philosophical pretensions

"... in this sheet, he seems to have directly plagiarized from his own experiences, to fill out the mood of his apparent author-hero, Vivia, who thus soliloquizes: "A deep-down, unutterable mournfulness is in me. Now I drop all humorous or indifferent disguises, and all philosophical pretensions."  -- Pierre; Or, The Ambiguities (1852)

I. F. "And how do you like 'A Glimmering Light on Mesmerism,' which I perceive you have been reading?"

C. "It shows a research quite extraordinary for a soldier—generally exposed to much literary privation; his enquiring and sceptical mind has been excited and puzzled by the strange developments, or pretensions of this magical philosophy."   

-- Scenes Beyond the Western Border, June 1852; and
Scenes and Adventures in the Army