It must always be remembered that what is well and carefully made
by an honest workman, after a rational design, increases in beauty
and value as the years go on. The old furniture brought over by
the Pilgrims, two hundred years ago, which I saw in New England, is
just as good and as beautiful to-day as it was when it first came
here. Now, what you must do is to bring artists and handicraftsmen
together. Handicraftsmen cannot live, certainly cannot thrive,
without such companionship. Separate these two and you rob art of
all spiritual motive.

Having done this, you must place your workman in the midst of
beautiful surroundings. The artist is not dependent on the visible
and the tangible. He has his visions and his dreams to feed on.
But the workman must see lovely forms as he goes to his work in the
morning and returns at eventide. And, in connection with this, I
want to assure you that noble and beautiful designs are never the
result of idle fancy or purposeless day-dreaming. They come only
as the accumulation of habits of long and delightful observation.
And yet such things may not be taught. Right ideas concerning them
can certainly be obtained only by those who have been accustomed to
rooms that are beautiful and colours that are satisfying.

Perhaps one of the most difficult things for us to do is to choose
a notable and joyous dress for men. There would be more joy in
life if we were to accustom ourselves to use all the beautiful
colours we can in fashioning our own clothes. The dress of the
future, I think, will use drapery to a great extent and will abound
with joyous colour. At present we have lost all nobility of dress
and, in doing so, have almost annihilated the modern sculptor.