Charles Mackay finds an analogy for the life of John Law during the Mississippi scheme:
His fate was like that which may be supposed to have overtaken the first adventurous boatman who rowed from Erie to Ontario. Broad and smooth was the river on which he embarked; rapid and pleasant was his progress; and who was to stay him in his career? Alas for him! the cataract was nigh. He saw, when it was too late, that the tide which wafted him so joyously along was a tide of destruction; and when he endeavoured to retrace his way, he found that the current was too strong for his weak efforts to stem, and that he drew nearer every instant to the tremendous falls. Down he went over the sharp rocks, and the waters with him. He was dashed to pieces with his bark, but the waters, maddened and turned to foam by the rough descent, only boiled and bubbled for a time, and then flowed on again as smoothly as ever. Just so it was with Law and the French people. He was the boatman and they were the waters.
-- Extraordinary Popular Delusions & the Madness of the Crowds, "The Mississippi Scheme".
I'm sure I am wrong about many things, although I'm not sure exactly which things I'm wrong about.
-- Brian McLaren, A Generous Orthodoxy, pgs. 19-20.
Martha Nussbaum's review of Harvey Mansfield's book Manliness is a demonstration of what can make a book review worthwhile. She explores not just the intellectual failings of a book purported to be an intellectual work, but goes on to examine how those failings could plausibly have been a deliberate attempt to increase Mansfield's appeal and marketability to a certain audience.
Nussbaum shows how the image of "Harvey Mansfield" differs from the reality of Harvey Mansfield. That sort of exposé is necessary but too rare.
Image is nearly empty when detached from reality. An intellectual image so detached can do little more than provide a brief thrill of knowingness that seems like knowledge before you stop to think about it.
Humility is a virtue because it restrains us to the hard work of reality when the easy charm of image tempts us. And when people are not humble, as with Professor Mansfield, sometimes it is in the public interest to humble them.