438 THE ART OF

is in the way of an industrious one; and besides, if wereally care for art we shall always feel inclined to save onsuperfluities, that we may have wherewithal to spend onworks of art.” “ Believe me, ... we must clear our housesof troublesome superfluities that are for ever in our way:conventional comforts that are no real comforts, and dobut make work for servants and doctors: if you want agolden rule that will fit everybody this is it: ‘ Have nothingin your houses that you do not know to be usefulor believeto be beautiful .’ ” Morris’s opinion, the exadt opposite tothat which is commonly received, was that luxury is thecurse instead of being the promoting cause and mainstayof the arts. For them to flourish wholesomely no Maecenasis needed. Once again says Morris: “ No room of therichest man should look grand enough to make a simpleman shrink in it, or luxurious enough to make a thought-ful man ashamed in it; it will not do so if art be at homethere, for she has no foes so deadly as insolence and waste.Indeed, I fear that at present the decoration of rich men’shouses is mostly wrought out at the bidding of grandeurand luxury, and that art has been mostly cowed or shamedout of them. . . . Art was not born in the palace; rathershe fell sick there, and it will take more bracing air thanthat of rich men’s houses to heal her again. If she isever to be strong enough to help mankind once more, shemust gather strength in simple places; the refuge fromwind and weather to which the goodman comes homefrom field or hill-side; the well-tidied space into whichthe craftsman withdraws from the litter of loom and smithyand bench; the scholar’s island in the sea of books; theartist’s clearing in the canvas-grove ; it is from theseplaces that Art must come if she is ever to be enthroned ”again supreme amongst mankind.

Though not actually the latest, among the latest pub-lished of Mr. Morris’s verses are some which appeared inthe Catalogue of the Arts and Crafts Exhibition of thewinter of 1893. They consist of one stanza of eight linesand two stanzas of ten lines each. They were written forthe text to be embroidered by his daughter’s hand on the