Excerpt from The Journal of Abnormal Psychology, Vol. 3: August September, 1908 An entirely different category of delusions pivoting on self-pride, sexual love and the vainglories of war were ram pant during the ages of Knight - errantry with its romantic and absurd aberrations and Don Quixote performances. Other delusions centered mainly in combined religious and sexual feelings have been communicated ordinarily by some male impostor forming communities or bigamistic colonies, and have appeared 1n all ages and parts of the world. The rank delusions shared for centuries by relatively intelligent men, who devoted their lives to alchemy and astrology, were arch -prototypes of subsequent delusions 1n chemistry, astronomy and medicine which have sur vived from one generation to another only to be relegated to final oblivion; and in the mean time they served to shape the delusions of the insane of their special periods. To such an extent is this true that did there exist a continuous and correct account of insane delusions in all ages it would form a true historical reflection of the chief false beliefs of mankind in general during the same epochs. Did space permit there might be added noted instances of rulers of nations and men high in social, political and financial affairs who have held and acted upon delusions, which have caused widespread disasters, but enough has been said to show that delusions constitute an integral part of human intellection. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.