302 GREEK PHILOSOPHY. 



Manner in It is scarcely necessary to point out the consummate art with which 

 Eclectic? 16 *ke Eclectic philosophy was adapted to thwart and perplex the progress 

 philosophy of revealed religion. By the help of allegory, of all devices the most 

 latedto 011 " accommodatingly flexible, it endeavoured to detect and trace the 

 impede features of hidden wisdom in those monstrous fictions of paganism, 

 im y> which afforded so much scope to the sarcastic severity of the early 

 advocates of Christianity. By adopting, too, the oriental theory of a 

 scale of Divine emanations, and by representing those inferior spirits 

 as mediators between the Supreme Deity and mankind, it justified and 

 enjoined polytheistic worship. Moreover, by attempting to mould into 

 accordance the chief tenets of various schools, it undertook to remove 

 the objection to which philosophy was repeatedly exposed by the dis- 

 putes of its most eminent professors on momentous questions. 'Again, 

 by the elevated tone of morality and mysticism which it assumed, a 

 strong effort was made to remove the stigma of inconsistency which 

 rested on the character of a philosopher. And while many of the 

 peculiarities of the new religion were adroitly introduced, in the dis- 

 guise of expanded and embellished Platonism, every art of falsehood 

 was taxed to maintain the pretensions of ineffable communications 

 with, and miraculous control over, the powers of the invisible 

 world. 1 



In brief, for our limits forbid us from entering into the obscurity of 

 of the Neo-Platonic subtilties, the doctrines of Plotirms may be thus 

 recapitulated. He considers the metaphysical generation of ideas as 

 the type of the generation of beings, or rather he represents both 

 generations as identical, for he admits no beings but spirits? Spirit 

 in its turn is identical with its own ideas, it has no object out of itself; 

 the intuition, immediate or reflex, is also the source of all knowledge, 

 and as particular notions are, according to metaphysical order, com- 

 prised in the most general notion, the First Principle comprises all 



serve as an instance of their manner of combining, or rather confounding, the 

 opinions of different sects. After having explained the Plotinian cosmology, Brucker 

 adds, " Luculenter ex hoc Plotinianse physologise systemate constare potest, quo 

 pacto setemitatem mundi Aristotelicam cum Platouis opinione, mundum a Deo 

 factum esse, Plotinus conciliaverit. Intelligi autem ex eo quoque potest, quomodo 

 Plotiniana secta eandem de rerum origine hypothesin Christianorum decretis, omnia 

 ex nihilo esse producta, assimilaveilt. Nam idem quoque dicere ausi sunt, sed sig- 

 nificatione diversa : nempe Deum omnia, ipsamque materiam non preexistentem et 

 sibi subjectam habuisse, sed ex suo sinu libero voluntatis suae actu, adeoque ex 

 nullo preexistente subjecto eduxisse. Quod exemplum esse potest, quam turpiter 

 horum hominum syncretismus decreta philosophorum, et ipsam veritatem coalestem 

 corruperit." Instit. Hist. Phil. p. 282. 



1 See Brucker, Instit. Hist. Phil. p. 275. 



2 Tiedemann, in his work on the Spirit of Speculative Philosophy, regards the 

 Plotinian system as gross Spinosism, because Plotinus considers all existing things 

 as parts of the Divinity, and the Divinity itself as the first matter, which, by diverse 

 transformations, reproduces itself under forms infinitely varied ; and as subtle Spi- 

 nosism, because he makes the Divinity the original subject of all the varied appear- 

 ances which present themselves on the theatre of experience, and wishes to deduce 

 all things from the sole notions of the understanding. 



