Dear Comrade:

It is bully to know you are back again and I wish I could have an evening with you to hear all that you experienced abroad.

I think I can find you the address of Concepcion. He is somewhere in Los Angeles running a Filipino paper. The Upson material that I have consists of his Collected Poems, two volumes. Shall I send these to you? You should be able to get excellent material from and through Dr. Richard Burton, who was very intimate with Upson and wrote a beautiful ode after his death. I have the Ode here in a limited edition given to me by Burton. Do you want that also?

I very much doubt that tolerance can be attributed to the Greeks as an outstanding characteristic. Before this view could be accepted, it would be necessary to explain away the Socrates story. This would be only one major difficulty and I am sure that if one looked a little deeper into Greek life it would be apparent that tolerance was not a shining virtue among them. As a matter of fact, our present-day conception of tolerance is the product of a world mood which accompanies social disintegration. If we are "tolerant" we are so because we do not "give a damn" about anything and believe nothing. In the great period of any people tolerance is not conspicuous for the simple reason that the greatness of a people grows out of very definite attitudes, patterns of conduct and belief. It is when these patterns begin to break down and men cease to believe in the forms that once made them great that they become what we now call tolerant. I feel quite sure that it could be shown that no great race in its flowering period was tolerant in the modern sense or in any other very significant sense. My guess would be that if we were to seek for a high development of tolerance among the Greeks, we might be more likely to find it in the Hellenistic Period than in the Periclean Age. As for Dr. Regier's suggestion, as to the determination of the Greek genius, I suppose he is thinking of Taine's doctrine, which I understand is now pretty well discredited and for very good reasons. One obvious reason would seem to be that if Taine's doctrine was true, Greeks of the old temper and spirit should now be produced by a similar environment.

You ask me how I am feeling about everything. The answer is, perfectly ripping. The book is going on in great shape, and physically and mentally I am in good condition. So far, at the age of fifty, it does seem true, as you have often said, that I have been pretty much in control of my life and am still. I think nothing short of world break-up would break the charm for me for very long.

With love always,

Jno.
JGN:EN