"The power of fear is illustrated by an Eastern legend. • A
pilgrim met the Plague, and asked: 'Where are you going ? '
The Plague replied: 'I am going to Bagdad to kill five thou- sand people.' A few days later the pilgrim met the Plague again, and charged him with killing fifty thousand instead of five thousand. Oh, no,' said the Plague, I killed only five thousand; the others died of fear.'" What is the relevance of this paragraph here ? None at all; I set no great store by relevance. But I have just come across it in—of all places— a broadsheet issued by the Bank of Canada dealing with mental health. The disquisition must run to over 3,000 pages, and I kept on reading to discover where the subtle advertise- ment for the bank came in. So far as I could see it never did. Pure disinterestedness to all appearance.
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