《乌合之众·第二编·群体的意见与信念·群体意见的直接因素》第9节
[13] In my book, "The Psychological Laws of the Evolution of Peoples," I have insisted at length on the differences which distinguish the Latin democratic ideal from the Anglo-Saxon democratic ideal. Independently, and as the result of his travels, M. Paul Bourget has arrived, in his quite recent book, "Outre-Mer," at conclusions almost identical with mine. From the dawn of civilisation onwards crowds have always undergone the influence of illusions. It is to the creators of illusions that they have raised more temples, statues, and altars than to any other class of men. Whether it be the religious illusions of the past or the philosophic and social illusions of the present, these formidable sovereign powers are always found at the head of all the civilisations that have successively flourished on our planet. It is in their name that were built the temples of Chaldea and Egypt and the religious edifices of the Middle Ages, and that a vast upheaval shook the whole of Europe a century ago, and there is not one of our political, artistic, or social conceptions that is free from their powerful impress. Occasionally, at the cost of terrible disturbances, man overthrows them, but he seems condemned to always set them up again. Without them he would never have emerged from his primitive barbarian state, and without them again he would soon return to it. Doubtless they are futile shadows; but these children of our dreams have forced the nations to create whatever the arts may boast of splendour or civilisation of greatness.
注释摘要
这段文字出现在勒庞讨论词语与幻想的衔接处，本身就是一个论证上的滑移，它值得我们停下来仔细看一看。勒庞刚从民主这个词在拉丁民族与盎格鲁-撒克逊民族那里意味着完全相反的东西讲起，立刻就把话题转向了一个更大、也更空灵的命题：文明从来不是建立在理性和真理之上，而是建立在幻想之上。正文里那个注释标记所附的这段议论，可以看作勒庞从具体语义分析一跃进入他整个历史哲学的跳…