“Any one who has a taste for short essays will find a good feast provided for him. While the essays can well hold their own as detached disquisitions on special subjects, they form a catena of thought which hangs logically together, exposing a rational philosophy. Indeed it has been said that George Santayana has imperiled the recognition of his philosophy by the fine robes in which he has consistently presented it.” Robert Bridges
+ Dial 69:534 N ’20 5000w Nation 111:221 Ag 21 ’20 1300w
“A new immortal book.” P. L.
+ New Repub 25:321 F 9 ’21 2650w
“I believe that this publication will accomplish two things: it will establish Mr Santayana’s reputation as one of the foremost masters of English prose now living, and it will persuade many readers to buy the complete works from which these essays are drawn.” W: L. Phelps
+ N Y Times p8 Ag 22 ’20 3050w
“It is a notable book. Professor Santayana possesses charm of style; that merit must be accorded to him by his worst enemy, if enemy he has. His culture is broad, and his mind is discursive, touching in its range many points of metaphysics and art and literature and morals.”
+ Review 3:346 O 20 ’20 1350w
“Short though the pieces may be, they are, as a rule, brief only through extreme compression, and the great beauty of the style in which they are written links them together rather than divides them. Hidden in the book there lurks the exposition of a theory of life.”
+ Spec 124:239 Ag 21 ’20 800w