《乌合之众·第二编·群体的意见与信念·群体的领袖及其说服手段》第19节
Napoleon exercised a like fascination on all who came into contact with him.[19] [19] Thoroughly conscious of his prestige, Napoleon was aware that he added to it by treating rather worse than stable lads the great personages around him, and among whom figured some of those celebrated men of the Convention of whom Europe had stood in dread. The gossip of the period abounds in illustrations of this fact. One day, in the midst of a Council of State, Napoleon grossly insults Beugnot, treating him as one might an unmannerly valet. The effect produced, he goes up to him and says, "Well, stupid, have you found your head again?" Whereupon Beugnot, tall as a drum-major, bows very low, and the little man raising his hand, takes the tall one by the ear, "an intoxicating sign of favour," writes Beugnot, "the familiar gesture of the master who waxes gracious." Such examples give a clear idea of the degree of base platitude that prestige can provoke. They enable us to understand the immense contempt of the great despot for the men surrounding him--men whom he merely looked upon as "food for powder." Davoust used to say, talking of Maret's devotion and of his own: "Had the Emperor said to us, `It is important in the interest of my policy that Paris should be destroyed without a single person leaving it or escaping,' Maret I am sure would have kept the secret, but he could not have abstained from compromising himself by seeing that his family got clear of the city. On the other hand, I, for fear of letting the truth leak out, would have let my wife and children stay."
注释摘要
勒庞在这一段里试图证明，拿破仑拥有的那种个人名望可以令周围最粗暴、最强硬的将领都变成完全丧失自主判断的服从者。他用了好几则当时流传甚广的轶事来说明这一点。拿破仑深知名望的运作原理，因此他不但不收敛对待下属的粗暴态度，反而故意用这种极度轻蔑的方式强化自己的支配感。在国务会议上，他先当众恶言羞辱伯尼奥，像训斥一个不懂规矩的仆人那样，随后又拍拍对方的耳朵，表示自…