the Platonic philosophers, was born in the year 131, at Pergamus in Asia. In his childhood he was well instructed by his father, and other preceptors, in useful and ornamental learning. He studied philosophy, first under Caius, a Platonist, and afterwards under Albinus; whilst, at the same time, he prosecuted the study of medicine under various masters. After travelling to Corinth, Alexandria, and other places, for improvement in medical and philosophical knowledge, he began to practise surgery about the twenty-eighth year of his age. The countenance, which was at this time given to learned men by Marcus Antoninus, induced Galen to take up his residence at Rome. Here he obtained great reputation in his profession, and enjoyed the favour of the emperor, and the friendship of many illustrious Romans. He remained at Rome, excepting a few interruptions, till his death, which happened about the year 200. Galen wrote many books, not only upon medical but philosophical subjects. Among the latter are a treatise "On the best Doctrine," against Favorinus; "A Dissertation on the Opinions of Hippocrates and Plato;" "A Commentary on the Timæus of Plato," and several pieces. "On Dialectics." This writer has been frequently censured for impiety; but his Demonstration of Divine Wisdom, from the structure of the human body, in his treatise De Usu Partium Corporis Humani, "On the Uses of the Parts of the Human Body," is sufficient refutation of this calumny.82*

82 Vit. ap. Op. Bas. 1562. Vit. ap. Arker. de Affectuum Cognitione, Rudolstadt. 1715. Cleric. Hist. Med. Labbei Elog. Chron. in Gal. Par. 1660.

* Vidend. Jons. de Scrip. H. Ph. l. iii. c. 3. 7. 9, 10. Vos. de Hist. Gr. l. iv. c. 10. 16. Meurs. ad Nicom. p. 166. Schmid. Diss. de Hipparchone, Theon. Sect. ii. p. 14. Voss. de Sc. Math. c. 33. § 13. Gaudent. de Phil. Rom. c. 93. Petav. Rat. Temp. l. v. c. 9. Bayle. Blount. Cens. Auth. p. 143. 170. Warb. Div. Leg. Mos. t. ii. p. 117. Mosheim. Hist. Chr. ante Constant. Sec. ii. § 21.

SECT. IV.

Of the Eclectic Sect.

UPON the foundation of the Platonic philosophy, with an abundance of heterogeneous materials collected from every other sect, was erected an irregular, cumbrous, and useless edifice, called the Eclectic School. The founders of this sect formed the flattering design of selecting, from the doctrines of all former philosophers, such opinions as seemed to approach nearest the truth, and combining them into one system. But, in executing this plan, they did nothing better than pile up a shapeless and incoherent mass, rudis indigestaque moles, not unlike that chaos, which they admitted as an essential article in their doctrine of nature. In some particulars, indeed, they attempted to adorn and enrich the system with fancies of their own; but with what little success, will sufficiently appear in the sequel.

The Eclectic sect took its rise at Alexandria, in Egypt; a country which, in more remote periods, had admitted foreign dogmas, and superstitions, particularly after the invasion of the Persians. Egypt having, in consequence of the conquests of Alexander, become a part of the Grecian empire, the Egyptian priests accommodated themselves, not only to the laws and manners, but even to the speculative tenets of their conquerors. That they might not appear inferior to the Greeks in learning, they affected to admire and adopt their philosophy. The Pythagoric and Platonic systems, especially, gained an easy admission into the Egyptian schools, on account of the respect which they paid to religion, and the opportunities which they afforded of reconciling vulgar superstitions, and vernacular traditions, with systematic science.

The confusion of opinions, which arose from this cause, was doubtless increased by the promiscuous concourse of strangers, who, at this period, flocked from all quarters to Alexandria, bringing with them, from their respective countries, their different tenets in philosophy and religion. And the evil was aggravated by the return of a body of Alexandrian philosophers, who, under the troublesome and oppressive reign of Ptolemy Physcon, had been dispersed

through Asia, and who had there learned a new species of oriental philosophy, chiefly derived from the Persian Zoroaster, which they found it not difficult to incorporate with the doctrines of Plato and Pythagoras.

The present state of the several Grecian sects was, in no small degree, favourable to the coalescing plan of the Eclectic philosophy. The Dogmatists had now so long engaged in undecided contests, as sufficiently to betray their weakness to their common adversaries, the Academics and Sceptics. Scepticism, on the other side, was seen to contradict the common sense and experience of mankind, and to threaten the world with universal uncertainty and confusion. In these circumstances, nothing could be more natural, than the design of separating from each former system its purest and best-supported tenets, and forming them into a new institute of philosophy, in which truth might be seen under a fairer and more perfect form, than she had hitherto been able to assume.

The Christian religion, too, which had now found its way to Alexandria, became incidentally the occasion of encouraging and promoting this coalition of opinions. For when the Heathen philosophers perceived that this new establishment, supported by the splendour of its miracles, and the purity of its doctrines, was daily gaining credit even in the schools of Alexandria; and saw that, like the rising sun, it was likely soon to eclipse every inferior light; despairing of being able either to refute its claims by argument, or to stem its progress by authority, they determined to oppose it by every effort of ingenuity and artifice. In order to support the declining credit of their own schools, they incorporated Christian ideas and principles into their new system. Several fathers of the Christian church themselves, such as Pantænus, Clemens Alexandrinus, and the author of the work called "The Shepherd of Hermas," by studying philosophy in the Alexandrian school, injudiciously favoured the views of their opponents, and from their sacred magazine contributed their share towards that confused mass of opinions, Egyptian, Oriental, Pythagoric, Platonic, and Christian, which, about the close of the second century, rose up into the Eclectic System.

83 Athæn. 1. iv. p. 184. Conf. Justin. 1. xxxviii. c. 9.

The Eclectic sect is not commonly known among ancient writers under any distinct name, for this obvious reason, that its most celebrated supporters choose rather to pass themselves upon the world as Platonists, than to assume a new title; but, that the sect really existed as such, no one, who attends to the facts by which its rise and progress are marked, can entertain a doubt.84

The first projector of this plan appears to have been Potamo, a Platonist. The practice of philosophising eclectically was indeed known long before his time. It had been formerly adopted, as we have seen by several of the leaders of the Greek sects, particularly Plato, Zeno, and Aristotle; it had been not uncommon among the Alexandrian philosophers from the commencement of their schools; and it was followed, in the period of which we are now treating, by Plutarch, Pliny, Galen, and others. But Potamo appears to have been the first who attempted to institute a new sect upon this principle. Diogenes Laertius relates,85 "that not long before he wrote his Lives of the Philosophers, an Eclectic sect, ÈkλEKTIKÝ TIS aprσis, had been introduced by Potamo of Alexandria, who selected tenets from every former sect." He then proceeds to quote a few particulars of his system from his Eclectic institutes, respecting the principles of reasoning, and certain general topics of philosophical inquiry; from which nothing further can be learned, than that Potamo endeavoured to reconcile the precepts of Plato with those of other masters. As nothing remains concerning this philosopher besides the brief account just referred to in Laertius, an obscure passage in Suidas, and another, still more obscure, Porphyry," it is probable that his attempt to institute a school upon the Eclectic plan proved unsuccessful. The time when Potamo flourished is uncertain. Suidas places him under Augustus; but it is more probable, from the account of Laertius, that he began his undertaking about the close of the second century.

86

The complete constitution of the Eclectic sect must be Vid. Olearii Diss. de Sect. Eclect. ap. Stanley's Lives of Phil. et Mosheim. Diss. Hist. Eccl. p. 85. 85 Prooem. sub. fin.

*Suidas in Agris, t. i. p. 656. et in Potam. t. iii. p. 161. Vit. Plot. c. ix. p. 108, Bibl. Gr. Fabr. vol. iv. p. 108. Olear. Diss. de Ph. Eclec. § 2.

referred to Ammonius, surnamed, from the kind of life which he followed, Sacca. If Plotinus attended both upon his lectures and those of Potamo, as Porphyry intimates, Ammonius flourished about the beginning of the third century. He was born of Christian parents, and was early instructed in the catechetical schools established at Alexandria. Here, under the Christian preceptors, Athenagoras, Pantœnus, and Clemens Alexandrinus, by whom this school was successively conducted, and who themselves united Gentile philosophy with Christian doctrine, he acquired a strong propensity towards philosophical studies, and became exceedingly desirous of reconciling the different opinions which at that time subsisted among philosophers.

Porphyry relates, that Ammonius passed over to the legal establishment, that is, apostatised to the Pagan religion. Eusebius,90 and Jerom,91 on the contrary, assert, that Ammonius continued in the Christian faith to the end of his life. But it is probable that these Christian fathers refer to another Ammonius, who, in the third century, wrote a Harmony of the Gospels, or to some other person of this name: for they refer to the sacred books of Ammonius; whereas Ammonius Sacca, as his pupil Longinus attests, wrote nothing.92 It is not easy to account for the particulars related of this philosopher, but upon the supposition of his having renounced the Christian faith. It seems improbable, that a Christian would have accepted the chair in a Pagan school, or would have been followed by disciples, who waged perpetual war against Christianity. That he was well acquainted with the Christian doctrine, and endeavoured to incorporate it into his system, will, however, be readily admitted.

According to Hicrocles, Ammonius was induced to execute the plan of a distinct Eclectic school, by a desire of putting an end to those contentions which had so long distracted the philosophical world. "Animosities," says Hierocles,93 "having hitherto existed among the Plato88 Suidas in Ammon. t. i. p. 143. in Plot. t. iii. p. 133. Bayle. 60 Apud. Euseb. Hist. Ecc. 1. vi. c. 19. 90 L. c. p. 221.

91 De S. E. c. lv. p. 132. Bib. Eccl. Fabr.

Compare Fabric. Bib. Gr. v. iv. p. 160, 172. Balt. Defense de S. Peres, l. i. c. 3. Lardner's Credibility, Partii. c. 36.

De Fato ap. Phot, Cod. 214. 151.