...culture, pp. 157-160. 7. Dictionary. The full definition distinguishes three kinds of enthusiasm: (1) "A vain belief of private revelation; a vain confidence of divine favour or communication"; (2) "Heat of imagination; violence of passion; confidence of opinion"; (3) "Elevation...

...entry than we find a century later in Dr Johnson's dictionary, where enthusiasm is defined first as "a vain belief of private revelation; a vain confidence of divine favour or communication" before also being described as "Heat of imagination" and, finally, as "elevation...

...religion's opposite excess, enthusiasm (Essays 73-79). Johnson's primary definition of enthusiasm is "[a] vain belief of private revelation; a vain confidence of divine favour or communication."1 Hume and Johnson alike judged enthusiasm to be the 'Johnson's Dictionary illustration...

...of confusion. Monotheism, however, in its turn bred enthusiasm, defined in Johnson's Dictionary as 'a vain belief of private revelation, a vain confidence of divine favour or communication'. In his exalted, self-deifying state, the enthusiast experienced transcendent raptures...

...for Samuel Johnson in the eighteenth, but now with a few signs of further developments thrown in: 'i. A vain belief of private revelation; a vain confidence of Divine favour or communication . . . 2. Heat or imagination; violence of passion, confidence of opinion ... 3. Elevation...

...inspiration. More defined enthusiasm as "a misconceit of being inspired," while Dr. Johnson cast it as "a vain belief of private revelation; a vain confidence of divine favour or communication."49 More, Cudworth, and the other Cambridge Platonists did not repudiate all recourse...

...advocated polite Christianity. A polite Christian, he said, should avoid enthusiasm, which he defines as "a vain belief of private revelation; a vain confidence of divine favour or communication." All the eighteenth-century writers on conversation, regardless of their religious...