MORRIS, WILLIAM. 



499 



at Bethel Station in August. 180."). was attended by 

 23 native helpers. Regulations were adopted con- 

 cerning sponsors Ht infant baptisms, separate homes 

 for the several families, the abolition of potiateh 

 and other heathen customs and superstitions, and 

 prohibiting card playing and gambling and the use 

 rang drink. Eight missionary trips were made 

 up the Xushagak river, one of them also 200 miles 

 up one of its tributaries, the Wood river, to the 

 lakes, and over to Togiak. The longest trip occu- 

 pied twenty-three days, and covered an estimated 

 distance of 800 miles, and 8 preaching stations were 

 established. 



The annual meeting of the association (English) 

 in aid of the Moravian missions was held May 11. 

 Lord Kinnaird presided. The report showed that 

 the year's income of the society had been 12.672. 

 against 8.4<i7 in 1MI5: the legacies had increased 

 from 1,85!) to 4.2.")!). Four hundred mis- 

 sionaries were employed at 150 stations : and 

 with the stations were connected 110 Sunday 

 schools, with more than 22,000 pupils. The 

 fact was mentioned that this was the oldest 

 of Protestant missions to the heathen, work 

 having been begun in the West Indies in 

 1732: in Greenland (where there were now 

 9.84"> native Christians) a year later : among 

 the Xorth American Indiana in 1734 : in 

 Dutch Guiana. 1735; and in South Africa in 

 1737: and here the first mission to lepers 

 ii'ted in 1818. The converts on these 

 mission fields. 93.700, are three times as nu- 

 merous as the parent Church. The missions 

 are largely self-supporting, nearly two 

 thirds of the 72,000 annually spent being 

 raised by the native churches. More than 

 2.5uo missionaries had now been sent out by 

 the Moravian Church. Besides the fields al- 

 ready mentioned, the society has missions in 

 Labrador, at 12 stations in Central America, 

 among the aborigines of Queensland and Vic- 

 toria, in Little Thibet in northwest Alaska, 

 and near Lake Xyassa, and a leper home at 

 Jerusalem. 



MORRIS. WILLIAM, an English poet 

 and artist, born in Walthamstow. Essex, on 

 the northern outskirts of London. March 24, 

 1834: died in the London suburb of Ham- 

 mersmith. Oct. 3. 1S!)P>. He was educated at 

 Marlborough and at Exeter College, Oxford, 

 and after taking his degree was for nine 

 months in the employ of the noted architect 

 George Edmund Street. In 1856 he founded 

 "The Oxford and Cambridge Magazine." 

 contributing frequently to its pases and sus- 

 taining its cost for the year of its existence. 

 In 1858 he published " The Defense of Guene- 

 vere and Other Poems." a work which reflects 

 in most dramatic original fashion the temper 

 of the Middle Ages more completely than any mod- 

 ern volume can be said to do. But if met with scanty 

 appreciation from the general reader, though esti- 

 mated at its proper worth by the critical few. In 

 1867 appeared "The Life and Death of Jason." in 

 17 cantos of heroic couplets, a poem which had 

 none of the occasional vagueness of outline of its 

 predecessor, and revealed him in the aspect by 

 which he is likely to be longest remembered, that 

 of story teller to the world at large. To this epic 

 succeeded the first volume of " The Earthly Para- 

 dise " in 1868. a series of classical and mediaeval 

 legends in a mediaeval setting. Stirred by reports 

 of an earthly paradise, certain gentlefolk and 

 mariners of Norway set sail to seek it, and after 

 years of wandering come as old men to a far west- 

 ern isle inhabited by descendants of ancient Greek 

 colonists. The Greeks entertain the wanderers 



and establish bimonthly feast- at each of which 

 a ela--i<- and a medieval story are told. Twenty- 

 four tales are thus narrated in the eour-e ,",f 

 the year, with interludes and preludes. a n<; 

 advent of each month is heralded by a lyric 

 of three seven-line st an/as. The first "or spring 

 volume of "The Earthlv Paradise" contained 



The Writing on the Image." In 1- ..nd 



portion of the work was published, and in is?' 

 third and final part appeared, the poems in their 

 order including The Love of Alcestis," " The Lady 

 of the Land." " The Son of Croesus." " The Watch- 

 ing of the Falcon," Pygmalion and the In: 

 "Ogier the Dane," "The Death of Paris," "The 

 Land East of the Sun and West of the Moon,'' 



WILLIAM MORRIS. 



"Acontius and Cydippe." "The Man who never 

 Laughed again." "The Story of Rhodope." "The 

 Lovers of Gudrun." which has also been published 

 separately. "The Golden Apples." The Fostering 

 of Aslaug." "Bellerophon at Arg'>s." "The Ring 

 given to Venus." " Bellerophon in Lycia," and 

 "The Hill of Venus.'' In the oft-quoted prefatory 

 stanzas beginning 



< >t' Leaven or hell I have no power^to sing, 

 I can not ease tlie burden of your tears 



the poet tells us just what we are to look for from 

 him. He does not intend to attempt the solution 

 of any material problems: his purpose is merely 

 to add to the sum of human enjoyment, and he 

 therefore styles himself "the idle singer of an 

 empty day." This characterization of himself has 

 been very generally misunderstood, and he has been 



