The Monthly Magazine, or British Register, Vol. 4: July to December, 1840 (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from The Monthly Magazine, or British Register, Vol. 4: July to December, 1840

Aisha. Eclecticism is not the absence'of all system for it is the application of a system it supposes a system, it starts from a system. In fact, if we would collect and combine the truths scattered in dif ferent systems, we must first separate them from the errors with which they are mingled; and in order to do this, we must know how to ascertain and distin ish them; but to ascertain whether a given Opinion is true or se, we must know ourselves what is error and that is truth; we must therefore alread be in possession, or at least think that we are in possession of trn we must have a system in order to judge all systems. Eclecticism supposes a system already formed, which it continues to illustrate and enrich; it is not, therefore, the absence of all system.

I would now ask, if Eclecticism be a conception which belongs exclusively to myself? By no means. Ishould grestl distrust an idea which was entirely new in the world which no one ad ever thought of before. No, thank God, Eclecticism is not of yesterday. It was born the moment that a sound head and a feeling heart undertook to reconcile two passionate adversaries, by showing them that the Opi nions for which they combated were not irreconcilable in themselves, and that, with a few mutual sacrifices, the might be brought toge ther. Eclecticism was long ago in the 01a of Plato; it was the pro fessed enterprise, whether legitimate or not, of the school of Alexan dria. Among the modems, it was not merely professed by Leibnitz, ttwas constantly practised by him; and it is every where presented in the rich historical views of the new German phiimophy. The time has arrived at last to elevate it to the precision and the dignity of a prin ciple. This is whati have attempted to do. This word, long since fallen into deep oblivion, scarcely uttered by a single voice, has echoed from one end of Europe to the other, and the spirit of the nineteenth century has recognised itself in Eclecticism. They will know how to pursue their path together in spite of every obstacle.

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