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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Ion by Plato: 'Why is this?' The answer is that you praise Homer not by art but by
divine inspiration.
ION: That is good, Socrates; and yet I doubt whether you will ever have
eloquence enough to persuade me that I praise Homer only when I am mad and
possessed; and if you could hear me speak of him I am sure you would never
think this to be the case.
SOCRATES: I should like very much to hear you, but not until you have
answered a question which I have to ask. On what part of Homer do you
speak well?--not surely about every part.
ION: There is no part, Socrates, about which I do not speak well: of that
I can assure you.
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