We shall trace it in the orgies of Tiberius at Capri; or of Quartilla, as Petronius describes them, at Neapolis.

It is like a ray of light coming in at the top of a dark cavern, whose inmates see not _it_, but _by_ it; and which only brings to them a consciousness of shadow.

It is this supernatural element that leavens natural passion, and gives its mad rage to it.

It creates for it '_a twilight where virtues are vices_.' The pleasures thus sought for are supposed to enthral men not in proportion to their intensity (for this through all their varieties would be probably nearly equal) but in proportion to their lowness--to their sullying power.
Degradation is the measure of enjoyment; or rather it is an increasing numeral by which one constant figure of enjoyment is multiplied.
_Ah, where shall we go then, for pastime, If the_ worst _that can be has been done ?_ This is the great question of the votaries of such joys as these.[24] Thus if we look at life in the mirror of art, we shall see how the supernatural is ever present to us.

If we climb up into heaven it is there; if we go down into hell it is there also.