“When I entered Brasenose as a freshman-scholar in October, 1864, W. H. Pater was junior Fellow. I did not make his acquaintance till long afterwards, but from the first I was struck with his appearance, his high, rather receding forehead; his bright eyes, placed near together, his face clean-shaven except for a short moustache (this was rare in those days), his slight stoop, and his quick walk with a curious swing of the shoulders. As I got to know senior men, especially of other colleges, I gradually became conscious that Pater was already vaguely celebrated in the University. He was supposed to have anew and daring philosophy of his own, and a wonderful gift of style, owing his Fellowship to these two, for he was no scholar, as the Universities understand the word.” That Pater was no scholar, in the technical sense of the word, is true enough; but he answered rather to Lord Macaulay’s definition of a scholar, as one who read Plato with his feet on the fender. He was not at any time a great reader or a profound student; he was on the look-out for quality rather than for definite facts. He was very fastidious about the style even of authors whose matter and treatment he admired. “I admire Poe’s originality and imagination,” he once said, “but I cannot read him in the original. He is so rough; I read him in Baudelaire’s translation.” Indeed he read less and less as time went on; in later years, apart from reading undertaken for definite purposes, he concentrated himself more and more upon a few great books, such as Plato and the Bible, which he often read in the Vulgate; he made no attempt at any time to keep abreast of the literature of the day. Pater regarded his Oxford life primarily as a life of quiet literary study; this was his chief object; he had a strong natural dislike of responsibility; he did not consider himself a professional educator, though he thought it a plain duty to give encouragement and sympathy in intellectual things to any students who desired or needed direction. But he did not conceive that there ought to be any question of disciplinary training or coercion in the matter; to those who required help, he gave it eagerly, patiently, generously; but he never thought of himself as a species of schoolmaster, whose business it was to make men work; on the other hand he realised his personal responsibility to the full. He was always ready to give advice about work, about the choice of a profession, and above all laboured to clear away the scruples of men who had intended to enter the ministry of the church, and found themselves doubtful of their vocation. He had a special sympathy for the ecclesiastical life, and was anxious to remove any obstacles, to resolve any doubts, which young men are so liable to encounter in their undergraduate days. As Dr. Bussell, in a Memorial Sermon preached in Brasenose Chapel after Pater’s death, finely said, we may see in Pater