182. Every person who, whether in the normal state or in a state of ecstasy, receives, by the thought, com- munications foreign to his preconceived ideas, may be ranked in the category of inspired mediums; which is, as may be seen, a variety of intuitive mediumship, with this difference, that the intervention of an occult power is still less apparent; for, with the inspired, it is more difficult to distinguish between the thought proper and that which is suggested. What peculiarly character- izes this is its spontaneity. Inspiration comes to us from spirits who influence us for good or evil, but it is more especially from those who wish us well, and whose advice we too often wrongly avoid following. It applies to every circumstance in life, in the resolu- tions we make ; as far as this goes, we might say every one in the world is a medium, for there is no person who has not his spirit protectors and familiars, who make every effort to suggest salutary thoughts to their wards.
If every one were thoroughly convinced of this truth, there would be more, frequent recourse to the guardian angel in moments when one knows not what to say or do. Let us, then, invoke him with fervor and confidence in cases of necessity, and we shall be more often astonished by the ideas that will come as by enchantment, whether we may have something to decide or something to compose. If no idea comes, it is because it is necessary for us to wait.
The proof that the idea that comes unexpectedly is one foreign to us, is, that if it had been in us we should always have been master of it, and there would be no reason it could not have manifested itself at will. He who is not blind has only to open his eyes to see when he pleases; so, the same, he who has ideas of his own always has them at his disposal; if they do not come at will, it is because he is obliged to draw them from other sources.
In this category may also be classed persons who, without being endowed with an extraordinary intelli- gence, and without leaving the normal state, have flashes of intellectual lucidity which gives them tem- porarily an unaccustomed facility of conception and elocution, and, in some cases, a presentiment of the future. In these moments, justly called, of inspiration, ideas abound, are continuous, carry us along, as it were of themselves, by an involuntary and almost feverish impulse; it seems to us that a superior intelligence comes to our aid, and that our mind is relieved of a load.
