'
'More seed, more seed,' said Gashford as he closed the window. 'When
will the harvest come!'
Chapter 37
To surround anything, however monstrous or ridiculous, with an air of
mystery, is to invest it with a secret charm, and power of attraction
which to the crowd is irresistible. False priests, false prophets, false
doctors, false patriots, false prodigies of every kind, veiling their
proceedings in mystery, have always addressed themselves at an immense
advantage to the popular credulity, and have been, perhaps, more
indebted to that resource in gaining and keeping for a time the upper
hand of Truth and Common Sense, than to any half-dozen items in the
whole catalogue of imposture. Curiosity is, and has been from the
creation of the world, a master-passion. To awaken it, to gratify it
by slight degrees, and yet leave something always in suspense, is to
establish the surest hold that can be had, in wrong, on the unthinking
portion of mankind.
If a man had stood on London Bridge, calling till he was hoarse, upon
the passers-by, to join with Lord George Gordon, although for an object
which no man understood, and which in that very incident had a charm of
its own,--the probability is, that he might have influenced a score of
people in a month.
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