himself: "The only work of art which surpasses a
complete mediaevalbook is a complete mediaeval build-
ing."   And hence we realize that here again the
architectural instinct provided impulse and energy. As
Morris had realized early in life the impossibility of raising
buildings worthy to compare with mediaeval structures,
and had found the cause of such impossibility to lie in the
adverse circumstances under which the modem workman
is compelled to labor, deprived of pleasure in the work of
his hands, so the great-hearted reformer and artist set
himself to remedy the wrong, and to restore the lost
pleasure to the worker. His architectural studies led him
to Socialism, and when his hopes of effecting great
improvements in the economic conditions of his country
passed away, he was thrown back upon his own resources
to impress his convictions upon the world. So the
establishment of his printing-press at Kelmscott Manor,
coincides with his withdrawal from active Socialism.
                         Again, his power of quick
absorption and assimilation made him a past master of
the craft, in which he was also aided by his previous
hand-iltumination of favorite poems, and his studies in
wood-engraving. The Kelmscott Press created printing
as a fine art in England and America, popularized good
design in book-covers, and produced a series of beautiful
books, the finest of which, the great folio edition of
Chaucer, was a tribute of Morris to the literary guide and
master of his youth.
                         In the full activity of his labor
as printer and publisher, death overtook him; but not
before he had drawn the portrait of the ideal handicrafts-
man, in whom we recognize his own likeness.
    4"The true workman," he says,
"must put his own individual intelligence and enthusiasm
into the goods which he fashions. He must have a
natural aptitude for his work so strong that no education
can force him away from his special bent. He must be


12


"WILLIAM MORRIS