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Edwin in actually applying his ‘knowledge’ and his ‘power’, both in The Prelude itself, and in the partof The Recluse that he did manage to finish, The Excursion.Everard King’s study of Beattie reveals the extent to which several of Wordsworth’s passagesin The Prelude closely echo Beattie’s descriptive verse. But equally important, as an influence, are thepolitical ideals, the use of stock topoi, and matters of style that add force and variety to a long poem.The Prelude adopts the same moral stance as both Beattie’s and Thomson’s works as it sets out acomplex argument about the true nature of Wordsworth’s genius, as a poet reliant on both Inspirationand Art, on Nature and Books, on Imagination and Fancy, and on the Sublime and the Beautiful, in achain of binary distinctions that operate in tandem, not in opposition, defining the basic ethos-pathosformula recognised by Klaus Dockhorn. Wordsworth’s argument recapitulates the classical positionthat Beattie and Thomson also present, in which ‘Nature’ and ‘Culture’ work together. Wordsworth’smind does not stand out from, oppose, or transcend Nature; it remains a part of Nature, withWordsworth speaking on Nature’s behalf, not as a passive voice-piece (the role of the traditionalprophet) but as a poet who consciously gives voice to Nature. He is her spokesperson, and uses hisparticular rhetorical skill, his art of imaginative poetry, to re-present Nature’s voice, a voice thatcannot speak for itself.There has been some confusion about the nature of the term ‘Prophecy’, and the role of the‘Prophet’ in The Prelude because High Romantic interpreters (Abrams, Bloom, and Hartman) haveall proposed that Wordsworth’s reference to Prophecy should be related to the tradition of the peoplesof the Book. Both Abrams and Hartman treat ‘prophecy’ as if Wordsworth had in mind some OldTestament figure. 14 But it makes more sense also to discuss Wordsworth’s experience according toHellenistic ideas about poetry and inspiration. Plato’s reference in Ion to the poet being out of hisright mind and divinely inspired is well known, but in the Timaeus he offers a further description thatis useful when trying to understand Wordsworth’s experiences, and how he might account for them.The Timaeus was one of Plato’s best-known dialogues, and Plato distinguishes between the mantis, a‘seer’ and the prophetes, a ‘declarer’. 15 In a famous passage about divination, Plato describes theexistence of a mantic power that is located in the liver – the smooth shiny surface of that organ wasseen to have the capacity to reflect divine wisdom. This is a literal rendition of the classical idea of thepoet as a ‘Mirror’. But Plato points out that the god has given mantic skill [mantike] not to thewisdom, but to the foolishness of men:No man, when in his wits, attains mantic skill that is inspired [entheos] and true [alēthēs], butwhen he receives it, either his intelligence is enthralled in sleep or he is demented by somedistemper or possession [enthusiasmos]. (Timaeus 71e)When a person is in such a state they are unconscious of what they are experiencing or saying,and therefore Plato records that it was customary to appoint ‘declarers’ [prophetai] ‘who can be14 See also Hartman’s essay, ‘The Poetics of Prophecy’. High Romantic Argument, ed. Lawrence Lipkin, 15-40.15 Wordsworth had a copy of the Timaeus, complete with Coleridge’s annotations. He also shows evidence ofhaving a good knowledge of the Phaedrus, with its distinctions between rhetoric and philosophy.185