EUPHRANOR:-- Pray, was it not the opinion of Plato, that God inspired particular men, as organs or trumpets, to proclaim and sound forth his oracles to the world? And was not the same opinion also embraced by others the greatest writers of antiquity?
CRITO:-- Socrates seems to have thought that all true poets spoke by inspiration; and Tully, that there was no extraordinary genius without it. This hath made some of our affected free-thinkers attempt to pass themselves upon the world for enthusiasts.
ALCIPHRON:-- What would you infer from all this?
EUPHRANOR:-- I would infer, that inspiration should seem nothing impossible or absurd, but rather agreeable to the light of reason, and the notions of mankind. And this, I suppose you will acknowledge, having made it an objection against a particular revelation, that there are so many pretences to it throughout the world.
[George Berkeley, Alciphron, Dialogue VI.ix, p. 272.]
Berkeley has a footnote for the opinion of Plato -- Plato's Ion.
