《乌合之众·第一编·群体的心理·群体信念呈现的宗教形态》第3节
All founders of religious or political creeds have established them solely because they were successful in inspiring crowds with those fanatical sentiments which have as result that men find their happiness in worship and obedience and are ready to lay down their lives for their idol. This has been the case at all epochs. Fustel de Coulanges, in his excellent work on Roman Gaul, justly remarks that the Roman Empire was in no wise maintained by force, but by the religious admiration it inspired. "It would be without a parallel in the history of the world," he observes rightly, "that a form of government held in popular detestation should have lasted for five centuries. . . . It would be inexplicable that the thirty legions of the Empire should have constrained a hundred million men to obedience." The reason of their obedience was that the Emperor, who personified the greatness of Rome, was worshipped like a divinity by unanimous consent. There were altars in honour of the Emperor in the smallest townships of his realm. "From one end of the Empire to the other a new religion was seen to arise in those days which had for its divinities the emperors themselves. Some years before the Christian era the whole of Gaul, represented by sixty cities, built in common a temple near the town of Lyons in honour of Augustus. . . . Its priests, elected by the united Gallic cities, were the principal personages in their country. . . . It is impossible to attribute all this to fear and servility. Whole nations are not servile, and especially for three centuries. It was not the courtiers who worshipped the prince, it was Rome, and it was not Rome merely, but it was Gaul, it was Spain, it was Greece and Asia."
注释摘要
勒庞在这一段里要论证一个贯穿整章的核心判断：一切宗教或政治信条的创立者之所以能够成功，归根到底是因为他们成功地激起了群体内部那种狂热的宗教式情感——这种情感让人们在崇拜和服从中感到幸福，并且心甘情愿为心目中的偶像献出生命。他断言这是适用于所有时代的规律，并搬出了当时极具声望的历史学家菲斯泰尔·德·古朗治对罗马高卢时代的研究作为证据。古朗治在《古代城邦》与相…