among divines, &c. implies the conveying of certain extraordinary and supernatural notices or motions into the soul; or it denotes any supernatural influence of God upon the mind of a rational creature, whereby he is formed to any degree of intellectual improvements, to which he could not, or would not, in fact have attained in his present circumstances, in a natural way. Thus the prophets are said to have spoken by divine inspiration.

Some authors reduce the inspiration of the sacred writers to a particular care of Providence, which prevented any thing they had said from failing or coming to nought; maintaining, that they never were really inspired either with knowledge or expression.

According to M. Simon, inspiration is no more than a direction of the Holy Spirit, which never permitted the sacred writers to be mistaken.

It is a common opinion, that the inspiration of the Holy Inspiration. Holy Spirit regards only the matter, not the style or words; and this seems to fall in with M. Simon's doctrine of direction.

Theological writers have enumerated several kinds of inspiration; such as an inspiration of superintendency, in which God does so influence and direct the mind of any person, as to keep him more secure from error in some various and complex discourse, than he would have been merely by the use of his natural faculties; plenary superintendent inspiration, which excludes any mixture of error at all from the performance so superintended; inspiration of elevation, where the faculties act in a regular, and, as it seems, in a common manner, yet are raised to an extraordinary degree, so that the composition shall, upon the whole, have more of the true sublime or pathetic, than natural genius could have given; and inspiration of suggestion, when the use of the faculties is superseded, and God does, as it were, speak directly to the mind, making such discoveries to it as it could not otherwise have obtained, and dictating the very words in which such discoveries are to be communicated, if they are designed as a message to others. It is generally allowed that the New Testament was written by a superintendent inspiration; for without this the discourses and doctrines of Christ could not have been faithfully recorded by the evangelists and apostles; nor could they have assumed the authority of speaking the words of Christ, and evinced this authority by the actual exercise of miraculous powers; and besides, the sacred writings bear many obvious internal marks of their divine original, in the excellence of their doctrines, the spirituality and elevation of their design, the majesty and simplicity of their style, the agreement of their various parts, and their efficacy on mankind; to which may be added, that there has been in the Christian church, from its earliest ages, a constant tradition, that the sacred books were written by the extraordinary assistance of the Spirit, which must at least amount to superintendent inspiration. But it has been controverted whether this inspiration extended to every minute circumstance in their writings, so as to be in the most absolute sense plenary. Jerome, Grotius, Erasmus, Episcopius, and many others, maintain that it was not; whilst others contend, that the emphatic manner in which our Lord speaks of the agency of the Spirit upon them, and in which they themselves speak of their own writings, will justify our believing that their inspiration was plenary, unless there be very convincing evidence brought on the other side to prove that it was not: and if we allow, it is said, that there were some errors in the New Testament, as it came from the hands of the apostles, there may be great danger of subverting the main purpose and design of it; since there will be endless room to debate the importance both of facts and doctrines.

Among the Heathens, the priests and priestesses were said to be divinely inspired, when they gave oracles.—The poets also laid claim to it; and to this end they always invoked Apollo and the Muses at the beginning of any great work.

Physic, is understood of that action of the breast, by which the air is admitted within the lungs; in which sense, inspiration is a branch of respiration, and stands opposed to Expiration.

This admission of the air depends immediately on its spring or elasticity, at the time when the cavity of the breast is enlarged by the elevation of the thorax and abdomen, and particularly by the motion of the diaphragm downwards: so that the air does not enter the lungs, because they are dilated; but those dilate, because the air enters within them. Nor is it the dilatation of the breast which draws in the air, as is commonly thought, though this is a condition absolutely necessary to inspiration; but an actual intrusion of the air into the lungs. See Respiration.

Inspirating, in Pharmacy, an operation whereby a liquor is brought to a thicker consistence, by evaporating the thinner parts.