How Walter Pater Might Have Countered Charges That He Misused Sources

Abstract

Imaginative scholarly dialogue between Pater and an imaginary twentyfirst century professor regarding Pater’s handling of sources, in which the professor criticizes the nineteenth-century writer’s method as unacceptable by contemporary standards. Continues with a discussion of the differences between older and more modern practices of scholarly writing, suggesting that Pater’s initial readers were both more tolerant of his methods and more familiar with his sources.