The Only Use of

idealism

in

The Lady, or the Tiger?

When a subject was accused of a crime of sufficient importance to interest the king, public notice was given that on an appointed day the fate of the accused person would be decided in the king's arena, a structure which well deserved its name, for, although its form and plan were borrowed from afar, its purpose emanated solely from the brain of this man, who, every barleycorn a king, knew no tradition to which he owed more allegiance than pleased his fancy, and who ingrafted on every adopted form of human thought and action the rich growth of his barbaric idealism.†

Definitions:

(1) (idealism as in: youthful idealism)
the belief that behavior should be guided by high ideals or standards and often that good things will result -- sometimes used to imply that such beliefs are unrealistic
(2) (idealism as in: philosophical idealism)
the philosophical theory that there is no reality outside of ideas