La Source au bout du monde - 1

What is the condition of Society under which we live? Is it satisfactory, is it quite as we should all like it to be? Does it quite please you who are listening to me, so that there is nothing you want to alter in it?

If that is the case, then none of my hearers are poor, and none have any fear of becoming poor; I am speaking to a crowd of rich men who are quite sure that they will always be rich. Well I see that is not quite the case; some of us are poor, some of us are afraid of becoming poor; some of us have to do very unpleasant work; all of us have to work more than we like; and we know of people who are worse off in all these matters than we are: So we do want to alter things if we could: we are not quite contented: if we say we are, we are not speaking truly but say so because we don't 'want to argue, or because we want to get something out of rich people whose interest it is that we should be contented.

Well I should wonder if we were contented; for when we look at the present state of Society we find that the majority of people have every reason to wish to be better off than they are, that in point of fact they are living in misery. Let us look at the various conditions of life and see what portion of the whole people has good reason to be pleased with their share of the wealth, ease, good living, in a word, the happiness of this most highly civilized country.

Misery and the Way Out - Development of Modern Society

"For surely there is no square mile of earth's inhabitable surface that is not beautiful in its own way, if we men will only abstain from willfully destroying that beauty; and it is this reasonable share in the beauty of the earth that I claim as the right of every man who will earn it by due labour; a decent house with decent surroundings for every honest and industrious family; that is the claim which I make of you in the name of art. Is it such an exorbitant claim to make of civilization? of a civilization that is too apt to boast in after-dinner speeches; too apt to thrust her blessings on far-off peoples at the cannon's mouth before she has improved the quality of those blessings so far that they are worth having at any price, even the smallest"...

Art and the Beauty of the Earth

The tale tells that in times long past there was a dwelling of men beside a great wood. Before it lay a plain, not very great, but which was, as it were, an isle in the sea of woodland, since even when you stood on the flat ground, you could see trees everywhere in the offing, though as for hills, you could scarce say that there were any; only swellings-up of the earth here and there, like the upheavings of the water that one sees at whiles going on amidst the eddies of a swift but deep stream.

On either side, to right and left the tree-girdle reached out toward the blue distance, thick close and unsundered, save where it and the plain which it begirdled was cleft amidmost by a river about as wide as the Thames at Sheene when the flood-tide is at its highest, but so swift and full of eddies, that it gave token of mountains not so far distant, though they were hidden. On each side moreover of the stream of this river was a wide space of stones, great and little, and in most places above this stony waste were banks of a few feet high, showing where the yearly winter flood was most commonly stayed.

You must know that this great clearing in the woodland was not a matter of haphazard; though the river had driven a road whereby men might fare on each side of its hurrying stream. It was men who had made that Isle in the woodland.

The House of the Wolfings

Quel emballage choisir selon le cadeau ? Vous trouverez ici les réponses à cette question ainsi que le matériel pour emballer vos cadeaux. Vous aurez l'embarras du choix avec ces superbes papiers cadeaux de grande qualité aux motifs originaux : papier floral, nostalgique, lignes abstraites... Des modes d'emploi étape par étape vous aideront à réaliser des emballages parfaits, quelle que soit la forme de votre cadeau. Par ailleurs, ces papiers aux motifs superbes peuvent être utilisés pour les activités manuelles comme le scrapbooking par exemple.

William Morris - Papiers cadeau d'artistes (10 feuilles)

William Morris (1834-1896) connaît plusieurs carrières successives : il est peintre, poète, tisserand, traducteur, décorateur, romancier, éditeur, imprimeur. Vers 1883, il s'engage auprès des socialistes. Dès lors, il sillonne l'Angleterre, l'Ecosse, l'Irlande, pour donner des conférences, en général à des auditoires d'artistes ou d'ouvriers. Ce volume réunit trois de ces conférences. Il y examine le système économique de son temps et démontre avec ferveur ce que ce système a de déshumanisant, il s'y interroge sur les arts décoratifs et sur leur importance dans la vie quotidienne. Dans ces pages, Morris affirme ses préceptes favoris : aucun objet chez soi qui ne soit beau ou utile. Aucun travail qui ne soit une joie à accomplir. Rien de plus important que la beauté, l'amitié et la solidarité.

Comment nous vivons, comment nous pourrions vivre

William morris full color patterns & designs

Pubblicato nel 1888, "Il sogno di John Ball" è una fantasia di carattere utopico-socialista, e ha la forma di un sogno in cui il narratore si ritrova proiettato - dopo aver annusato gli effluvi di un misterioso "papavero bianco" - all'epoca di una rivolta contadina realmente avvenuta nel 1381 nel corso della Guerra dei Cento Anni, e capitanata, tra gli altri, proprio da John Ball, una storica, seppur poco nota, figura di prete di campagna. Il narratore ben presto si ritrova coinvolto nella ribellione e assiste agli scontri armati tra rivoltosi e soldati dei signorotti locali. Dopo aver assistito a un sermone di rara potenza oratoria che John Ball tiene ai contadini ribelli, il narratore lo incontra e durante una notte i due hanno una conversazione di carattere politico e sociale che rivela incredibili aspetti di attualità e contemporaneità.

Il sogno di John Ball

A young Viking sets off on a quest to rescue his kidnapped bride and, along the way, discovers an earthly paradise. Somehow he must turn his back on this paradise to complete his quest to find a woman he barely knows.

La Source au bout du monde - 1

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