The Works of George Santayana

Category: LETTERS Page 35 of 274

Letters in Limbo ~ November 7, 1946

Bertrand_Russell_transparent_bgTo Daniel MacGhie Cory
Via Santo Stefano Rotondo, 6
Rome. November 7, 1946

I have . . . Bertie Russell’s “Amberley Papers”, the biography letters and journals of his parents, Lord and Lady Amberley. Amberley was a soft sentimental ultra-consciencious youth, but egotistic and even cruel on occasion. The way he carried on and then abandoned a very nice middleclass girl, saying he “trusted that time would make her stronger” and that they “parted with the same trust, clinging to one another, the same pure loyalty to our sacred friendship”—she died a year or two later, while he married another girl–reminded me of my friend his son with his various lady-loves. But of course the book is rich in pungent foot-notes in the Voltarian or Gibbons-like tone that Bertie delights in: yet I feel how inhuman these high-principled self-righteous people are, and how troubled was their life in spite of their advantages—the greatest of which they didn’t appreciate. I have finished—that is, I have got to the end—of Sitwell’s book, after being cloyed with too much landscape and too much absurdity in the way of living described. This aristocracy deserved to disappear more than did the French, which didn’t go in so much for nominal virtue and superior judgement. Sitwell is an extreme example of the rich liberal who despises everything in his world except himself and the scent of flowers. But as you say they often write very well.

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

Letters in Limbo ~ November 6, 1934

George-SantayanaTo Victor Wolfgang von Hagen
Hotel Bristol
Rome. November 6, 1934

“The mediocrity of everything in the great world of today is simply appalling. We live in intellectual slums”

From The Letters of George Santayana: Book Five, 1933-1936. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2003. Location of manuscript: Unknown.

Letters in Limbo ~ November 5, 1948

SantayanaTo John Hall Wheelock
Via Santo Stefano Rotondo, 6,
Rome. November 5, 1948

From my young friend Lyon, of Austin Texas, who has received the set kindly sent by you of the Triton Edition, I hear the following: “A friend asked me: “Will you cut the pages? The books will be much more valuable if you don’t, you know.” He is now an acquaintance.”

From The Letters of George Santayana: Book Eight, 1948-1952. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2008. Location of manuscript: Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, Princeton University Libraries, Princeton NJ.

Letters in Limbo ~ November 4, 1934

BRB0113 Low German NT_1200To Nancy Saunders Toy
Hotel Bristol
Rome. November 4, 1934

New Testament criticism will never become straightforward and clear until two things happen together which as yet occur only separately: that the spirit and presuppositions of the critic should be thoroughly secular and scientific, and that his object should be purely religion itself, i.e., the religious feeling, imagination, and tradition in the New Testament writers. We must substitute a scientific interest in religion for a religious interest in science; otherwise both religion and science will be muddled.

From The Letters of George Santayana:  Book Five, 1933-1936.  Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2003.
Location of manuscript: Unknown

Letters in Limbo ~ November 3, 1924

Catullus_NewBioImageTo Pierre de Chaignon la Rose
Hotel Bristol
Rome. November 3, 1924

Dear la Rose,

Today at last, sitting enjoying the golden warmth and light of a glorious afternoon in the gardens of the Villa Borghese, I have succeeded in making a version of the lines of Catullus which you had copied. I have been carrying them in my pocket for some time and had some scraps of translation ringing in my head, but the thing had never taken shape until this moment. It is a very Italian piece, childish, full of repetitions and sobs; and I have tried to catch something of its passion, while letting other things go. My friend Strong brought me here a week ago in his motor, and on the way we stopped to lunch with the daughter of Bayard Cutting, who is settled in a farm near Monte Pulciano with her young and charming husband Marchese Antonio Origo. Strong has returned to Fiesole, and I am looking forward to six months of peaceful existence and work. Rome is a particularly pleasant place to me: I like the solidity of its stones, the nearness of the green country, the troupes of theological students of all nations, the soldiers and sailors and Facisti, and the combination of modern comfort with a suggestion of grandeur and a great deal of Bohemian freedom and simplicity. Vale.
Yours sincerely,
G Santayana

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

Page 35 of 274

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