Morris, William: An address delivered by William Morris at the distribution of prizes to students of the Birmingham Municipal School of Art on Feb. 21, 1894 (London, 1898)

may plead that ifthey could see, it would give them Birming/
trouble and pain, so, in the matter of legs, they ham School
might also plead that by gaining the capacity of of Art, 1894*
walking they would incur the pain and labour of
going afoot.
Well,havingconvinced our blind neighboursthat
it is a good thing to see, I think we should have won
half the battle; because those who want to see, and
do not really lack eyes, but only the habit of using
them, can get to see, sooner or later, that is, can ac/
quire the habit of seeing. And we who have not
lost that habit are there to help them. N o w, I have
had a considerable experience in the art of propa/
ganda, & I have, in the course of it, found out this
that, having enunciated your first thesis, you must
not wait till you have converted all people to that
before you put out your second & your third, and
proceed to act as if the said first were already ac/
cepted. So let us go by this experience now, & as/
sume that we all agree (though we do not) that it
is a good thing to have the full use of our eyes, and
are prepared to endure the pain, as well as to enjoy
the pleasure, which that use will give us; that we
are, in short, prepared to accept the responsibility
of being human beings in the full possession of
healthy senses.
That being accepted, there comes, I say, the ques/
tion as to howthose who have not the use of their
eyes, and desire to gain it, can be helped by those
who have the said use. A far more difficult ques/
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