The hoary traditional myths respecting the golden age, and so on, and the persistent errors of historians under the sway of a strong emotional bias, illustrate such illusions.
So much as to simple illusions of belief, or such as involve single representations only.

Let us now pass to compound illusions, which involve a complex group of representations.
B._Compound Illusory Belief._ A familiar example of a compound belief is the belief in a permanent or persistent individual object of a certain character.

Such an idea, whatever its whole meaning may be--and this is a disputed point in philosophy--certainly seems to include a number of particular representations, corresponding to direct personal recollections, to the recollections of others, and to numerous anticipations of ourselves and of others.

And if the object be a living creature endowed with feelings, our idea of it will contain, in addition to these represented perceptions of ourselves or of others, a series of represented insights, namely, such as correspond to the inner experience of the being, so far as this is known or imagined.
It would thus seem that the idea which we habitually carry about with us respecting a complex individual object is a very composite idea.

In order to see this more fully, let us inquire into what is meant by our belief in a person.