It is curious how, from time immemorial, man seems to have associated the idea of evil with beauty, shrunk from it with a sort of ghostly fear, while, at the same time drawn to it by force of its hypnotic attraction.

Le Gallienne is reflecting on a long-standing cultural paradox: beauty is often treated as morally suspect, even when it is intensely desired. The sentence suggests an inherited, almost superstitious association—“from time immemorial”—in which the beautiful is imagined as dangerous, tempting, or corrupting, provoking both fear and fascination. By describing beauty’s pull as “hypnotic,” he emphasizes its power to override rational judgment, while “ghostly fear” evokes taboo and the uncanny. The quote points to a recurring theme in literature and art (from femme fatale myths to decadent aesthetics): the idea that what most enchants us may also threaten us, and that moral anxiety frequently shadows aesthetic pleasure.