evolution of a picture-which sometimes extended through
a decade or more,-offer extreme contrasts with the ways
of Morris, the closely allied brother-in-art of Burne-Jones.
For the first named, a few months or weeks sufficed for
aming the theory and practice of any subject to which
e applied himself. He labored with a "furia" worthy
of Michelangelo. He produced in great quantity and at
rapid rate. His devotion, absolute for the time being, was
given successively to a number of interests, widely differ-
ing among themselves. He loved, accepted the gift which
the thing loved had to bestow, and passed on to new
conquests. He was in all things the complement and
opposite of his friend, who lived apart from men and their
concerns, cloistered in his art, devoutly attendant upon
the Revelation of Beauty,
                         And thus, but for William
Morris, the influence of Burne-Jones might ever have
remained confined to aristocratic circles; since the posses-
sion of great examples of pictorial art is the privilege of
the few and wealthy. Owing to the labors of the skilled
artisan and apostle of democracy, the barriers of individual
ownership were cast down, and the work of his richly
endowed friend was scattered broadcast amon Y the
people through the medium of decorative designIt has
been said that "it would be a serious undertaking to
measure the flood of beauty poured by the two co-laborers
into the world." But an idea of the greatness of their
accomplishment may be formed fiom the statement of a
trustworthy critic, who declares simply and without the
emphasis that fears contradiction, that "they reformed the
taste of England."  The churches, the colleges, the
municipal museums and the homes of their own country
bear witness to their genius which, exercised as if sent
forth from a single brain, glorified and transfigured every-
thing that it touched; so that the arts and crafts of the
Middle Ages rose again, and the workshop was restored
to the high place which it occupied in the times when


4.4


WILLIAM MORRIS