To Mary Potter Bush
Hotel Miramonti
Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy. July 25, 1934
You see where I am, with that want of initiative which characterizes an aged and self-repeating temperament. If I were only a Bergsonian “true mystic” I should have made an “effort,” and created some higher form of existence. I am trying to finish the novel, but come upon tiresome snags: however, by leaving troublesome things out, I am determined to bring it somehow to an end, so as to have a clear mental field for some other little things that I want to do. . . .
As to my profile, I have always hated it, but reproduce it here at your request.
From The Letters of George Santayana: Book Five, 1933–1936. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2003.
Location of manuscript: Butler Library, Columbia University, New York NY.