PROGRESS AND CRAFTSMANSHIP 255 



craftsman who gives his talents directly to each par- Book in 

 ticular commodity in the production of which he is 

 concerned a silver cup, or a lamp, or a curiously- 

 designed carpet, or a printed volume will produce 

 objects having a charm which is wanting in similar 

 objects produced by the methods of the manufacturer 

 is, no doubt, true. But great artist-craftsmen being 

 few in number, the beautiful objects they make by 

 the craftsman's methods are few in number also, and 

 are consequently obtainable by a few persons only ; 

 whilst the objects inferior, but approximately similar 

 to them, which the great manufacturer multiplies in 

 indefinite quantities, are accessible to the many, 

 who, under any social system, must either have 

 these or have nothing of the kind at all. An artist- 

 craftsman, for example, such as the late Mr. 

 William Morris, or a transcriber and illuminator in 

 a mediaeval monastery, could produce a volume 

 indefinitely more beautiful than any product of the 

 steam printing-press ; but a book which the methods 

 of the manufacturer would admit of being sold for 

 sixpence might cost, if produced by the craftsman, 

 twice that number of pounds ; and it is easy to see 

 that, supposing a study of the Bible to be desirable, 

 a village comprising four hundred and eighty families 

 would be benefited more by each family having a 

 sixpenny Bible of its own than it would by the exist- 

 ence of one sumptuous copy chained to a desk in the 

 village church or reading-room. 



Rare manual skill, in short, does not promote 

 progress, or help to maintain civilisation at any 



