I believe that the base of the heavenly ladder, upon which we seek to ascend into higher regions, has to be fastened to our life, so that everyone may be able to follow. If then, climbing steadily higher and higher, we find ourselves in a fantastic, magical world, then we will recognize that this realm also belongs in our life; that it indeed may be the most wonderful, the most magnificent part.
—E.T.A. Hoffmann , Die Serapions-Brüder (1819) in: Gesammelte Werke vol. 1, p. 599 (Winkler ed. 1963)(S.H. transl.)
