Themes
Technique is not art
Wilde's complaint is that Simonds 'showed the various methods as they might be used by an artisan.' He lists what was missing: the artistic value of each material, the link between method and imagination, the capacities for realism and idealism in each medium, the 'historical and human side of the art.' His closing line puts it in a sentence: a lecturer on poets 'should not confine his remarks purely to grammar.'
Morris as the measure
Wilde judges the lecture against the one before it. Morris, 'while explaining the technical processes of weaving, never forgot that he was lecturing on an art. He not merely taught his audience, but he charmed them.' The comparison makes clear what Wilde wants from the series: practical demonstration joined to ideas about beauty, and a sense that a craft belongs to the whole of art and life.