What we call the ugly, on the contrary, is a detail of a great whole which eludes us, and which is in harmony, not with man but with all creation.

That is why it constantly presents itself to us in new but incomplete aspects.
It is interesting to study the first appearance and the progress of the grotesque in modern times.

At first, it is an invasion, an irruption, an overflow, as of a torrent that has burst its banks.

It rushes through the expiring Latin literature, imparts some coloring to Persius, Petronius and Juvenal, and leaves behind it the _Golden Ass_ of Apuleius.

Thence it diffuses itself through the imaginations of the new nations that are remodelling Europe.