^{page 217 note 1} The Unpublished Lectures of William Morris, edited and compiled by LeMire, Eugene D. (Detroit, 1969).Google Scholar

^{page 217 note 2} Ibid., pp. 278, 282, 314.

^{page 218 note 1} Cf. his review of Looking Backward, in: Commonweal, June 22nd, 1889, pp. 194–5, and of Fabian Essays, ibid., January 25th, 1890, p. 28. His growing concern is pointedly re-asserted in his last contribution to Commonweal: “The success of Mr. Bellamy's Utopian book, deadly dull as it is, is a straw to show which way the wind blows. The general attention paid to our clever friends, the Fabian lecturers and pamphleteers, is not altogether due to their literary ability; people have really got their heads turned more or less in their direction.” (“Where are we now?”, in: Commonweal, November 15th, 1890, p. 362)

^{page 219 note 1} “Communism and Anarchism”, in: Commonweal, August 17th, 1889, p. 261.

^{page 219 note 2} The text of this lecture is to be found in May Morris, William Morris, Artist, Writer, Socialist, II, p. 420.

^{page 219 note 3} The Manifesto is reproduced by E. P. Thompson, William Morris: Romantic to Revolutionary; the Note C, alluded to here, is on pp. 854–5.

^{page 220 note 1} Cf. my article, “Friedrich Engels et William Morris”, in: La Pensée, No 156, April 1971, pp. 68–80.Google Scholar

^{page 221 note 1} “Fabiana”, in: To-Day, XI, April 1889, p. 120.Google Scholar

^{page 222 note 1} Cf., for instance, Pevsner, Nikolaus, Pioneers of modern design (Penguin Books), p. 25Google Scholar; or Jordan, Robert Furneaux, Victorian Architecture (Penguin Books), p. 184.Google Scholar

^{page 222 note 2} Cf.: “such a stupendous change in the machinery of life as the abolition of capital and wages must bring about a corresponding change in ethics and habits of life” (“On some practical ‘Socialists’”, in: Commonweal, Feb. 18th, 1888, p. 52Google Scholar).

^{page 223 note 1} W. Morris was born at Walthamstow in 1834.

^{page 223 note 2} Cf.: “he once wondered […] which of six distinct personalities he himself really was” (Crane, Walter, “In Memory of William Morris”, in: Freedom, Nov. 1896, p. 109Google Scholar); “Perhaps, as he himself seems to have said, he was several personalities rolled into one” (Carpenter, Edward, “William Morris”, in: Freedom, Dec. 1896, p. 118Google Scholar).

^{page 224 note 1} This is, indeed, a feeling which finds frequent expression in Morris's pre-Socialist period. He would, for instance, write to Mrs George Howard, in August 1874: “Do you know, when I see a poor devil drunk and brutal I always feel, quite apart from my aesthetical perceptions, a sort of shame, as if I myself had some hand in it.” (The Letters of William Morris to his family and friends (London, 1950), p. 64Google Scholar)

^{page 224 note 2} Morris's son-in-law, H. Holliday Sparling, wrote that he “held that he was idling while doing that which would have exhausted any other man I have ever known” (The Kelmscott Press and William Morris, master-craftsman, p. 11).

^{page 224 note 3} Even in his Socialist years, Morris was always ready to ackowledge his bourgeois origin: “we of the middle classes” is a recurrent phrase in his lectures.

^{page 225 note 1} In a letter to Mrs Burne-Jones (June 1st, 1884), he had written: “if these were ordinary times of peace I might be content amidst my discontent, to settle down into an ascetic hermit of a hanger-on […] but I don't see the peace or feel it” (The Letters, p. 200).

^{page 225 note 2} The impossibility for art to survive under capitalism is a constant theme throughout Morris's writings. In a letter to C. E. Maurice (July 1st, 1883), he had written: “I […] assert the necessity of attacking systems grown corrupt and no longer leading anywhither: that to my mind is the case with the present system of capital and labour; as all my lectures assert, I have personally been gradually driven to the conclusion that art has been handcuffed by it, and will die out of civilisation if the system lasts.” (The Letters, p. 175)

^{page 225 note 3} All his life, Morris acknowledged his indebtedness to Ruskin and fervently remembered the decisive influence that such a book as The Stones of Venice especially had had on his own thinking. It would, however, be a gross error to believe that his admiration was unqualified. The discrepancy was indeed too great between Ruskin's religious and ethical spiritualism and Morris's overt materialism. As early as 1882, Morris was writing that “one does not always agree with him” (May Morris, op. cit., II, p. 584). Earlier still, in 1860, he had grown impatient with the fifth volume of Modern Painters and declared that it was “mostly gammon” (Mackail, J. W., The Life of William Morris, I, p. 220Google Scholar). Ruskin's incessant contradictions worried him; and he once said to G. Bernard Shaw “that he would write the most profound truths and forget them five minutes later” (May Morris, ibid., II, p. xxxii). He regretted the “damage Ruskin may have done to his influence by his strange bursts of fantastic perversity” (Commonweal, May 15th, 1886, p. 50). It would be a mistake as well to believe, as so many critics have done, that Morris's Socialism had its source in Ruskin. He is very clear on that matter: Ruskin, he wrote to Robert Thompson on July 24th, 1884, “is not a Socialist, that is not a practical one” (The Letters, p. 204). What he preserved of Ruskin's teaching was essentially an aesthetic lesson and the idea of “pleasure in work”. All the rest subsided to the background after his first reading of Marx's Capital in 1883. Ruskin, he was to say in 1894, “before my days of practical Socialism, was my master” (“How I became a Socialist”, in: Stories in Prose, Stories in Verse, Shorter Poems, Lectures and Essays, ed. by G. D. H. Cole, p. 657).

^{page 226 note 1} W. Morris joined Hyndman's Democratic Federation in January 1883 (the DF was to become the Social Democratic Federation in 1884), and seceded to found the Socialist League in December 1884.

^{page 227 note 1} Morris constantly uses this word as generally descriptive of the 19th century bourgeois society, and seems to have been influenced in doing so by Fourier.

^{page 227 note 2} In his mature years, Morris is decidedly anti-Romantic, and his hatred of the picturesque is expressed in similar terms in News from nowhere: “our villages are something like the best of such places […] Only note that there are no tokens of poverty about them: no tumble-down picturesque” (Stories in Prose etc., p. 68).

^{page 228 note 1} See Introduction. Cf.: “in short to some of us it seems as if this view of Socialism simply indicates the crystallization of what can only be a transitional condition of society, and cannot in itself be stable” (“The Policy of abstention”, in: May Morris, ibid., II, p. 436); “These two views of the future of society are sometimes opposed to each other as Socialism and Communism, but to my mind the latter is simply the necessary development of the former, which implies a transition period” (“True and false society”, in: On Art and Socialism, ed. by Jackson, Holbrook (London, 1948), p. 315)Google Scholar.

^{page 228 note 2} This reaction against Victorianism appears in many writings of Morris; see, for instance, “The Society of the Future”, in: May Morris, ibid., II, pp. 457–462.

^{page 228 note 3} Morris reacts more than once against the then current contempt of manual labour; e.g., “I should think very little of the manhood of a stout and healthy man who did not feel pleasure in doing rough work” (“How we live and how we might live”, in: Stories in Prose etc., p. 582); “the stupidity of that day, which despised everybody who could use his hands” (News from nowhere, ibid., p. 19).

^{page 228 note 4} If, as will be seen later on, Morris is by no means adverse to the use of machinery in the industrial production of the future, he is deliberately hostile when agriculture is concerned. Cf.: “there would be many occupations also, as the processes of agriculture, in which the voluntary exercise of energy would be thought so delightful, that people would not dream of handing over its pleasure to the jaws of a machine” (“The Aims of Art”, in: Stories in Prose etc., p. 600); “we should soon drop machinery in agriculture I believe when we were free” (“The Society of the Future”, in: May Morris, ibid., II, p. 462).

^{page 229 note 1} Morris more than once condemns the modern hobby of travel for its own sake. In his Utopia, escapism is a feeling which has thoroughly disappeared. Ellen, in News from nowhere, says to the Guest: “of course people are free to move about; but except for pleasure-parties, especially in harvest and hay-time, like this of ours, I don't think they do so much” (Stories in Prose etc., p. 178).

^{page 229 note 2} Morris's ideas about education are expressed in similar terms in ch. V of News from nowhere.

^{page 229 note 3} Morris was himself an excellent cook (see Mackail, op. cit., I, 223) and he often alludes to his capacities in this field: see, e.g., News from nowhere, ibid., p. 57.

^{page 229 note 4} There is no place for games and sports in Morris's Utopia. Pleasure should be derived from useful exertion, and its most pleasant form is what he calls “easy-hard work” in News from nowhere.

^{page 230 note 1} This is perhaps one of the pithiest expressions of Morris's conception of art and work, which is a vital element of his ideology and recurs ever and again throughout his writings.

^{page 230 note 2} Embroidery was an important activity of the Morris Firm.

^{page 230 note 3} In no other of his writings is Morris so positive and practical in his advocacy of sex-equality. In News from nowhere (ch. IX), women seem, of their own accord, to have chosen house-keeping as the natural occupation of their sex.

^{page 231 note 1} Morris professes that architecture is the mother of all other arts, and this is an important theme in his Utopia.

^{page 231 note 2} See Introduction.

^{page 232 note 1} Diversified occupation is a constant theme with Morris: this will be the main element of the transformation of labour into pleasure in his Utopian world. An interesting idea expressed here is the fear of specialised intellectual workers tending to form “a new set of masters”. This idea, which shows Morris's violent opposition to Carlyle's notion of an “aristocracy of talent”, appears in various articles published in Commonweal (“The Reward of Genius”, Sept. 25th, 1886, p. 205; “Artist and Artisan”, Sept. 10th, 1887, p. 291).

^{page 233 note 1} The Paris Commune of 1871 is a lasting inspiration of Morris's Utopian ideal of decentralisation in a Communist society. Cf. Socialism, its growth and outcome, p. 199.

^{page 233 note 2} This statement is of great interest, as it shows Morris's evolution in his approach to the Irish question since the “purist” years 1885–86 (see the articles he then published in Commonweal), when he professed that the campaign for Home Rule was meant to divert the Irish people from genuine revolutionary action.

^{page 233 note 3} County Councils had been set up in 1888. On January 21st, 1889, Morris was writing to his elder daughter Jenny: “On the whole the London election has been a great blow to the reactionists; though I don't suppose that the County Council can do much directly as they are now constituted: yet they may become Socialist in feeling, and so make a rallying-point for a kind of revolt against the Parliament.” (The Letters, pp. 307–8)

^{page 233 note 4} Saint-Simon was the inventor of this famous phrase, which was resumed by Fr. Engels in his theory of the “withering away of the State”. W. Morris does not seem to have been well acquainted with the works of Saint-Simon. On the other hand, he was strongly impressed by Engels's Socialism: Utopian and Scientific (an excerpt from Anti-Dühring) which he seems to have read as early as 1885 in the French edition published by Paul Lafargue in 1880.

^{page 233 note 5} The idea of a “Federation of independent communities” appears for the first time in a lecture of 1885, “The Dawn of a new Epoch” (in: Signs of Change), and will find full expression in 1893, in Socialism, its growth and outcome, ch. XXI. The present lecture is the only instance in which the principle of federation is applied to the railway system.

^{page 234 note 1} The dual system of federation, geographical and professional, is alluded to for the first time in a lecture of 1888, “What Socialists Want” (in: The Unpublished Lectures of William Morris, p. 231), and will be fully developed in Socialism, its growth and outcome, ibid.

^{page 234 note 2} This Marxist view of the historical role of large agglomerations is nowhere, in Morris's works, so explicitly developed as here. One year before, in 1888, in his lecture “The Society of the Future”, he had already written: “Again, the aggregation of the population having served its purpose of giving people opportunities of inter-communication and of making the workers feel their solidarity, will also come to an end” (May Morris, op. cit., II, p. 461). The disappearance of large towns is a constant theme of Morris's Utopia, though, in News from nowhere, he does not abolish London, but, as it were, countrifies it. He seems to have been strongly influenced in his hatred of large towns by Cobbett, whose Rural Rides he greatly admired. – In Socialism, its growth and outcome, he will again use the phrases “Socialism militant” and “Socialism triumphant”, which will be the titles of its two final chapters.

^{page 235 note 1} I.e. the Devil (John, VIII, 44).

^{page 235 note 2} Morris's Utopia is the constant illustration of the idea contained in the Communist Manifesto of the solution of the contradiction between town and country.

^{page 236 note 1} In fact, the problem of necessary industrial concentration will never be solved satisfactorily by Morris. The only concrete approach to a solution will be found in Socialism, its growth and outcome, when he writes: “there would be two ways, either of which might be chosen. First, to have volunteers working temporarily in a strictly limited and comparatively small ‘black country’, which would have the advantage of leaving the rest of the country absolutely free from the disorder and dirt. And secondly, to spread the manufacture in small sections over a territory so large that in each place the disadvantages would be little felt!” (pp. 312–3).

^{page 236 note 2} Cf. Marx, in his description of Communism in the Critique of the Gotha Programme: “From each according to his capacities, to each according to his needs.”

^{page 236 note 3} The Marxist theory of value and surplus-value appears under many forms in Morris's writings.

^{page 236 note 4} Morris is speaking to a Fabian audience and is cautious in his phrasing. He generally uses a more uncompromising and harsh language in his rejection of reformism.

^{page 237 note 1} Cf. “we make no more than we want” (News from nowhere, ibid., p. 90).

^{page 238 note 1} This argument had been developed at length in the two Commonweal articles of 1886 and 1887, “The Reward of Genius” and “Artist and Artisan.” to which I have previously referred.

^{page 238 note 2} Cf.: “Surely when true society takes the place of false, we shall raise beautiful and magnificent halls with their surroundings for the use of all. But the contrast will not then be between splendour and sordidness, but between splendour and special beauty and the due simplicity of the dwelling of a private person which is quite consistent with beauty and convenience.” (“Notes on News”, in: Commonweal, May 28th, 1887, p. 172).

^{page 238 note 3} This distinction between wealth, i.e. plenty, and riches, i.e. money and power, which had been suggested by Ruskin in Unto this last, is always very clear and precise in Morris's writings. Its first expression appears in a lecture delivered in 1883, “Art, Wealth and Riches” (in: On Art and Socialism).

^{page 238 note 4} The feeling of being unable to cope with every aspect of life in a communist society will be implicit in the sub-title of News from nowhere: “Being some chapters from a Utopian romance”.

^{page 239 note 1} Cf.: “it cannot be too often repeated that the true incentive to useful and happy labour is and must be pleasure in the work itself” (“Looking Backward”, in: Commonweal, June 22nd, 1889, p. 194Google Scholar).

^{page 240 note 1} Morris's hatred of “civilisation” made him hesitate for some time between two Utopian ideals: a return to barbarism and Socialism. The reading of Jefferies' Utopian novel, After London, which described England reduced to primitive conditions of life by a natural catastrophe, had filled him with enthusiasm in 1885. Yet, as early as 1884, he had found a dialectical solution of the contradiction when, in his lecture “Art and Socialism”, he had hailed “the change in store for us hidden in the breast of the Barbarism of civilisation – the Proletariat” (Stories in Prose etc., p. 636). In later years, he became increasingly interested in the study of primitive societies, and published in Commonweal (July 19th, and August 16th, 1890) a long article, entitled “The Development of modern society”, part of which is a faithful summary of the theses set forth by Engels in his Origin of the Family. The same inspiration was already obvious in some of his late prose romances, in particular The House of the Wolfings (1888). The tendency to integrate the early Teutonic direct democracy in his Utopia is clearly perceptible in News from nowhere, and the use of the old English word “Mote” for the assembly of the people is quite significant.