One of the most beautiful passages of Rousseau is that in the sixth book of Confessions, where he describes the awakening in him of the literary sense. Of such wisdom, the poetic passion, the desire of beauty, the love of art for its own sake, has most.

Pater is praising Rousseau’s self-portrait of becoming an artist—specifically, the moment in *Confessions* (Book VI) when Rousseau narrates an “awakening” to literature and aesthetic perception. For Pater, this kind of autobiographical insight exemplifies a higher “wisdom” than moralizing or practical instruction: it is the wisdom of sensibility. He links that awakening to what he values most in culture—poetic passion, the pursuit of beauty, and devotion to art “for its own sake.” The remark also reflects Pater’s broader aesthetic creed: that the cultivation of refined perception and the disinterested love of beauty are central to the life of the mind.