All speaks of quiet and safety, allegories are gracious and shallow, and the whole betrays the would-be playfulness of an unquiet mind troubled by the dangers of a menacing reality but seeking refuge in the idyllic. The play element is very prominent here, but it has no organic connexion with the structure of society and is no longer fecund of true culture. Only a civilization on the wane produces an art like this. But the question is always whether the first impulse in war-making is not largely agonistic, i.e. envy of and lust for power and glory rather than hunger or defence.