delusion (deluzhon)

[OF. delusion = Sp. dilusion = Pg. del usão = It. del us i one, For God hath justly given the nations up To thy delusions . Milton , P. R., i. 443. said to have good judgment who is under the influence of The major's good judgment that is, if a man may be love's delusion . Thackeray , Vanity Fair. 2. The state of being deluded; false impre ion or belief; error or mistake, especially of a fixed nature: as, his delusion was unconquerable. See the synonyms below. God shall send them strong delusion , that they should IMG:content-2314.jpg:[blocks in formation] Some angry power cheats with rare delusions My credulous sense. Ford, Lover's Melancholy, iv. 3. I, waking, view'd with grief the rising sun, And fondly mourn'd the dear delusion gone. Prior. Of all the delusions against which history and historical geography have to strive, there is none more deeply rooted than the notion that there has always been a land called Switzerland and a people called the Swi . Mankind would be subject to fewer delusions than they are, if they constantly bore in mind their liability to false judgments due to unusual combinations, either artificial or natural, of true sensations. Huxley and Youmans , Physiol., § 292. A few hallucinations about a subject to which the greatest clerks have been generally such strangers may warrant us to di ent from his opinion. Boyle .