Mr. Crane's lecture was most interesting and instructive. On one point
only we would differ from him. Like Mr. Morris he quite underrates the
art of Japan, and looks on the Japanese as naturalists and not as
decorative artists. It is true that they are often pictorial, but by the
exquisite finesse of their touch, the brilliancy and beauty of their
colour, their perfect knowledge of how to make a space decorative without
decorating it (a point on which Mr. Crane said nothing, though it is one
of the most important things in decoration), and by their keen instinct
of where to place a thing, the Japanese are decorative artists of a high
order. Next year somebody must lecture the Arts and Crafts on Japanese
art. In the meantime, we congratulate Mr. Crane and Mr. Cobden-Sanderson
on the admirable series of lectures that has been delivered at this
exhibition. Their influence for good can hardly be over-estimated. The
exhibition, we are glad to hear, has been a financial success. It closes
tomorrow, but is to be only the first of many to come.

ENGLISH POETESSES

(Queen, December 8, 1888.)

England has given to the world one great poetess, Elizabeth Barrett
Browning. By her side Mr. Swinburne would place Miss Christina Rossetti,
whose New Year hymn he describes as so much the noblest of sacred poems
in our language, that there is none which comes near it enough to stand
second. 'It is a hymn,' he tells us, 'touched as with the fire, and
bathed as in the light of sunbeams, tuned as to chords and cadences of
refluent sea-music beyond reach of harp and organ, large echoes of the
serene and sonorous tides of heaven.' Much as I admire Miss Rossetti's
work, her subtle choice of words, her rich imagery, her artistic naivete,
wherein curious notes of strangeness and simplicity are fantastically
blended together, I cannot but think that Mr. Swinburne has, with noble
and natural loyalty, placed her on too lofty a pedestal. To me, she is
simply a very delightful artist in poetry. This is indeed something so
rare that when we meet it we cannot fail to love it, but it is not
everything. Beyond it and above it are higher and more sunlit heights of
song, a larger vision, and an ampler air, a music at once more passionate
and more profound, a creative energy that is born of the spirit, a winged
rapture that is born of the soul, a force and fervour of mere utterance
that has all the wonder of the prophet, and not a l