《乌合之众·第三编·不同群体的分类与描述·议会集会》第9节
On occasion, the leader may be intelligent and highly educated, but the possession of these qualities does him, as a rule, more harm than good. By showing how complex things are, by allowing of explanation and promoting comprehension, intelligence always renders its owner indulgent, and blunts, in a large measure, that intensity and violence of conviction needful for apostles. The great leaders of crowds of all ages, and those of the Revolution in particular, have been of lamentably narrow intellect; while it is precisely those whose intelligence has been the most restricted who have exercised the greatest influence. The speeches of the most celebrated of them, of Robespierre, frequently astound one by their incoherence: by merely reading them no plausible explanation is to be found of the great part played by the powerful dictator:-- "The commonplaces and redundancies of pedagogic eloquence and Latin culture at the service of a mind childish rather than undistinguished, and limited in its notions of attack and defence to the defiant attitude of schoolboys. Not an idea, not a happy turn of phrase, or a telling hit: a storm of declamation that leaves us bored. After a dose of this unexhilarating reading one is attempted to exclaim `Oh!' with the amiable Camille Desmoulins."
注释摘要
勒庞在这一节要论证的是一个看似悖论的命题：在议会这类群体中，智识和教养对领袖而言往往弊大于利。他的推理链条很清晰——智识使人习惯性地看到事物的复杂性，习惯于解释和辨析，这种习惯必然使人变得宽容，而宽容恰恰会消减群体领袖最需要的那种炽烈而毫不妥协的信念。能够驱使人群行动的，从来不是精细的分析和留有余地的判断，而是斩钉截铁的确信。因此，历史上那些最能左右群体的…