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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from The Crowd by Gustave le Bon: quality is without importance. From the moment that they form
part of a crowd the learned man and the ignoramus are equally
incapable of observation.
This thesis may seem paradoxical. To demonstrate it beyond doubt
it would be necessary to investigate a great number of historical
facts, and several volumes would be insufficient for the purpose.
Still, as I do not wish to leave the reader under the impression
of unproved assertions, I shall give him some examples taken at
hazard from the immense number of those that might be quoted.
The following fact is one of the most typical, because chosen
from among collective hallucinations of which a crowd is the
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