67
and authority.
He proclaims his ideas without the restraint which is
imposed upon most persons by doubt, modesty, and diffidence,1
further there15, one may suppose, a real clarification.
In any case, the mass of mankind is always ready to be swayed by
anything thus authoritative and distinct.
History is full of stories of
officers who have walked unarmed up to a mutinous regiment, and
disarmed them by the mere force of confidence. The power of the
orator over the mob is well known.
It is, probably, for this reason
while
that the prophet has been able to constrain mankind to obey his law.
It never occurs to him that any one can do otherwise. In practical life
one can walk past any guardian, such as a sentry or ticket-collector, if
one can really act so that the man is somehow persuaded that you have
a right to pass unchallenged.
This power, by the way, is what has been described by magicians as
the power of invisibility.
Somebody or other has an excellent story of
four quite reliable men who were on the look-out for a murderer, and
had instructions to let no one pass, and who all swore subsequently in
presence of the dead body that no one had passed. None of them had
seen the postman.
The thieves who
stole the
“ Gioconda ” from the Louvre were
] This lack of restraint is not to be confused with that observed in intoxication and
madness. Yet there is a very striking similarity, though only a superficial one