Just here you will find the explanation of the profound pessimism of the literature of the last quarter of the nineteenth century, the note of melancholy in its poetry, and the cynicism of its humor.
"Feeling that the condition of the race was unendurable, they had no clear hope of anything better.

They believed that the evolution of humanity had resulted in leading it into a cul de sac, and that there was no way of getting forward.

The frame of men's minds at this time is strikingly illustrated by treatises which have come down to us, and may even now be consulted in our libraries by the curious, in which laborious arguments are pursued to prove that despite the evil plight of men, life was still, by some slight preponderance of considerations, probably better worth living than leaving.

Despising themselves, they despised their Creator.

There was a general decay of religious belief.
Pale and watery gleams, from skies thickly veiled by doubt and dread, alone lighted up the chaos of earth.