If we did not become callous, we were in no danger of becoming soft. If we avoided cynicism, we were not likely to become dreamy Parsifals. Something very fine and auspicious was silently ripening among the best of German youth from 1925 to 1930: a new idealism beyond doubt and disappointment, a new liberalism broader, more comprehensive, and more mature than the political liberalism of the nineteenth century; indeed, perhaps the basis of a new nobility of spirit, a new excellence, a new aesthetic of life. It was as yet a long way from realization and influence. Hardly had it been thought of
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