To Ira Detrich Cardiff
Via Santo Stefano Rotondo, 6,
Rome. June 17, 1950
Dear Mr. Cardiff:
I too am sorry if my letter seemed to ignore the patient work and excellent presentation of all these months that you have spent on this anthology; and it was doubtless egotistical of me to complain of the shock that I felt at being coupled with Tom Paine instead of with Thomas Aquinas, not only explicitly in your introduction but implicitly by the prevalent antitraditional tone of the quotations about religion, drawn from all places, without any counterpoise. It is true that you mentioned Paine and my Americanism in the first draft of your introduction, and I ought to have expressed myself more sharply in my comments at that time: but I had two reasons–besides a dislike of meddling–for not giving more than a general hint of the feeling that your choice of opinions (rather than thoughts) rubbed me the wrong way. They were, and are, my opinions; but they give a false impression of my sentiments and total philosophy. One reason for not speaking out was that, just because I felt that your aim in gathering this anthology was not what mine would have been, I did not wish to be in any measure responsible for it; and the other reason was that I rather expected that you would tone down your introduction and make my views seem, as they are and were, historical but not militant. I love a great deal of what is Greek, Catholic, English, and American, but without fighting for or against it.
From your letter (of today, dated June 12,) and the notices you have taken the trouble to copy, I feel that you have no reason to mind my grumbling (which was, I am afraid, too self-indulgent and ungrateful) because you have succeeded in accomplishing what you had in mind; to attract attention to my emancipated opinions, and to make a popular book. On this second point, we must wait for time to justify our ambition.
Personally, I don’t feel at all neglected as an author, never having expected popularity nor permanent fame. In American academic circles I am now well known, and have some influence over the younger students of philosophy, also in South America: but in England and the Continent I have only a limited number of readers. I never wished to be a professional or public man. Nor do I want disciples: I want only a few sympathetic friends, and I have them.
“Dominations and Powers” which we hope will appear next Spring, may make some difference in all this. It is closer to reality than any of my other books.
Yours sincerely
G Santayana
From The Letters of George Santayana: Book Eight, 1948–1952. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2008.
Location of manuscript: Butler Library, Columbia University, New York NY.