937

I have been out for a walk in the sun. You may have seen that we have been having much rain and even floods, but that coincided with my cold, and made keeping in-doors seem more natural. Rain and cloudy weather have always made me cheerful, even when I was a child. Was it because it rests the eyes, or because it suggests home and the chimney corner? I was a little old man when I was a boy, and am an old fat boy now that I have completed my 74th year.

From The Letters of George Santayana:  Book Six, 1937-1940.  Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2004.
Location of manuscript: Unknown

To [Sara or Grace] Norton
60 Brattle Street
Cambridge, Massachusetts. Dec. 22. ’99

Dear Miss Norton,
I am very sorry that I have another engagement for Sunday evening. It would have been a privilege—I don’t say to help you entertain your strangers—but to be entertained so Christianly in their company.
Yours sincerely,
G Santayana

To Pierre de Chaignon la Rose
C/o Brown Shipley & Co.
123 Pall Mall, London, S.W.1
Rome, Dec. 21, 1923

Dear la Rose¹
It is a great pleasure to receive your letter. From time to time I have felt an impulse to write, or to send you a book–particularly the Soliloquies–but the small impediment of not knowing your precise address or some other trivial obstacle has always intervened. Not long ago Lapsley and I spoke of you at length, and with a unanimity of sentiment which he and I are now developing on a good many subjects. Anglicanism not included, although even there we seem to have an inexpressible depth of agreement beneath the tacit disagreement of our opinions. I mean that I think I know
why he believes, and he thinks he knows why I disbelieve. It is a sympathetic opposition.
As to the occasion of your letter, what could be more grateful to a parent than the resurrection of a dead child? I have not yet received Fituski’s books,² but I am sure the outer form he would give to Lucifer would be more than satisfactory. Not long ago some one sent me a copy with a request that I should write something in it, and before doing so I reread the whole–which I hadn’t done for many years. My impression was that I had done what I meant to do, but that here and there feeble or unfortunate phrases occurred. I should not venture to suggest revision of the style. I should do it much less convincingly now; but perhaps in the proof we might change a word here and there, to strengthen the rhythm or avoid platitude. If you have marked any very bad places, I should be much obliged if you would point them out. Duffield has the copyright, but as he has disposed of that of the Sonnets I expect he would make no bones of getting rid of Lucifer as well. As to the $200 which you offer me, I should much rather take nothing, and let the money remain to insure Mr Fituski against loss in his venture. I have much more money than I need in my manner of life, which is that of the perpetual travelling student: so that do not let money be mentioned in this pleasant affair.³
Since you say you have 20 volumes of mine (which I think is more than I have written) I infer that you have various editions of the poems: if you have not the nice one (in white and gold) of the English edition published last year, will you let me know and I will have one sent you? Or would you prefer the English edition of the Soliloquies? I meant to send it you (it is probably much nicer than the American) only there is the circumstance of passing the custom-house–which, however, I can get round without trouble.
I am at work on many things, including a novel about which I should be particularly glad of a chance to talk with you. Don’t you ever come to Paris? It would be such a pleasure.
Yours sincerely GSantayana

1. Pierre de Chaignon la Rose (b. 1871) was one of Santayana’s Harvard friends (A.B., 1895) and a lecturer in Harvard’s English Department (1897–1902). Santayana described him as a man of excellent taste and talent as a designer (he designed the 1924 edition of Lucifer). (Persons, 407.8)
2. Maurice Firuski worked at Dunster House, the publishing firm in Cambridge, Massachusetts, which issued the new edition of Lucifer in 1924.
3. Dunster published a revised version of Lucifer in 1924. The headpieces, initial letters, and end papers were designed by and the typography arranged by La Rose.

From The Letters of George Santayana:  Book Three, 1921-1927.  Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2002.
Location of manuscript: The New York Public Library, New York City