10 OCTOBER 1952, Page 4

I see George Santayana referred to in an American maga-

zine as " an esthetic and a skeptic." This is the English language transatlanticised. There is no reason why it shouldn't be. Americans are as much entitled to spell in their way as we are in ours. And they can make a perfectly good case for the k in skeptic, which follows the original Greek. But " esthetic " is not aesthetic in appearance. The Greek word-sound is ai, which might make " aesthetic," if you prefer that, but could not reasonably make " esthetic "—though no doubt precendents for the shortening of the word-sound can be adduced.