[the Silver Age] "The individual, prohibited from
developing his external life, retired more and
more into himself... The majority, however, became
blasé, soured and morbid... Forced carefully to
hide nature, men relapsed into artificial and
unnatural ways. ...a certain vanity attaches to
all the characters of the age in question, and
this was fed by the public declamations... The
uncertainty of existence and possession, the
continual apprehension in which men lived, caused
a restless versatility, a morbid irritability and
hurry, which was always afraid of beginning too
late and eagerly made the most of the moment.
...simple and natural composition was considered
insipid; the aim of language was to be brilliant,
piquant, and interesting. Hence it was dressed up
with abundant tinsel of epigrams, rhetorical
figures, and poetical turns, and indulged in all
manner of borrowed phrases and allusions....
Mannerism supplanted style, and bombastic pathos
took the place of quiet power. ...on the whole,
literature lost the sympathy of the nation at
large; most Emperors even intentionally widened
the chasm between the educated class and the
populace..." --Teuffel (1900)