To Jessie Belle Rittenhouse
60 Brattle Street
Cambridge, Massachusetts. March 2, 1904
Dear Miss Rittenhouse,
I enclose a photograph (after a drawing by the late Andreas Andersen, made in 1896) and two stanzas from my translation of l’Art. Publication is self-alienation and I have no moral right to impede any plans you may have to operate on the corpus vile of my poor Muse.
Yours truly,
G Santayana
From l’Art by Théophile Gautier.
… All things return to dust
Save beauties fashioned well.
The bust Outlasts the citadel . . .
Chisel and carve and file,
Till thy vague dream imprint
Its smile
On the unyielding flint.
From The Letters of George Santayana: Book One, [1868]-1909. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2001.
Location of manuscript: Rollins College, Winter Park FL