order of ideas belongs the case of the leader who rushes
forward at the head of his troops and always carries them along with
him, while the cry "Each man for himself!" is almost certain to
cause a defeat. Why is this? It is because in the first case the men
_imagine_ that they must go _forward_, and in the second they
_imagine_ that they are conquered and must fly for their lives.

Panurge was quite aware of the contagion of example, that is to say
the action of the imagination, when, to avenge himself upon a
merchant on board the same boat, he bought his biggest sheep and
threw it into the sea, certain beforehand that the entire flock would
follow, which indeed happened.

We human beings have a certain resemblance to sheep, and
involuntarily, we are irresistibly impelled to follow other people's
examples, _imagining_ that we cannot do otherwise.

I could quote a thousand other examples but I should fear to bore
you by such an enumeration. I cannot however pass by in silence
this fact which shows the enormous power of the imagination, or in
other words of the unconscious in its struggle against the _will_.

There are certain drunkards who wish to give up drinking, but who
cannot do so. Ask them, and they will reply in all sincerity that they
desire to be sober, that drink disgusts them, but that they are
irresistibly impelled to drink against their _will_, in spite of the
harm they know it will do them.

In the same way certain criminals commit crimes _in spite of
themselves_, and when they are asked why they acted so, they
answer "I could not help it, something impelled me, it was stronger
than I."

And the drunkard and the criminal speak the truth; they are forced to
do what they do, for the simple reason they imagine they cannot
prevent themselves from doing so. Thus we who are so proud of our
will, who believe that we are free to act as we like, are in reality
nothing but wretched puppets of which our imagination holds all the
strings. We only cease to be puppets when we have learned to guide
our imagination.

SUGGESTION AND AUTOSUGGESTION

According to the preceding remarks we can compare the
imagination to a torrent which fatally sweeps away the poor wretch
who has fallen into it, in spite of his efforts to gain the bank. This
torrent seems indomitable; but if you know how, you can turn it
from its course and conduct it to the factory, and there you can
transform its force into movement, heat, and el