Soliloquies in England and Later Soliloquies
by . New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons. 1922. 8vo, viii+264 pp. $3.50.
MR. SANTAYANA’S Soliloquies make a volume full of charm and interest for those who like that sort of thing, like, that is to say, short essays on a great variety of topics written with the ease and simplicity of the finished artist, from a mind richly stored and finely disciplined. In spite of the variety of topics, ranging from Dickens to Platonism, and from Dons to Skylarks, all the essays are beads-or, shall we say, pearls? — strung on one thread, the fine silken thread of the author’s philosophy, a refined and subtle Epicureanism.
Among the many topics are two which recur again and again, English life and character, and the fundamental realities. Mr. Santayana has been discovering England. Not that he was a stranger to her before Oxford became his refuge during the years of war. But during three years he has evidently deepened his appreciation and understanding. This appreciation is very sincere and his understanding very penetrating. He is not blind to the Englishman’s defects, yet on the whole his portrait is such as no Englishman could resent. He admires two peoples, the ancient Greeks and the modern English, and finds that they have much in common. He admires them because they illustrate in practice the principles of his naturalistic philosophy. To many it will seem that his portrait of the Englishman is too flattering. And it is true that Santayana has learned to know him as he is represented at Cambridge and at Oxford where, no doubt, English life and character may be seen at their best. But this book is not concerned with dwelling on those features of English life which, though they may be very extensive, are yet but blemishes upon its fair face. For the author knows well that the spirit of a people is most truly embodied in its best representatives.
Of England he writes: ‘I found here the same sort of manliness which I had learned to love in America, yet softer, and not at all obstreperous; a manliness which, when refined a little, creates the gentleman, since its instinct is to hide its strength for an adequate occasion and for the service of others.’ Mr. Santayana sees that even the snobbery of the English is not all bad. In romantic fiction he recognizes the most characteristic art of the English. Of the typical Briton he writes: ‘ He travels and conquers without a settled design, because be has the instinct of exploration. His adventures are all external; they change him so little that he is not afraid of them. He carries his English weather in his heart wherever he goes. And it becomes a cool spot in the desert, and a steady and sane oracle amongst all the deliriums of mankind. Never since the heroic days of Greece has the world had such a sweet, just, boyish master. It will be a black day for the human race when scientific blackguards, conspirators, churls, and fanatics manage to supplant him.’
In these and in many other passages that might well he quoted there is high and discriminating praise from a most discerning critic. But although so much of the book is concerned with this theme, there are many pages which illuminate the author’s philosophy more directly, and many shrewd hits at the ’idealistic’ philosophers who scorn all naturalism. Indeed, in these detached soliloquies Mr. Santayana has, perhaps, defined his attitude toward life more clearly than in his more formal and sustained philosophical discourse.
WILLIAM McDOUGALI.