To Ira Detrich Cardiff
Via Santo Stefano Rotondo, 6
Rome. September 21, 1948
I have asked Scribner to send you a copy of their new edition of my Dialogues in Limbo containing three not in the old edition which you may have seen. In glancing over the pages I came upon the following which I thought might appeal to you: (p. 120)
Socrates: Those who worship the statues of gods, rather than the gods themselves, are called idolaters?
The Stranger: Yes.
Socrates: And if a man worshipped an image of some god in his own mind, rather than the power that actually controls his destiny, he would be worshipping an idol?
The Stranger: The principle would be the same; but usage among us applies the word idol to the products of sculpture, not to those of poetry.
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