hen we conform to the temporary fashion of social
amusement. It has been cynically observed that people go into society
less in order to be happy than to seem so, and one may add that in this
semblance of enjoyment they may, provided they are not _blase_, deceive
themselves as well as others. The expectation of enjoyment, the
knowledge that the occasion is intended to bring about this result, the
recognition of the external signs of enjoyment in others--all this may
serve to blind a man in the earlier stages of social amusement to his
actual mental condition.

If we look closely into this variety of illusion, we shall see that it
is very similar in its structure and origin to that kind of erroneous
perception which arises from inattention to the actual impression of the
moment under the influence of a strong expectation of something
different. The representation of ourselves as entertained dislodges from
our internal field of vision our actual condition, relegating this to
the region of obscure consciousness. Could we for a moment get rid of
this representation and look at the real feelings of the time, we should
become aware of our error; and it is possible that the process of
becoming _blase_ involves a waking up to a good deal of illusion of the
kind.

Just as we can thus deceive ourselves within certain limits as to our
emotional condition, so we can mistake the real nature of our
intellectual condition. Thus, when an idea is particularly grateful to
our minds, we may easily imagine that we believe it, when in point of
fact all the time there is a sub-conscious process of criticism going
on, which if we attended to it for a moment would amount to a distinct
act of disbelief. Some persons appear to be capable of going on
habitually practising this petty deceit on themselves, that is to say,
imagining they believe what in fact they are strongly inclined to doubt.
Indeed, this remark applies to all the grateful illusions respecting
ourselves and others, which will have to be discussed by-and-by. The
impulse to hold to the illusion in spite of critical reflection,
involves the further introspective illusion of taking a state of doubt
for one of assurance. Thus, the weak, flattered man or woman manages to
keep up a sort of fictitious belief in the truth of the words which are
so pleasant to the ear.

It is plain that the external conditions of life impose on the
individual certain habits of feeling which often conflic