Eclectics

(ek-lektiks.) [Gr. ek lego, I pick out.] (Philos.) The name given to those philosophers who, without attaching themselves to any particular school, select what appears to them the best and most rational from each.- Anciently, they were a sect of Greek philosophers, who endeavored to mould the doctrines of Pythagoras and Plato, and blend them with the theology of the Egyptians and the tenets of Zoroaster. They borrowed many of the pp. dogmas of Christianity from the catechetic school of Alexandria; and, combining these with the mysticisms of Pythagoras, the errors of Plato, and the superstitions of Egypt, they hoped to reconcile the Christians and Pagans to the same opinious. [s. 315]