[Side-note: Condition of the inspired person--his reason is for the time withdrawn.] Here, as well as elsewhere, Plato places inspiration, both of the prophet and the poet, in marked contrast with reason and intelligence. Reason is supposed to be for the time withdrawn or abolished, and inspiration is introduced by the Gods into its place. "When Monarch Reason sleeps, this mimic wakes." The person inspired (prophet or poet) becomes for the time the organ of an extraneous agency, speaking what he neither originates nor understands. The genuine gift of prophecy[24] (Plato says) attaches only to a disabled, enfeebled, distempered, condition of the intelligence; the gift of poetry is conferred by the Gods upon the most inferior men, as we see by the case of Tynnichus--whose sublime pæan shows us, that it is the Gods alone who utter fine poetry through the organs of a person himself thoroughly incompetent. [Footnote 24: Plato, Timæus, 71 E. [Greek: i(kano\n de\ sêmei=on ô(s mantikê\n a)phrosu/nê| theo\s a)nthrôpi/nê| de/dôken; ou)dei\s ga\r e)/nnous e)pha/ptetai mantikê=s e)nthe/ou kai\ a)lêthou=s, a)ll' ê)\ kath' u(/pnon tê\n tê=s phronê/seôs pedêthei\s du/namin, ê)\ dia\ no/son ê)/ tina e)nthousiasmo\n paralla/xas.] Compare Plato, Menon, pp. 99-100. [Greek: oi( chrêsmô|doi/ te kai\ oi( theoma/nteis . . . . le/gousi me\n a)lêthê= kai\ polla\ i)/sasi de\ ou)de\n ô(=n le/gousi.] Compare Plato, Legg. iv. 719.] [Side-note: Ion does not admit himself to be inspired and out of his mind.] It is thus that Plato, setting before himself a process of systematised reason,--originating in a superior intellect, laying down universal principles and deducing consequences from them--capable of being consistently applied, designedly taught, and defended against objections--enumerates the various mental conditions opposed to it, and ranks inspiration as one of them. In this dialogue, Sokrates seeks to prove that the success of Ion as a rhapsode depends upon his being out of his mind or inspired. But Ion does not accept the compliment: _Ion._--You speak well, Sokrates; but I should be surprised if you spoke well enough to create in me the new conviction, that I am possessed and mad when I eulogize Homer. I do not think that you would even yourself say so, if you heard me discourse on the subject.[25] [Footnote 25: Plato, Ion, 536 E.] [Side-note: Homer talks upon all subjects--Is Ion competent to explain what Homer says upon all of them? Rhapsodic art. What is its province?]