《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25节
It is seen from what precedes that a number of factors may be concerned in the genesis of prestige; among them success was always one of the most important. Every successful man, every idea that forces itself into recognition, ceases, ipso facto, to be called in question. The proof that success is one of the principal stepping-stones to prestige is that the disappearance of the one is almost always followed by the disappearance of the other. The hero whom the crowd acclaimed yesterday is insulted to-day should he have been overtaken by failure. The reaction, indeed, will be the stronger in proportion as the prestige has been great. The crowd in this case considers the fallen hero as an equal, and takes its revenge for having bowed to a superiority whose existence it no longer admits. While Robespierre was causing the execution of his colleagues and of a great number of his contemporaries, he possessed an immense prestige. When the transposition of a few votes deprived him of power, he immediately lost his prestige, and the crowd followed him to the guillotine with the self-same imprecations with which shortly before it had pursued his victims. Believers always break the statues of their former gods with every symptom of fury.
注释摘要
勒庞在这一段里要完善他关于名望的最后一环：成功的决定性作用。前面的篇幅已经将名望分为人为获得的和个人固有的两种，这里则进一步指出，无论名望由何种因素构成，成功始终是它最关键的支柱。他的论证逻辑很清晰：一个人或一种观念一旦成功、被普遍承认，就自然免于被质疑，因为成功本身就等于正确性。反过来，只要失败降临，名望便会迅速崩塌，而且崩塌的猛烈程度与原先名望的高度成…