Books: A Philosopher's Farewell

DOMINATIONS AND POWERS (481 pp.)—George Santayana—Scribner ($4.50).

The nuns in the convent of the Little Company of Mary in Rome pad very softly past a certain room these days. Inside that airy corner room, filled with the neat disarray of an old bachelor's belongings, a fragile, black-eyed old man with one of the most far-ranging minds of the 20th Century is recovering from an annoying bout with the flu. In his 88th year, Philosopher George Santayana takes his ailments philosophically. His many would-be visitors feel them more keenly. Formerly host to every sensitive traveler with a metaphysical bee in his Baedeker,...