MR. PATER'S STYLE.
[To TER EDITOR OF TEE .apierrros."1 SIR,—Surely the writer of "The Prose Style of Men of Action" in the Spectator of January 25th is guilty of injustice when he says that Walter Pater achieved only the imitation of style. A writer who, like Pater, has the power of creating around his reader an atmosphere, not, it is true, of action, romance, or passion, but of harmony, of completeness, can scarcely be indicted as a mere imitator of style. Is there no "magic of expression" in the following quotation from "Gaston de Latour" ?—" Sorrow came along with beauty, a rival of its intricate omnipresence in the world. In the sudden tremor of an aged voice, the handling of a forgotten toy, a childish drawing, in the tacit observance of a day, he became aware suddenly of the great stream of human tears falling always through the shadows of the world."—I am, Sir, &a., H. S. RICHARDSON.
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