The San Francisco call., 1896-11-15

old Socrates, who reproved that disciple who
asked him where he wished to be buried. The
master, as he was about to drink the cup OF
hemlock, answered that not he but his body
was to be committed to earth, and added: "Be
well assured, most excellent Critic, that to
speak improperly is not only culpable as TO
the thing itself, but likewise occasions some
injury to our souls' And so, even at the mo-
ment of death, he asserted his own immor tai
ity and made his protest against careless use
OF worGs. And truly, words in composition
are many times like mighty forces in weak
hands, and are used that the virtue and
power are lost out OF them.
So then 1t is two years since Walter Pater's
body was faid under English earth. and
though the love and appreciation of his works
have steadily increased among all book
lovers, strangely little has been known about
the man himself.
He was alooi in body and mind from most OF
his generation. He was in no sense OF the
word, nor can he ever be, popular writer.
People are in too great hurry to-day 10
linger over those subtleties of expression that
convey meanings which Pater alone could i'm
part and which are as elusive as the fragrance
OF a flower a suggested strain OF music.
Though it is safe enough to predict that the
''Pater craze" which has prevailed in the East
ern cities viii reach the Pacific Coast before
long, true Pater lovers will always be rare.
When Pater died the usual press sketches and
reviews were lacking. Yet he and Stevenson
were ranked together by critics as the two
great masters of style in their generation
The contrast between the silence which greeted
the one mans death and the worlds praise
which blossomed over the grave OF the other
was singulsrly striking. The reason lay prob
ably in the different personality of the men.
Pater was reserved. Save TO his few friends
he lacked the genial kindliness which marked
Stevenson as a man and es a writer.
Yet in the writings of Pater his readers find
an ever-increasing charm. His work fulfills
that most difficult requirement of true art,
the possession of perpetually increasing in
terest, and so in Pater the student finds con-
stantly new beauties, new destinations.
1t was not until the publication of Mr..
Gosse's recent book that anything like a sat
isfactory biographical sketch of Pater has
been given us; though I recollect an article
in the Atlantic by William Sharp, in which
he speaks OF his first meeting with Pater and
the rare attraction $50 rarely exerted) OF the
man for his friends. The meeting happened
In the following way: Sharp. then young
man and shy-a half-hedged critic-was on his
first visit to London. He was taken by the
blind poet Philip Bourke Marston 10 call at
the home of the Robinsons, where those two
talented sisters-one of whom afterward be-
came Nine. Darmesteter - had one OF the
most brilliant lotteries in London about them.
when the two friends arrived; among the rest
quiet, dark man of medium height, stoutly
built, standing near the piano.
The pallor OF his face was intensified by q
heavy black mustache His eyes were deep
set, of peculiar gray-"A variable hue, but
wherein the inner light was always vivid and
sometimes strangely keen and penetrating"
The young Scotchman was quite thrilled upon
being told that this was Walter Pater. We
may suppose that the older man was touched
by the lads very evident admiration, for this
vas the beginning OF lifelong friendship.
William Sharp was frequent visitor in alter
years at Pater's quiet Oxford home, which
was presided over by his sisters.
Mr.. Gosse. in his portrait of Pater, tells us
that his family was of Dutch extraction, his
ancestors having come over with William OF
Orange. They were clannish and tenacious
of family traditions. For generations the sons
were reared in the church OF Rome and the
daughters in the Anglican faith. Walter who
was born in 1889, and his brother William
were the first PateTs who were not brought up
Catholics. Walter was not at all precocious
and showed no unusual ability as schoolboy.
At college he gained only second class and
d.. his degree was sore disappointment. Jowett
was apparently the only man in oxford who
dlscerned his ability. He surprised Pater very
much one day by saying: 81 think you have a
mind which viii come to great eminence.'
His genius matured slowly. He was 81 be-
fore he ventured into print. 1t was then that
he published his fragmentary essay on Cole
ridge which gave little indication of the dis
tinguished character of the work that was to
follow. The following year, having come
under the influence of German culture, he
wrote his famous essay on Winckelmann-that
:. Winckelmanu to whom Goethe paid so high q
tribute and who was the father of the Greek
revival in Germany. Gosse says of Pater that
. cit was with the study of Winckelmann that
he became himself writer" Originally de-
signed for the church he gradually drifted away
from Christian to pagan ideals. He became
an ardent Platonist and lover of Greek art.
He was in sympathy with the pre-Raphaelite
movement, and had great admiration for
the then little known work of Edward Burne-
Jones. He became intimate with Swinburne,
and the young poet was a frequent visitor in
Pater's college rooms. That was "the time OF
singing BIRDS" when Christina and Dante
Gabriel Rossetti and Morris and Swinburne
were pouring forth their song.
Pater resolved TO write prose no less ex-
quisite than their poetry. He was extremely
painstaking. Gosse says, 81 have known
writers of every degree, but never one to
whom the act of composition was such Q
travail and an agony as it was to Pater."
With increasing fame he became more
though still Observation-Disclosures He
entertained only those people whose lives
touched his at some point of interest. Miss
Mary Arnold, who afterward became Mrs
Humphry Ward, was one of these Indeed
her girls privilege of friendship with eminent
men, and being niece to an illustrious uncle
must have gone far toward making her the
writer she has since become. Pater was kind
and considerate, though always somewha
reserved in his attitude toward the young
men of oxford, to whom his was figure o.
constantly increasing interest. He died or
the 3Oth OF July, 1894, in the ffty-ffth year O
his age. The work that he left is small in
quantity; not more than five or six volumes
Such finish as his could not go with rapid
workmanship. "Marius, the Epicurean," 1.
a psychological, semi-historic romance of pa
gan times. 1t is his only work OF fiction
unless "The Imaginary Portraits" could be
cIassed as such. 1t is called q great book by
critics who are chary in their use of that ad.
jective. 1t is very long and is the most marked
example of his interpretive, analytical style
So that it is not the best first attempt for be
ginners in Pater. Nevertheless, no other book
has so completely given us the spirit
of the pagan world. We touch here
he