Woven into Burton’s methods is the concept that “impressions” can be food for the soul. He has tirelessly promoted the arts within the Fellowship, educating himself and encouraging others to educate themselves in all the arts. His artistic appreciation is wide-ranging, and the forms of its expression have varied greatly— from poetry readings to scholarly journals, from impressive art libraries to fountains, landscape gardening, and horticulture. At Apollo, he has founded a museum-level collection focusing, at various periods, on fine porcelain, French and English silver, Old Master paintings, and Chinese furniture from the Ming and early Qing dynasties. Typically, the Fellowship studies, then disperses and redirects its collections, always improved and enlightened by the contact.He reminds his students, “The arts are given to man to remind him to be present.”

He always reminds his students, however, that the arts are a means, rather than an end. “We appreciate the arts and have a limited understanding of them, but what we really understand is how to create a soul,” he said. “There is no higher art form than one’s own individual soul.”