DUELS AND 0RDEALS
THE LOVE OF THE MARVELOUS AND THE DISBELIEF OF THE TRUE
POPULAR FOLLIES IN GREAT CITIES
THE O. P. MANIA
THE THUGS, OR PHANSIGARS





NATIONAL DELUSIONS.

N'en deplaise a ces fous nommes sages de Grece;
En ce monde il n'est point de parfaite sagesse;
Tous les hommes sont fous, et malgre tous leurs soins,
Ne different entre eux que du plus ou du moins.

BOILEAU.


In reading the history of nations, we find that, like individuals,
they have their whims and their peculiarities; their seasons of
excitement and recklessness, when they care not what they do. We find
that whole communities suddenly fix their minds upon one object, and
go mad in its pursuit; that millions of people become simultaneously
impressed with one delusion, and run after it, till their attention is
caught by some new folly more captivating than the first. We see one
nation suddenly seized, from its highest to its lowest members, with a
fierce desire of military glory; another as suddenly becoming crazed
upon a religious scruple, and neither of them recovering its senses