The conclusion to be drawn from what precedes is, that the crowd is always intellectually inferior to the isolated individual, but that, from the point of view of feelings and of the acts these feelings provoke, the crowd may, according to circumstances, be better or worse than the individual. All depends on the nature of the suggestion to which the crowd is exposed. This is the point that has been completely misunderstood by writers who have only studied crowds from the criminal point of view. Doubtless a crowd is often criminal, but also it is often heroic. It is crowds rather than isolated individuals that may be induced to run the risk of death to secure the triumph of a creed or an idea, that may be fired with enthusiasm for glory and honour, that are led on--almost without bread and without arms, as in the age of the Crusades--to deliver the tomb of Christ from the infidel, or, as in '93, to defend the fatherland. Such heroism is without doubt somewhat unconscious, but it is of such heroism that history is made. Were peoples only to be credited with the great actions performed in cold blood, the annals of the world would register but few of them. CHAPTER II THE SENTIMENTS AND MORALITY OF CROWDS 1. IMPULSIVENESS, MOBILITY, AND IRRITABILITY OF CROWDS. The crowd is at the mercy of all exterior exciting causes, and reflects their incessant variations--The impulses which the crowd obeys are so imperious as to annihilate the feeling of personal interest-- Premeditation is absent from crowds--Racial influence. 2. CROWDS ARE CREDULOUS AND READILY INFLUENCED BY SUGGESTION. The obedience of crowds to suggestions--The images evoked in the mind of crowds are accepted by them as realities--Why these images are identical for all the individuals composing a crowd--The equality of the educated and the ignorant man in a crowd--Various examples of the illusions to which the individuals in a crowd are subject--The impossibility of according belief to the testimony of crowds--The unanimity of numerous witnesses is one of the worst proofs that can be invoked to establish a fact--The slight value of works of history. 3. THE EXAGGERATION AND INGENUOUSNESS OF THE SENTIMENTS OF CROWDS. Crowds do not admit doubt or uncertainty, and always go to extremes--Their sentiments always excessive. 4. THE INTOLERANCE, DICTATORIALNESS, AND CONSERVATISM OF CROWDS. The reasons of these sentiments--The servility of crowds in the face of a strong authority--The momentary revolutionary instincts of crowds do not prevent them from being extremely conservative--Crowds instinctively hostile to changes and progress. 5. THE MORALITY OF CROWDS. The morality of crowds, according to the suggestions under which they act, may be much lower or much higher than that of the individuals composing them--Explanation and examples-- Crowds rarely guided by those considerations of interest which are most often the exclusive