128 FRANCIS ORPEN MORRIS 



astonishment that any complaint of this kind could be 

 made ; adding that he had never had such fault found 

 with his workmen and cloth before. He assured his 

 customer that the coat was made of the very best 

 materials, and strictly in accordance with orders. 

 "That may be all very true," said Mr. Morris, "but 

 still my complaint holds good. In fact, the long 

 and short of the matter is, that I simply cannot wear 

 the coat out ! " When the ensuing laughter had sub- 

 sided, another order was, of course, promptly given. 



It has been already remarked that he always took 

 a hopeful view of things ; but he did more than this : 

 he regarded everything that happened as "for the 

 best," and his natural temperament was cheerful and 

 sanguine, even to a fault. Whatever evils happened, 

 he was perfectly confident that in the end good 

 would come out of them. " Whatever is, is best " 

 was a dictum in which he thoroughly believed, not 

 as thereby excluding the exercise of active energies 

 for good in any single individual, but as being con- 

 tent, after all has been done that can be done, to 

 leave the outcome in the hands of a higher Power 

 than our own. This hopeful and trustful frame of 

 mind often gave him heart and courage to overcome 

 many difficulties that would else have seemed ready 

 to weigh him down. 



Those who have read even small portions of his 

 various writings can hardly fail to have noticed traces 

 of a strong personality underlying them. As we may 

 often see much of a man's chararacter from a single 

 letter that he may have written, so in this case, not 



