Florence and Nuremberg and the cathedral cities of France
teemed with simple, sturdy burghers, whose first care was
to preserve, through common effort and organization, the
traditions of their skill, and whose lives were consecrated
to the religion of beauty,
                          Consequent upon the decorative
 reform in England, the Applied Arts have risen from their
 decadence in France and have become firmly established
 in the United States among a people most ready of all to
 receive the lessons of a true aestheticism, And thus the
 chance meeting of two youths, athalf-century since, on
 the benches of an Oxford College, led to the opening of a
 vista into the past, wherein we see the ancestors of the
 modem nations building and carving, painting and spin-
 ning, throwing into their work their strength, their love
-and very souls. And the lesson to be learned from the
   ,, ,ii  .. . , . ,   . .       .    ..       .


on is mat a real art, created by the people for the
pie, is able not only to beautify, but also to simplify
to unify the interests of all sorts and conditions of
a, and finally to realize the meaning of the word
imon2oealth.


WILLIAM MORRIS


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