Dominations and Powers
by .Scribner’s, $4.50.
Subtitled, “Reflections on Liberty. Society and Government,”Santayana’ s magnum opus, written over the past thirty years, is divided into more than a hundred chapters, each of which is a more or less independent essay. It is a discursive work, immensely rich in the fruits of the mind: but the mind is that of a poetmoralist and urbane literary artist rather than that of a rigorous logician or a cogent political thinker. Santayana, stands so far above the arena that — to single out one comment on contemporary affairs — he sees no appreciable difference in whether the world is unified under Communism (which he finds vicious) or whether democracy (which he deeply dislikes) becomes the universal system: and he rather casually suggests that the evils of Communism will in due course wither away.
On the logical side, the great paradox is that Santayana is a liberal in his moral philosophy — he abhors dogma and fanaticism. applauds diversity, holds that every mode of life which does not destroy other forms of life is justified — but in his philosophy of government he is very’ decidedly hierarchic and authoritarian. Where Santayana’s genius manifests itself most shiningly is in the wealth of particular insights stated in epigrammatic style — the book is a treasury of lapidary truths.