Pater was a romantic impressionistic critic who did not judge literature according to rules and principles, but who responded to a work of art, reacted to it, enjoyed it, and recorded his own pleasure in it for the benefit of his, readers.

He relied on his own impressions. As R. A. Scott James points out, “his way is experimental, tentative, bringing the trained sensibility of a keenly alert into contact with an author’s work. “His method was intuitive, impressionistic, and hence it is useless to expect from him any principles or canons of criticism.