ECLECTICS

A sect which arose in the Christian Church towards the close of the second century. They profe ed to make truth the only object of their inquiry, and to be ready to adopt from all the different systems and sects such tenets as they thought agreeable to it; and hence their name, from ἐκλεγω , to select . They preferred Plato to the other philosophers, and looked upon his opinions concerning God , the human soul, and things invisible, as conformable to the spirit and genius of the Christian doctrine. One of the principal patrons of this system was Ammonius Saccas, who at this time laid the foundation of that sect, afterwards distinguished by the name of the New Platonists, in the Alexandrian School.— Brought on.