MARIUS THE EPICUREAN, the chief work in fiction of Walter Pater. It is the story of a young Roman of the days of Marcus Aurelius, but in the problems and experiences of young Marius in ancient Rome, Pater has given also something of the problems and ex periences of a young man at the end of the 19th century. In the days of Marcus Aurelius the ancient world was changing into the mediaeval Another such period was the Renaissance, in which the medimval world was changing to the modern. In our days it may be civilization may be changing to something very different from the last few hundred years: Of the first of these great changes Pater wrote in 'Marius the Epicurean.' Of the second he began to give a picture in de Latour,' a later novel of which he wrote only the first part. To the last period, his own, Pater devoted critical rather than creative thought. 'Marius the Epicurean,' therefore, is deeply informed with ideas; in fact the very titlepage names °Sensations and Ideas?' Pater became known first as a critic; in this novel he turned to express in the form of life the ideas which he had previously pre sented as matter of thought. A good many of Pater's ideas will be found in 'Marius' : the fundamental conception of Epicureanism is a restatement of the theory of life which had al ready been presented in the conclusion of the Renaissance and had since been much and some times severely criticised. Flavian's plans for a career in literature have much in common with the ideas of the later essay on style. The work is characteristic of its author not only by its ideas, but by its general form. After this novel Pater published several shorter pieces which he called 'Imaginary Portraits.' In each
of these he presented a figure which embodies some idea or position in the philosophy of art and life, sometimes an actual character like Watteau, sometimes an ideal figure like Sebas tian von Storck. He subsequently wrote several other things of the same sort which is now generally thought of as very characteristic of his art and thought. the Epicurean' is an earlier, longer and more fully developed imaginary portrait. Its interest is not in the story, but in the idea, or in this case in the progress of the idea. Marius grows up in the old pagan world, comes to know all the cultiva tion and refinement of the ancient civilization, weighs the older philosophies of life and art and finally devotes himself to the new and growing religion of Christ. Like all of Pater's fiction the story is most sedulously careful of its surroundings and environment, and the pic tures of life on the great old Roman family estate, the popular festival, the interview with the emperor, the lecture on rhetoric by Fronto are among his best known. In fiction in general there is an especial place for those books which present adventures and experiences of the soul rather than of the man as seen in the every day world. There were a number of such at the end of the 19th century. Among the most famous of these studies of the religious life are 'John Inglesant' and 'Robert Elsmere.' 'Marius the Epicurean> is quite as interesting as either of these to those who follow the work ings of the spirit, and quite as characteristic of the time which it presents and of the time in which it was written.