Statement 1
Lincoln was opposed to slavery
describes an attitude or belief.
Statement 2
John Kerry opposed this idea.
describes an action.
I can be opposed to something - i.e. think it's wrong, believe it should be changed - without actually doing anything active to stop it - e.g. voting against it, protesting etc.
Ditto Joe. Let me add:
To "enlighten" is to give information or wisdom. To "inspire" is to motivate.
"Enlighten" is rarely used today. But an example of a correct usage is, "I didn't know about the new rules until my boss enlightened me."
Perhaps somewhat more common is the adjective "enlightened", meaning "wise" or "compassionate". Like, "Tsar Alexander considered himself an enlightened monarch."
An example sentence with "inspire" is, "I was inspired to buy a new car by the desire to impress my girlfriend."
They're not really the same thing at all. I could get new information and do absolutely nothing about it, I might just say, "yeah, whatever". I could be inspired without getting any new information. Perhaps someone just encouraged me.
Where they might somewhat overlap is that "inspire" can be used to mean that one idea led to another. Like, "Mr Smith's latest novel was inspired by a story he read in the news." He got some idea or information, and that idea led to another idea.
But I can't think of any sentence where you could substitute "inspire" for "enlighten" or vice versa without significantly changing the meaning.
Best Answer
They have identical meaning.
Before longis poetic (and maybe slightly archaic). I imagine my grandfather saying it. It can be abbreviated'ere longto be even more poetic.Shakespeare's 73rd sonnet ends:
So in common usage, I'd stick with
soon.