...character and duration of this enthusiasm varies with the state of the individual, from an ecstasy and trance and prophetic inspiration, — which is its...attended the opening of the religious sense in men, as if they had been "blasted with excess of light." The trances of Socrates, the "union" of Plotinus, the...

...made the agents of injustice." 17. This poem is in dialogue with Emerson's idea in "The Over-Soul": "A certain tendency to insanity has always attended the opening of the religious sense in men, as if they had been 'blasted with excess of light' " (21o). Significantly, Plato, to whom Emerson is deeply...