  This appears to be an entirely straightforward expression of a theory of divine illumination. It is not clear who is providing the illumination. Apuleius (fl. 150 CE) would later identify the source as a certain kind of friendly demon, and argue that it was only fitting for Socrates, the most perfect of all human beings, to receive such illumination (De deo Socratis, XVII–XIX). (This idea that illumination comes to those who deserve it would be proposed by Augustine as well [e.g., De magistro 11.38], but abandoned in his later writings as untenable.) As one might expect from Socrates, his illumination seems restricted to the moral sphere. Its form is unclear: is it propositional? (see Phaedrus 242bc) Is it merely the pang of conscience? (For discussion of these and other questions, see e.g. the papers collected in Destrée and Smith 2005.) Whatever the details, Socrates is explicitly describing a kind of cognitive guidance that has a “divine or spiritual” source. The passage may be an embarrassment to classicists, but it surely belongs in the same tradition as later medieval endorsements of illumination. 