Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 44.djvu/27

 In 1887 Pater published a volume of ‘Imaginary Portraits,’ four short romances, two of them on French topics—‘A Prince of Court Painters,’ an anecdote of Watteau, and ‘Denys l'Auxerrois,’ a fantastic vision of Renaissance manners—one on a Dutch subject, ‘Sebastian van Storck,’ and one on a German, ‘Duke Carl of Rosenmold.’ These are studies in philosophic fiction, executed with great delicacy. In 1889 he collected some of his miscellaneous critical studies into a volume called ‘Appreciations, with an Essay on Style.’ In 1893 he published his highly finished college lectures on ‘Plato and Platonism.’ In 1894 ‘The Child in the House,’ an ‘imaginary portrait,’ written in 1878, was issued from the Oxford press of Mr. Daniel. In January 1895 a posthumous volume of ‘Greek Studies’ appeared, prepared for the press by Mr. Shadwell.

Pater's household was moved to 12 Earl's Terrace, Kensington, in 1886, and in 1893 back to Oxford, where he again took a house, 64 St. Giles's. But all the while his real home was in his rooms at Brasenose, where he divided his time between his college duties and his books. His death was almost without warning. He was taken ill at Oxford with rheumatic fever in June 1894, and died suddenly, when he was believed to be convalescent, on Monday, 30 July 1894. He was buried in the cemetery of St. Giles at Oxford.

The qualities of Pater's style were highly original, and were in harmony with his sequestered and somewhat mysterious character. His books are singularly independent of influences from without; they closely resemble one another, and have little relation to the rest of contemporary literature. He exhausted himself in the research after absolute perfection of expression, noting with extreme refinement fine shades of feeling and delicate distinctions of thought and sentiment. His fault was to overburden his sentences, to annex to them too many parenthetical clauses and adjectival glosses. He was the most studied of the English prose-writers of his time, and his long-drawn style was lacking in simplicity and freshness. He wrote with labour, incessantly revising his expression and adding to it, wearying himself in the pursuit of a vain perfection. He possessed all the qualities of a humanist.

In temperament Pater was stationary rather than recluse, not shrinking from his fellows, but unwilling to move to meet them. He was fond of travel, yet hated the society of strangers. His disposition was highly affectionate, but not effusive, and his tendencies were contemplative and indolent. For a long time before his death he had silently grown to be a leading personage in the intellectual life of Oxford, though taking no part in any of its reforms or factions. He had a singular delight in surrounding himself with beautiful objects, but without any of the instinct of a collector; their beauty and nothing else delighted him, and the perfect copy of an ancient coin gave him as much pleasure as the original. He disliked noise and extravagance of all kinds; his manners were of the utmost simplicity; and his sense of fun as playful as that of a child.

The volumes published by Pater have been enumerated above. Of works brought out in periodical form, and not as yet republished, the most important are : 1. 'Gaston de la Tour,' a romance, a portion of which appeared in 'Macmillan's Magazine,' from June to October 1888, and was then discontinued. It was never completed, but a considerable number of chapters still exist in manuscript. 2. 'Emerald Uthwart,' a short romance published in the 'New Review' for 1892. 3. 'Some Churches in France,' a series of studies commenced in 'The Nineteenth Century' for 1894. 4. 'Apollo in Picardy,' a short romance published in 'Harper's Magazine' for 1893. 5. 'Pascal,' a study published in the ' Contemporary Review' for February 1895. Pater was also an occasional contributor to the 'Guardian.'

[Personal knowledge and family information, See 'Walter Pater: a Portrait' in the Contemporary Review for December 1894, by the present writer.] 

PATERNUS, (fl. 550). [See .]

PATERSON. [See also .]

PATERSON, ALEXANDER (1766–1831), Scottish catholic prelate, born at Pathhead in the Enzie, Banffshire, in March 1766, entered the seminary at Scalan at the age of twelve, and was sent in the following year to the Scottish College at Douay, where he remained until 1793, when the institution was dissolved in consequence of the French revolution. On his return he was stationed successively at Tombae in Glenlivet (1793–1812) and Paisley (1812–16), and on 15 Aug. 1816 he was consecrated bishop of Cybistra in partibus, and appointed coadjutor to Bishop Alexander Cameron [q. v.] In 1821 he went to Paris, and succeeded in recovering all the property of the Scottish colleges in France that had not been sold under the revolutionary governments. On the resignation of Bishop Cameron in 1825, Paterson suc-