Pictorial Shakespeare, 1880-1890 - eTheses Repository - University ...

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fetishism and the worship of little household gods". He
welcomed Pater's independent spirit:
He has no design of interfering with the
minor or ^ajor morals of the world, but
only of dealing with what we may perhn-ps
cnll the accentuating portion of life.
Some justification could be found for this controlled and
purposeful escapism:
The speculative distractions of the epoch
are noisy and multitudinous, e.nri the first
effort of the serious spirit rnu°t be to
disengage itself from the futile hubbub
which is sedulously maintained by the bodies
of rival partisans in philosophy and philosophical
theology. This effort after
detachment naturally takes the form of
criticism of the r>pst, the only way in which
a man can take part in the discussion and
propagation of ideas, while yet standing in
some sort of aloof from the agitation of
the present.
(";:r Pater's Essays", n.s. XIII (1873)
475).
This accomodates Pater with the view of classical studi es put
forward by Arnold, by which "commerce with the ancients" is
held to produce in writers "a steadying and composing effect
upon their judgement, not of literary works only, but of men
and events in general". Arnold had nro posed as a model ;< the
plain and simple Droceedings of the old artists" who
attained their ,