Take your time tonight and read this sonnet carefully, several times. Savor it. Return to it again later in the week. Revisit it every so often. It is a wonderful, classic poem about faith from one of America's best known philosophers.

George Santayana is not famous for his poetry, although his poetry is famous. He was, first and foremost, a philosopher. Born in Spain, he moved to Boston when he was eight. He received a Ph.D. from Harvard in 1889 and immediately joined the philosophy department there, where he remained for thirteen years, establishing himself as one of that university's great intellectual talents. In 1912, he moved back to Europe.

This is not the place for a discussion of Santayana's contribution to philosophy, even if I were up to the task. It is worth noting that he was a conservative, with a small "c," meaning that he loved the traditions and customs that lie at the heart of all good societies, and was suspicious and fearful of the direction that modernity was taking the world. My favorite quotes from this great man reflect his conservatism. They are as follows: "A reformer hewing so near to the tree's root never knows how much he may be felling." And, "If one political tendency kindled my wrath it was precisely the tendency of industrial liberalism to level down all civilizations to a single cheap and dreary pattern."

Please enjoy this wonderful sonnet. We'll revisit his work again in the future.