Outsiders often criticize the extreme commitment of group members. But what is really happening is that leader and followers are conspiring to realize a vision that is falsified daily. For the cult is not paradise, and the leader is not God. Hence the follower is embattled; to squarely confront the many failings of the leader and the group is to call into question one's own great work. Only by daily recommitting himself can the follower continue to work toward his ultimate goal. Each follower works out a secret compromise, acknowledging some things while denying or distorting others. Clearly this is a high-risk strategy that may go awry.

With its aid they are quick and nimble figurers. The next digital computer was the adding or calculating machine first completed in 1642 by the French mathematician Blaise Pascal.

And then her words tumbled out in a passion of communication, as though she hurried before her listener could be taken away.

It is nought, it is nought, saith the buyer, but when he is gone his way, then he boasteth.