Many years have passed since George Santayana began to enrich our literature and philosophy with his many works and a need has long been felt for a book which would relate these works and bring together the facts regarding/that created them. Mr. Howgate's biography goes far in filling that need. His material has been carefully sifted and the finished product repays the labor that must have gone into it. Santayana's thought and marvelous power of expression are illustrated by numerous, well-chosen quotations; and the interpretations of his views are supported by a large amount of evidence which the critical reader can check for himself. Also, Mr. Howgate not only expounds; he speaks his own mind, as when he cautions against taking some of Santayana's recent political utterances too seriously.

It is a little unfortunate that Santayana should have been approached from a literary rather than from a philosophical point of view. For the detailed analysis of the poet, critic, and essayist only makes one realize how much more important is his philosophy. He had already won a reputation as a was poet when he/just a few years out of Harvard. But he gave up this medium when he decided his thoughts could be better expressed in prose. "I think," he says, "the discerning reader will probably prefer the later prose versions of my philosophy: I prefer them myself, as being more broadly based, saner, more humorous."

George Santayana, By George W. Howgate. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. ~~$3.50~~

The Life of Reason: or Phases of Human Progress, his first large-scale work, appeared thirty-four years ago. It had been suggested by Hegel's Phaenomenologie des Geistes. But what a difference there was! Sophistry and wit were replaced by an outlook that was even-tempered, humorous and provocative all in one breath. Philosophers were almost as much surprised as the layman: here was philosophy as it was rarely written, having grace and wit and lacking the terminology that usually clogged interest in works of this sort. The subjects of the five volumes were common sense, society, religion, art, and science, and they were separately surveyed as though they were acts in a great human drama. Everyone of these subjects was examined in the light of his principle, famous by now, that everything ideal has a natural basis and everything natural an ideal fulfillment. Plato's idealism and Aristotle's naturalism in this form yielded new, and sometimes startling insights.

While both edges of this principle were useful in their applications, the greater effect resulted from calling attention to the material bases of our beliefs and practices. For this reason I would say the work exerted an influence on modern philosophy comparable in a way to that of Das Capital in modern economic theory. As a counterforce against the transcendentalism rampant in American thought, its value was immense. Some of its shortcomings were due to the style, which abounded in metaphors and epigrams but became obscure helped obscure the meaning and made for ambiguity now and then. Santayana

["praised the Greeks for their wisdom, but he drew them larger\nthan life, as the sculptors of their day would have done.\nPolitical, social, and economic forces are not weighed\nsufficiently in the *Life of Reason*. The way of life pictured\nis more appropriate for an Athenian aristocrat than for ordinary\nindividuals in our community. Deep, independent thinking\nis found in the work; there is evidence, also, that the author\nhad not read as widely in economics and sociology as he had\nin philosophy.", "With the publication of *Scepticism and Animal Faith* and, a few\nin\nyears later, /1927, *The Realms of Being*, something like a minor\nup\nSantayana's\ntempest was stirred in the ranks of the professors and his\nadmirers. These volumes, which taken all together make up a\nsystem of philosophy, were thought to represent a sharp departure\nfrom earlier writings. This is so in the sense that the opinions\nare keener and more mature than ever before. Snatches and germs\nof the ideas developed at great length are found in the *Life of\nReason* and in previous papers, such as \"Some Meanings of the\nWord 'Is'" printed in the *Journal of Philosophy* in 1915, and\n\"L'iteral and Symbolic Knowledge\" in the same *Journal* in 1918.\nThis system is an exploration of special dimensions--matter,\nessence, and truth,--to name the subjects of the first three\nvolumes that have been issued thus far. Santayana is here\ndiscriminating ideas that have been used extensively but have\nnot been entirely understood. They are among the most abstract\nand baffling concepts we have."]

His contributions in ethics and aesthetics alone--*The Sense of Beauty*, incidentally, was a pioneer study in its field--are enough to assure him an honorable place in philosophical company. What is amazing, however, is that other things he has done in verse, criticism, and in the novel, are almost without exception first rate. The essays on Goethe, Dante, and Shelley, among others, are excellent witness that literary criticism is a kind of philosophical analysis and is itself creative literature.

Howgate presents the facts on Santayana's career and the
development of his opinions in a straightforward manner, ~~he~~
~~does not pretend~~ to know more about him than is actually known,
which is certainly commendable. However, he has had more
success in telling us about Santayana's philosophy than about
his life. This was to be expected, for while the material
is available in the first instance, it is not/in the second.
One of the reasons Santayana has always seemed a strange figure
in American philosophy is that he steered clear of the trivial
and exaggerated problems that have cluttered up much that
passes as philosophy. Instead, he came directly to the heart
of matters the keen and comprehensive probing of which truly
constitutes philosophy. Another reason is that he was born
in Spain, coming to the United States at the age of nine.
He was never wholly used to the atmosphere here, just as there
were some who were not wholly sure that he really belonged.
It is ironic to learn that it required the backing of William
James and others before President Eliot was convinced that

George Santayana was deserving of a promotion to an assistant professorship. He taught at Harvard for twenty-two years, and at the height of his career resigned, went to Europe, and has never returned to the United States.

Except for a few articles by students and contemporaries, the account he himself offers in "A Brief History of My Opinions," and incidental remarks elsewhere, all of which by the way are dramatically colored, information about him which is of any consequence is scarce. Mr. Howgate talked with some of those who were associated with Santayana in America and he is able to present their impressions, and to quote from personal correspondence not previously made public. All of this adds to the store, but much we should like to know remains uncovered. It is hoped that any letters held by friends and others will be preserved; from what we have seen they are of the same quality as the publications and will aid in filling the gaps. What we need, as the author suggests, is a biography by a friend of long standing; an autobiography would be better still.

Santayana's criticism of America, the extent of his influence on Americans and ~~their influence on him~~ is dealt with in this book. His deep thrusts were not without foundation; and it would seem that their effect has been salutary. Howgate's study indicates that many Americans have taken their cue from Santayana; but we wish he had been as thorough in showing Santayana's debt to Americans. An examination of his work