The San Francisco call., 1896-10-18

which they had heard reports. After passing
through many trials and after the lapse of
many years they come, as old men, to
strange Western land, where they settle and
remain till their death. For the space OF
year they come together twice month at fes
tivals and at each of these some tale is told.
Many of these stories are extremely beautiful.
The subjects of all are either Greek or Scandi-
navian. Many are Infused with the true spirit
of Hellenism with its beauty worship and
splendor of narrative. Morris YVES several
years IN writing the Earthly Paradise" but
his greatest gift TO the mental life of his fell
lows is his presentation in the English tongue
of that great northern myth which is the in
heritauce OF all English-speaking people.
Morris accomplished this in his great STORY OF
Sigurd, the Volsung." 1t is taken not from
the "Nibelungen Lay" as is so often supposed,
but directly from the Morse Sagas, which are
also the source OF the German epic. No one
in reading both could fail TO be impressed by
the more heroic mold in which Morris YER
sion is cast.
In the 'Nibelungen Lay" written early in the
thirteenth century, the strength OF the pagan
myth is vitiated by the necessity of conforming
to medieval Christian sentiment. The result
is artificial. The poem is as ornate as Gothic
cathedral. We have prancing steeds and way
ing rlumes and jsngIing swords and gayy ct
and very pretty, but beside it 1.-THE Story of
Sigurd the Volsung," looms in strong and
simple grandeur, like a god overtowering
foppish courtier. Beside Morris "Sigurd" and
sBrvnhiId" and "Gudrun." the German "Sisg-
fried" and "Brunhiid' and "Krienhild" seem
mere puppets, created TO ''adorn tale" The
English poem shows US the mighty forces of a
primitive world at work. Those heroic beings
who occupied place half way between gods
o1c rd To
did and as resistless thatof Greek tragedy.
There is majesty in the movement which
compels sort of awe.
In all great myths the beliefs and the hores
of people are personified, and because be-
iefs and hopes are forever essentially the
same, changing only in outward aspect as the
life of man changes. So the mighty feeling
which creates the legend is still a living force
in our consciousness to-day. We see in Sigurd
an ideal of mighty race, dim forecasting OF
the Christ who was to come. In his first pure
brightness and invincible strength and vow
of eternal faithfulness to Brynbild, followed
by his draught from the cup of forgetfulness
we read the perpetual story of the human
heart turned aside from and losing even the
memory of its earlier ideals. What life has
not felt its own urfaithfulness and yearned
dimly. ike Sigurd, for an unremembered
good
The story of the Volsung was the last great
poem that Morris wrote. From this time his
pen was mostly devoted to his socialist propa-
ganda. He wrote "The Dream of John Ball."
and "News From Nowhere" and Hopes and
Fears for Art" and some stirring verses and
some delightful tales, but he did nothing
really great. Like Tolstoi, he in measure
sank the artist in the apostle.
Soon after leaving Oxford Morris began his
artistic manufacturing. He was one of the
0f wi ho1iayad hat ho
English needed an enlightening gospel in mat
ters Of taste. His hope was to stimulate in the
people themselves an artistic sense which
should revolt from overdecoration, or shoddi-
ness. ''Simplicity" was his watchword. He
said: at you cannot learn to love real art
learn to hate sham art and reject it. Learn to
do without" In all his fabrics he would have
no imitation. Linen was not made to look
like silk nor cotton like wool. He recognized
the value ana the beauty of pure cotton stuffs
that were cottony as well as of pure silks that
were silky. This in itself was no inadequate
way OF preaching the gospel of sincerity. Side
by side with his love for art there was growing
up in his soul the love for humanity.
The temper of his mind had become agnos-
tic. He was among those who said sI cam
not believe, because do not know" And this
attitude acting upon a naturally noble mind
induced q passionate desire to make the life,
here and now, of his fellow-men less hard
"This sorry scheme OF things" he longed like
the old Persian, to "shatter it to bits" and
then "remold it nearer to the hearts de-
SIRE" And so this 'fdle singer of an empty
day" devoted all the powers of his great heart
and brain to that divine business of shatter-
ing and remolding. He said: "I do not want
art for few. would rather see it swept
away from the face of the earth than live such
a poor, thin life, with its apostles despising
4hosa haneath them for an ignorance and bru-
tality for which they are themselves respon-
sible."
The unique feature of Morris socialism was
the fact that he embraced the cause, not for
the sake of lettering his own condition, for he
was among the rich and prosperous of earth,
but for the sake of bettering the condition of
Others. Though he could not keep the first
who shall say that he did not observe in
spirit the second OF those two great command
ments upon which hang al. the law and the
prophets? He tried to beautify and make at
ao+f,,a tho eurroundinYs of his working DeO.