CHAPTER III · THE IDEAS, REASONING POWER, AND IMAGINATION OF CROWDS

1. THE IDEAS OF CROWDS. Fundamental and accessory ideas--How contradictory ideas may exist simultaneously--The transformation that must be undergone by lofty ideas before they are accessible to crowds-- The social influence of ideas is independent of the degree of truth they may contain. 2. THE REASONING POWER OF CROWDS. Crowds are not to be influenced by reasoning--The reasoning of crowds is always of a very inferior order--There is only the appearance of analogy or succession in the ideas they associate. 3. THE IMAGINATION OF CROWDS. Strength of the imagination of crowds--Crowds think in images, and these images succeed each other without any connecting link--Crowds are especially impressed by the marvellous--Legends and the marvellous are the real pillars of civilisation--The popular imagination has always been the basis of the power of statesmen--The manner in which facts capable of striking the imagination of crowds present themselves for observation.