an artisan self-taught and highly skilled in the technical
processes of a half dozen trades. He disdained no
apprenticeship however humble, no labor however pro-
tracted, arduous and disfiguring, in order that he might
become the practical master of his work. The attain-
ments of his genius, of his careful and intelligent study
remain as lasting witnesses to the impetus and direction
given by him to the arts and crafts of his time.
                         Again, many who, through
ignorance or prejudice, refuse to recognize the functions
of literature and art in the economy of life, still regard
William Morris as a lost leader, friend and brother. For
such as these, he is the man who, by the light of history
and of his own conscience, distinctly saw the evils of
society as it is at present constituted; who lent his ener-
gies, his fortune and his fame to remedy the wrongs of
the oppressed masses, and to prepare the advent o the
reign of natural law. In William Morris all socialists
honor the unprejudiced man of wealth, culture and posi-
tion, who plainly formulated the proposition that:
                        "It is right and just that all
men should have work to do which shall be worth doing,
and be of itself pleasant to do; and which should be done
under such conditions as would make it neither over-
wearisome nor over-anxious."
                         Finally, above and beyond each
and all of these claims of William Morris to the present
and future consideration of the world, there lies the
memory of his great heart which so animated all enter-
prises into which he entered that, at his death, a co-
worker wrote of him: "Morris was a splendid leader, a
great poet, artist and craftsman, a still greater man, and,
oh I such a friend to know and love."
                         The place of Morris among the
Victorian poets has been exhaustively treated by critics
and reviewers, and it is well known that, at the death of
Tennyson, the honors of the Laureate would have been


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WILLIAM MORRIS