Bejamin as a young student had condemned the universities for their debasement of Geist to the functional purposes of acquiring a profession. "There are evil consequences when institutions which offer titles, qualifications and openings into a career and a profession are allowed to call themselves places of science', he had roundly declared.¹ But, as he later recalled at the age of forty, he too had been obliged to seek a career, and had not noticed in his failure any of the high-minded compensations his early attitude might have led him to expect.² His failure to achieve the Habilitation, and his father's fairly brutal insistence that his son had to earn a living just like anyone else, concentrated his mind firmly on the realities of practical employment.