Delusion

noun

The father of a most respectable family, comprising Enthusiasm, Affection, Self-denial, Faith, Hope, Charity and many other goodly sons and daughters.

    All hail, Delusion! Were it not for thee
    The world turned topsy-turvy we should see;
    For Vice, respectable with cleanly fancies,
    Would fly abandoned Virtue's gross advances.

        Mumfrey Mappel


—Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary