George Santayana

ON A PIECE OF TAPESTRY


Hold high the woof, dear friends, that we may see
The cunning mixture of its colours rare.
Nothing in nature purposely is fair,—
Her beauties in their freedom disagree;
But here all vivid dyes that garish be,
To that tint mellowed which the sense will bear,
Glow, and not wound the eye that, resting there,
Lingers to feed its gentle ecstacy.
Crimson and purple and all hues of wine,
Saffron and russet, brown and sober green
Are rich the shadowy depths of blue between;
While silver threads with golden intertwine,
To catch the glimmer of a fickle sheen,—
All the long labour of some captive queen.

"Santayana's thought does not suffer from scrutiny; it deserves study both as an original philosophical statement and as a means to greater understanding of the man who elaborated it. Mr. McCormick suggests that Santayana is one of the greatest thinkers of all time, and laments that he has been unfairly consigned to oblivion. Many contemporary philosophers, however, have recognized Santayana's abilities, although they do tend to reason that his greatness lies in anticipating current fashions. But his thought is rich enough that it does not need to be rescued in these ways." --- ASCETICISM AND ANIMAL FAITH
By BRUCE KUKLICK; Bruce Kuklick, a professor of history at the University of Pennsylvania, is the author of ''The Rise of American Philosophy: Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1860-1930.''
Published: April 26, 1987 --- http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpag...ntayana&st=cse ---

THERE MAY BE CHAOS STILL AROUND THE WORLD


There may be chaos still around the world,
This little world that in my thinking lies;
For mine own bosom is the paradise
Where all my life's fair visions are unfurled.
Within my nature's shell I slumber curled,
Unmindful of the changing outer skies,
Where now, perchance, some new-born Eros flies,
Or some old Cronos from his throne is hurled.
I heed them not; or if the subtle night
Haunt me with deities I never saw, ...{excerpt}

CAPE COD


The low sandy beach and the thin scrub pine,
The wide reach of bay and the long sky line,--
O, I am sick for home!


The salt, salt smell of the thick sea air,
And the smooth round stones that the ebbtides wear,--
When will the good ship come?


The wretched stumps all charred and burned,
And the deep soft rut where the cartwheel turned,--
Why is the world so old?


The lapping wave, and the broad gray sky
Where the cawing crows and the slow gulls fly,
Where are the dead untold? ...{excerpt}

As in the midst of battle there is room
For thoughts of love, and in foul sin for mirth;
As gossips whisper of a trinket's worth
Spied by the death-bed's flickering candle-gloom;
As in the crevices of Caesar's tomb
The sweet herbs flourish on a little earth:
So in this great disaster of our birth
We can be happy, and forget our doom. ...{first of two stanzas}

"I sought on earth a garden of delight"


I sought on earth a garden of delight,
Or island altar to the Sea and Air,
Where gentle music were accounted prayer,
And reason, veiled, performed the happy rite.
My sad youth worshipped at the piteous height
Where God vouchsafed the death of man to share;
His love made mortal sorrow light to bear,
But his deep wounds put joy to shamèd flight.
And though his arms, outstretched upon the tree,
Were beautiful, and pleaded my embrace,
My sins were loth to look upon his face.
So came I down from Golgotha to thee,
Eternal Mother; let the sun and sea
Heal me, and keep me in thy dwelling-place. ...{one of Santayana's sonnets}

http://www.sonnets.org/santayan.htm#001

The first sonnet you posted is very beautiful, will have to give a look at this George Santayana.

I have overlooked this thread and regret that there has not been any chat about Santayana's The Last Puritan. After speaking to a philosophy major at University of Minnesota, I was inspired to re-read it (my 5th or 6th time). Never stops being a great read.

Dunno if this will spark any interest in this classic but here it goes anyway ...


The Last Puritan 1935.

A novel about the consequences of moral choices. These influenced by German rationalism where knowledge can only be attained by reason or a priori. This in contrast with British empiricism which affirms that knowledge comes from experience and sensory perception. Its lead character is a New England Yankee descended of early Pilgrim stock named Oliver Alden who is described as a poet and a Puritan.

What is Puritanism according to the storyline?

"Puritanism is a natural reaction against nature". Oliver viewed it as "wrong" but could "not give it up." His Puritanism "was a deep and speculative thing: hatred of all shams, scorn of all miseries, a bitter merciless pleasure in hard facts ... passion for reality ... simple and silently heroic."

"It is a popular error to suppose puritanism has anything to do with purity". Instead, it is marked by "integrity of purpose and scorn of all compromises, practical, or theoretical ... which results in a sad life."

pp 6-8, 10


Oliver lived by these ideals and suffered an unhappy fate as a consequence. However, many others became enriched and flourished because of his ideals and sacrifices.

Over 50 years ago I used to read the idiotic notions of Armstrongism - a cult which flourished up to about the late 1970s where it fell apart because of economic corruption. One thing that they used to teach was about early Yankee Puritanism. They taught, for example, that their god HATES you with the deepest passion imaginable. That contrary to typical Christian teaching, no one deserves even a semblance of forgiveness for past sins. That you deserve to have a life of toil and interminable burdens. While the universe is rational, mankind's innate "evil" is what cause troubles. All this notwithstanding the bible's teachings that it is god who is the exlusive creator of all evil as per isaiah 45:7.

Pilgrims evolved into Yankees. Their descendants changed their views somewhat by adopting Calvinist or Congregational christianity. They then saw themselves as "elect" and that this exceptionalism imposed a mandate where they were to become special models for all.

Oliver's ancestry was old stock Yankee (descended of Miles Standish) with its indecisions, conflicts, tension over wealth and classism (discrimination against lower classes), prejudice towards Irish, Catholics, Jews, blacks, etc. They were overly proud of their ethnic origin and their wealth, were self seeking, self serving, self congratulatory, but intellectually gifted, given to obsessing over social appearances, and the maintenance of genteel superiority. However, Oliver is obsessed with doing good for all, for setting all things right. He did not believe in Yankee exceptionalism. While these tasks rightfully belonged to some god who is either indifferent or punitive, one is duty bound to do good to all simply because it is morally right to do so.

The story begins in an old house atop a Boston hill. It is marked by a creepy milieu and is described as 'dusty', 'coffin', 'ghosts', 'decay', 'black'. We are introduced to an old oligarch named Nathaniel Alden who never left the home except to attend funerals, church, or to see to financial affairs. He was financially prudent and was much like a Hawthorne character who believed 'the roots of wrong had not been extirpated'. He was a patron of the arts but his largesse was out of a self imposed ''duty'' intended to give some impression to others. He was virulently anti Catholic and referenced ghetto parts of town as "n*ggerdom & p@ddydom".

We are then introduced to his younger brother Peter who while very scholarly plays baseball with persons of lower social castes. Nathan plots to compel him to keep better company and assigns a fiduciary group to manage his assets. The trustees go about their business with professionalism. Eventually Peter reforms, goes to college, becomes a doctor, inherits a huge amount of money, but eventually succumbs to a dissolute life of idleness and use of intoxicants. He felt ''there is no power save Unsearchable Power, and that what will be, will be''. Despite his professional qualifications, he spends the next 17 years traveling and accomplishing nothing. He marries a provincial Yankee named Harriet who seeks to preserve genteel Yankee traditions which, in her mind constitutes high principles. Money is such a power and a big comfort to her. She, like Nathan, contributes to church or charities and is very self satisfied.

Then after 70 pages, we are introduced to Oliver.

There is something about him that everyone finds unusual --- he seems driven, that is "set on something". Where did this come from? His mom feels that "It was imperative not to let the really good old families die out, especially now that the country was being swamped by inferior races". She was very Yankee like and Calvinist in her mythic beliefs. Harriet is an anti Semite who believes in Yankee supremacy. While she like democracy, she views Yankees as 'first among equals'.

A full introduction to Oliver starts at p 75. He was born courageous, duty bound, even reckless. Possessed of "an inner fortitude'' with a mind full of endless thoughts. The matter of good vs evil was always on his mind. Because of that, in his early youth he disdained childish games, or fairy tales, and grew up fast. Interestingly, he had no interest in religious instructions. But he was readily given to sports.

The narrative then shifts to their relatives such as Rev Bumstead and wife Irma. They were free thinkers and humanists. Irma is a German national who teaches Oliver to speak German and exerts much influence over him. She writes to her sister in Germany and tells her of Harriet's racism and disdain for lower class people.

He also travels like his father and sees much of the world. He was possessed of ''the demon of self-consciousness''. This much like Goethe and German rationalists. He read many books and learned about the world this way. His mom feels he was born to ''elevate'' the world through his presence in it. He loved Nature which he felt was the sunny side of life. Nature was his religion. And he loved to exercise and play sport. While wealthy people of his class were now enjoying automobiles, he preferred horse riding. He had many tutors but their lessons were largely useless. It was Nature that was his real teacher. He is then introduced to a boating coach who recognizes his athletic gifts. But he has one premonition: Oliver "won't live to be old. The likes of him isn't made for this world."


pp 15-121

At age 15, everyone in Oliver's life determined that he was to pursue a full education. While well intended, this has its limitations: "Refinement, sentiment, moral intensity, were all very well, but they should not be made the fulcrum of your universe, or that universe would come toppling down on your head." Furthermore, "Most schoolmasters were people who had failed in the world, or who feared to fail in it." As such, education tended to impose conformity or "that herd instinct, that sense that you must swim with the stream and do what is expected of you."

There was one release from this rigidity = football. While he was hesitant to engage in it, he quickly excelled and inspired him to be head of his class. Despite that, he envied his classmates and wished he could be like all else: "burdens: the fewer and plainer the better". He returns home for summer but is idle. Spends his time thinking. He meditates on the teachings of Schopenhauer and becomes obsessed with the pursuit of TRUTH. "He is starving for great thoughts ... his soul can't live without great thoughts ... it's people with pretensions that he can't endure" leaving him with a great "weight of obligation." He has great disdain for city life and sets sail to sea with his dad.

At sea aboard his father's Black Swan he is introduced to a complex British character named Jim Darnley. This captain had not been college educated but was wise in the ways of the world. "The sea carries us like a nurse in her arms" which teaches many very human lessons that lead to personal growth. But the sea could swallow you up and the peace it gives is only temporary. Darnley had a troubled past but he learned to cope and came to the conclusion that morality ''consists of cheating the hangman and getting your pint of beer."

Oliver settles down to deep meditation and determines that he wants one thing above all: "The simple truth. What a liberation, what a relief! How easily a man might square his accounts with the universe if he had the courage to face it ... First admit the truth, and then make the best of it." He was advised "in this world to take people as you find them." His counter = "It's better to know the truth." This was crucial as he learns his father is a hopeless drug addict. Dope, he determined was the worse thing imaginable. "A denial of courage, of determination to face the facts, a betrayal of responsibility." He mused, was life a form of dope? "Was obedience to convention , and custom and public opinion perhaps only an epidemic slavery a cruel superstition (?)".

Through it all, he found one remedy ~ nature. Nature being "soothing and liberating ... enlightening ... and a saner influence than religion". Nature ~ a part of life's sunny side, honest, no pretensions, or lies, just the TRUTH.


pp 122-173

The sea.


Boring, rigid, unexciting. Not a good life at all. "Nobody would go to sea if it were not fated". But sailing gets you to places. Oliver continues to travel aboard the Black Swan and heads back to Salem which is the Alden original home town. The color black very symbolic in that it ''is a source of precision and liveliness''. Life at sea entails having much time for reading (my dad was a sailor for many moons and could readily attest to that in the old days). He and Jim talk of Walt Whitman who was greatly admired in Britain (he still is) and thought to be the only true American poet. While Oliver disdains preachy poetry, Jim feels it is ''something secret and pure, some magical perception lighting up the mind for a moment, like reflections in the water, playful and fugitive. Your true poet catches the charm of something or anything, dropping the thing itself. His feeling is rapturous, mocking, musical, sad; above all, it is involuntary."

Leaves of Grass is excerpted:

I could turn and live with the animals, they are so placid ....
They do not weep for their sins.
They do not make me sick discussing their duty to God.

Was all this another form of Dope? Oliver asked himself. Well, at least they don't call themselves the Chosen as human conventions are products of nature, religion, or whatever. He ponders and he wonders.

We are then introduced to cousin Caleb Wetherbee at Salem. They discuss the merits of Catholicism as opposed to German rationalism. Wetherbee created a monastery which appears to be a New Eden founded on solid Catholic principles. But he has a physical defect that gives a sorta monstrous appearance (could he be a Shakesperean Caliban figure?). They discuss and praise Boston and Harvard as being the centers of intellectualism (they still are), music, and refinement. But Wetherbee wants more: "Boston and Harvard have need nowadays of new blood, of fresh spiritual courage. They are becoming too much like the rest of the country, choked with big business, forced fads, and merely useful knowledge. " He sees the USA as the worst of influences, too secular, and in need of religious (read, Catholic) influence. America will eventually collapse from materialism and false teaching. Humanism is heathanism and it contrasts with Catholic divinity which he sees as America's salvation. He lauds the Spaniards for bringing Catholicism to the New World. {However, he, like the author Santayana, fails to realize that Catholicism brought deaths to MILLIONS of Native Americans in the New World. } He denounces Germans and Goethe as "too worldly". He goes on to say that his deformity is what led to him having a Catholic conscience. Wetherbee is a Yankee but is unlike the Aldens none of whom are Catholic. He believes that this church is what will lead to the USA's ultimate salvation and complete fulfillment as it teaches Truth. A Truth that will eventually win out over all considerations, ideals, philosophies, thoughts, etc.



pp 174-196

... Oliver (now described in the narrative as "child of prophecy" is not so convinced. He views Caleb's monastery as a form of prison ~ "a labyrinth of linked superstitions from which, if you were caught, there might be no escape. Oliver [detected] a hospital smell ... an empty uninhabited white look of suspended animation." Through all this chatter Jim remained discreetly silent. Oliver marvels at all the books in Caleb's home. Many classics by Europeans authors, mythological writings, Bible, etc. But to him these are all artifice or superficial at best. Jim views books as deceptive as well and shows contempt for people who rely on such artifice: "religion takes hold on them just as drink and women take hold on the rest of us ... People discover God only where he has cursed them ... " Thus, the only reason why Caleb Weatherbee is so religious is because of his deformity. The upshot of all this being that Oliver has the option of taking Goethe (contented) or Caleb (malcontent) as a major influence. Whatever the case, the choice, the rule is or should be to live on.

Conformity rears its ugly head again as a dispute arises whether eating with the left hand is proper etiquette. A matter Oliver readily dismisses. By contrast, his mom insists on socially accepted proprieties. She disdains Jim's influence over her son and makes one rant after another. She even wants to be rid of the German Irma for fear she, too, has undue influence. But the latter stays and opens up to her sister via mail that the mother is prejudiced as are so many Yankees. Oliver wonders again -- should he set sail with his dad or stay and go to college. He decides upon staying home at his mom's insistence where he goes to Williams College (famous Yankee college) and takes up rowing. This is viewed as a sacrifice and an allusion to Christ is made. Irma has a prophetic vision that this sacrifice will ultimately result in tragedy. While remaining at home was not conducive to happiness, he maintained his ''Puritan virtues, his integrity, his courage, his scorn of pleasure, his material resourcefulness." But all the spunk and happiness was driven out of him. "A curious film of unreality and worthlessness now seemed spread over his daily life ... He understood now the old notion that the soul had had some previous lives, and was not really at home in this world.'' He played football versus Yale and found the game to be a form of solace.

At school the talk is no longer of Goethe but of British influence. He views Hamlet where the main character sacrifices just like Oliver did for idealist principle. Both he and Hamlet were guys who just didn't quite fit into this difficult world but who did pursue Truth. Despite all "the world has to be kept going like a ship in mid ocean." But at bottom, Oliver best found "relief in solitude and silence."



pp 196-239

Meantime Peter Alden was living a Bohemian life at sea (a possible Henry James type?). "An incorrigible Epicurean ... nothing seemed more odious in this world than the people bent on reforming it." The good things in life were "amusement, kindness, and beauty." Yet, he had a sense of 'moral solitude and banishment'.

In his travels he meets the Vicar who is Jim Darnley's father. He speaks of angels and of the Truth. "The Truth is a terrible thing. It is much darker, much sadder, much more ignoble, much more inhuman and ironical than most of us are willing to admit, or to suspect ... God is not merely good, but is goodness ... but the Truth." One is to '' accept one's fate [as] death is the last, the greatest, the most broad winged angel of all." His church is noticeably decayed but he viewed this as a reflection of moral strength. He does not have high regard for colleges. "Life itself is a triumph of the soul ... We must choose what we will sacrifice. The point is to choose with true self-knowledge ... '' Thereafter, they settle to a scrumptious dinner.

Oliver thinks over all this and ponders, " how beautiful were austerity and poverty and obscurity." He and Jim walk into a cafe'/tavern where it has the appearance of being a 'sepulchral silence', ''ghostly', 'loomed', 'dark', 'moth eaten', and sat on 'disembowelled arm chairs'. The ensuing conversation filled with death images ~ "we may all be dead ... open grave ... seance ... drown ... spectral ... No sign of life ... gravestone ... dead man's voice funeral service ... '' Oliver has a bad dream about Jim seeing death and misery. A sure sign of things to come.


pp 240-274