Still, from generation to generation, the Pyncheons cherished an absurd delusion of family importance on the strength of this impalpable claim; and from father to son they clung with tenacity to the ancestral house for the better part of two centuries.

Perhaps he had been deceived so many times by his dreams of being saved that he feared this might prove only another delusion.

" Lady Delacour awaited the operation with the utmost fortitude; but, to everyone's joy, it was found there was no necessity for it; she had been deceived by a villainous quack, who knew too well how to make a wound hideous and painful, and had continued her delusion for his own advantage.

Anxiously Hermann turned and signed to his ally the pastor That he should rush to the rescue and straightway dispel the delusion.

If the hopes of the ardent and generous themselves are deceived in the uncertain lottery of wedlock, the victim will struggle hard to maintain the delusion; but when the calculations of others are parent to the evil, a natural inducement, that comes of the devil I fear, prompts us to aggravate, instead of striving to lessen, the evil.

It is only then that he sees things quite plain, and takes them for that which they really are: while in earlier years he saw a phantom-world, put together out of the whims and crotchets of his own mind, inherited prejudice and strange delusion: the real world was hidden from him, or the vision of it distorted.

with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish, because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved; and for this cause God shall send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie, that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

Byron showed the letter to Shelley, who wrote to a common friend to assure Mr. Moore that he had not the smallest influence over his lordship in matters of religion, and only wished he had, as he would "employ it to eradicate from his great mind the delusions of Christianity, which seem perpetually to recur, and to lie in ambush for the hours of sickness and distress."

As long as you continue to hug the delusion that you are "not to blame" for the unpleasant things in your conditions you might just as well profess the old thought as the new.

But Don John's conduct soon destroyed the temporary delusion which had deceived the country.

The real life is mutely busy at present, saying little because of the uproar of the guns, and not so much learning as casting habits and shedding delusions.

It was hardly worth while to expose a delusion which is so apparent, especially in the case of Jefferson.

I may pity their delusions, but I must admire their devotion.

Thus the matter was settled; but the husband, thinking that the old man was deceived by the likeness, held to his former belief, and continued to live happily with his wife, without ever discovering the delusion.

As he was extremely amorous, and had so little in him to inspire the tender Passion, the first Proof he gave of his Art, was to ... cast such a Delusion before the Eyes of all who saw him, that he appeared to them such as he wished to be, a most comely and graceful Man.

Whether deluded by a real hope of finding out the Philosopher's Stone, or from an innate principle of villainy, cannot be determined, but he did not yet cease his pursuit, and still indulged the golden delusion.

* Then came the moon, with its mild and deceptive light, to throw the delusion of its glow on the varying but ever frightful scene.

"It was very plain that if I wanted to travel about as your agent I must be married, and I have found a husband quite a protection and an advantage, even when he doesn't go about with me; and as to keeping up the delusion, as you call it, in my own family, I have found that to be absolutely necessary, at least for the present.

if I trace with curious interest your labyrinthine self-delusions, note the inconsistencies in your zealous adhesions, and smile at your helpless endeavours in a rashly chosen part, it is not that I feel myself aloof from you: the more intimately I seem to discern your weaknesses, the stronger to me is the proof that I share them.

They should also know the great delusion of mortal mind, when it makes them sick or sinful.

If you believe in my doctrine, it turns out a mere delusion; if you don't believe in it, 'tis sure to come true.

He felt himself set back; then remembered the delusion under which she lay, and went to dispel itpompously.

O ye gods, Remove delusion from his rigid gaze, Lest that this moment, fraught with bliss supreme, Should make us trebly wretched!

The departure of J.W., two springs back corrected my delusion.

And you would owe me for one of your heartiest laughs, were I to tell you, that there are abolitionistsprofessed abolitionistsyes, actual members of the Anti-Slavery Societywho, carrying out this delusion of helping the slave by helping their "party," say, that they would vote even for a slaveholder, if their party should nominate him.