The father does not hear. BRING FORTH THE BEST ROBE AND
PUT IT ON HIM, AND PUT A RING ON HIS HAND AND SHOES ON HIS FEET. A
ring on his hand! Shoes on his feet we can understand, but there is
to be a ring, honour, ennoblement! . . . The first movement of
repentance was--I WILL ARISE AND GO TO MY FATHER. The omissions in
Morris's comment were striking. There was no word of the orthodox
machinery of forgiveness. It was through Morris that the Bible
became what it always has been to me. It has not solved directly
any of the great problems which disturb my peace, and Morris seldom
touched them controversially, but he uncovered such a wealth of
wonder and beauty in it that the problems were forgotten.
Lord Bacon was Morris's hero, both for his method and his personal
character. These were the days before the researches of Spedding,
when Bacon was supposed to be a mass of those impossible paradoxes
in which Macaulay delighted. To Morris, Bacon's Submission and his
renunciation of all defence were sufficient. With what pathos he
repeated Bacon's words when the Lords asked him whether the
subscription to the Submission was in his own hand. "My Lords, it
is my act, my hand, my heart. I beseech your Lordships, be merciful
to a broken reed.
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