ECLECTICS

(Gt. Ik\Iyu>, I pick out.) Those philosophers who endeavour to select from the systems of various schools those doctrines alone which are true, and to present these in the form of an entire whole. An eclectic spirit, it is evident, can only arise at a period of some maturity in philosophical speculation. Whether or not it i3 to be regarded as an evidence of the decay of original power in the age in which it appears, must depend on the le or greater coherence in the system when completed. In one sense of the word, Plato and Aristotle may be regarded as eclectics. They both availed themselves largely of the labours of their predece ors. Plato, in particular, comprehended in his scheme of philosophy the whole of more than one foregoing system; as the doctrine of Her a clit us of the perpetual flux of sensible objects, and Ihe consequent uncertainty of sensible impre ions. Hut in the hands of these great thinkers the discerpta membra are reunited,and endued with a principle of vitality as constituent parts of a harmonious whole. The same cannot be said of others who have adopted a similar method; especially of most of those to whom tfce term eclectic has been mora [s. 397]