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