“If we wish to examine the disintegration and regressions that now threaten to undermine the existence of mankind, making mock of our genuine technological advances, we must rather interpret purely qualitative evidence, best drawn from the world of art; for it is first of all in the graphic and plastic arts, in literature, and in music that distant tremors of the psyche are faintly recorded, as on a seismograph, often a whole century before they become visible and tangible.”