hypochondriasts

Updated: May 6, 2025

Can we wonder that some poor hypochondriasts and epileptics have believed themselves possessed by, or rather to be the Devil himself, and so spoke in this imagined character, when this poor afflicted spotless innocent could be so pierced through with fanatic pre-conceptions, as to talk in this manner of her mortal sins, and their probable eternal punishment; and this too, under the most fervent sense of God's love and mercy!

Samuel Taylor Coleridge - Coleridge's Literary Remains, Volume 4.