Westcott was not a narrow specialist. He loved poetry, music and art. His literary sympathies were wide. He would never tire of praising
Euripides, and studied the writings of
Robert Browning. He was also said to be a talented
draughtsman and used often to say that if he had not taken orders he would have become an architect. He followed with delight the development of
natural science studies at Cambridge. He spared no pains to be accurate, or to widen the basis of his thought. Thus he devoted one summer vacation to the careful analysis of
Auguste Comte's
Politique positive. He studied assiduously The
Sacred Books of the East, and earnestly contended that no systematic view of Christianity could afford to ignore the philosophy of other religions. The outside world was wont to regard him as a mystic; and the mystical, or sacramental, view of life enters, it is true, very largely into his teaching. He had in this respect many points of similarity with the
Cambridge Platonists of the 17th century, and with
F. D. Maurice, for whom he had profound regard. He was a strong supporter of Church reform, especially in the direction of obtaining larger powers for the laity. A portrait of Westcott by William Edwards Miller is in the collection of
Trinity College, Cambridge. Brooke Foss Westcott is
remembered in the
Church of England with a
commemoration on
27 July. ==Works==