A more immediate effect of the intimacy between Morris and Burne-Jones was, however, the weakening of the intention which had brought them to the university. The more they dreamed and talked the further their idea of finding a career in the Church receded, and the stronger grew the desire which both of them felt for the pursuit of some form of art. While they were thus hesitating over their plans for the future, Burne-Jones received a sort of revelation which fixed finally his half-formed intention to become a painter. He saw by chance some works by Rossetti, an illustration to a poem by William Allingham and a water-colour, "Dante's celebration of Beatrice's Birthday," and these, with some notable Pre-Raphaelite pictures, like Holman Hunt's "Light of the World" and "The Christian Priest escaping from the Druids," which were then at Oxford, gave him a veritable inspiration. For Rossetti in particular he conceived immediately a passionate adoration, and to sit at the feet of such a master seemed to him the noblest aim in life. From that moment, indeed, his fate was decided, though some little time had yet to elapse before his dreams could be realised and his plans could be put into working shape. [Illustration: PLATE III.--SPONSA DI LIBANO (Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool) The first idea for the "Sponsa di Libano" was embodied in one of a series of pencil designs from the "Song of Solomon," which were prepared by Burne-Jones in 1876. This picture, the only one out of the series which he actually completed pictorially, was exhibited at the New Gallery in 1891. The motive of the composition is explained in the text which the original drawing illustrated: "Awake, O North Wind; and come, thou South; blow upon my garden that the spices thereof may flow out." In the treatment of the subject the artist's poetic fancy and sense of decorative arrangement are particularly well displayed.]