The Press.
London, England, 1856-11-08 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

Philo of Alexandria gave the first example of syncretism,
in trying to unite the Oriental philosophy with that of the
Greeks. The Gnostics tried the same thing with the doe•
trines of the Christian religion. About the beginning of
the seventeenth century, George Calixtus, a German theo•
logian, attempted to set down in one common creed the
belief of the Papists and the Protestants ; but succeeded
only in irritating both. To him and his partisans the name
Syncretist seems to have been first applied.—See Walch's
Introduction to Controversies of Lutheran Church. Similar
efforts were made to unite the metaphysics of Aristotle with
those of Descartes. And the attempts which have fre•
quently been made to reconcile the discoveries of geology
with the cosmogany of Moses deserve no name but that of
syncretism, in the sense of its being" a mixing together of
things w.Aich ought to be kept distinct." On the evils of
syncretism, see Sewell, (Christ. Morals. chap. 9), who
quotes as against it the text, Deut. xxii. 9, " Thou shall not
sow thy vineyard with divers seeds," ttc.
Esoteric and exoteric are in like manner
briefly and conclusively defined

ESOTERIC and EXOTERIC (ITIN9iy, within ; 14w, without).
—" The philosophy of the Pythagoreans, like that of the
other sects, was divided into the exoteric and the esoteric;
the open, taught to all; and the secret, taught to a select
number."—Warburton, Dir. Leg., book ii., note bb.
According to Origen, Aulus Genius, Porphyry, and Jam-
blichus, the distinction of esoteric and exoteric among the
Pythagoreans was applied to the disciples—according to
the degree of initiation to which they had attained, being
full• admitted into the society, or being merely postulants.
—Ritter, Mist. de Philosophic, tom. i., p. 298, of French
translation.
Plato is said to have had doctrines which he taught
publicly to all—and other doctrines, which he taught only
to a few, in secret. There is no allusion to such a dis-
tinction of doctrines in the writings of Plato. Aristotle
(Phys., lib. 4, c. 2) speaks of opinions of Plato which were
not written. But it does not follow that these were secret—
Ta Ta►; ).►yop.aror; ety,:a.poi; am...no-tr. They may have
been oral.
Aristotle himself frequently speaks of some of his
writings as e.roteric ; and others as acroamatic, or esoteric.
The former treat of the same subjects as the latter but in
a popular and elementary way ; while the esoteric are more
scientific in their form and matter.
Occasionally Dr. Fleming is either too hazy or
too subtle in his definitions. His explana-
tion of Pantheism, for example, is wanting in
distinctness and in illustrative instances :
Pantheism, strictly speaking, is the doctrine of the neces•
sary and eternal co-existence of the finite and the infinite—
of the absolute consubstantiality of God and nature—consi-
dered as two different but inseparable aspects of universal
existence ; and the confutation of it is to be found in the
consciousness which every one has of his personality and
responsibility, which pantheism destroys.
We can well believe Dr. Fleming when he
states that, in preparing this work, " the labour
has been greater than the result can indicate
"or measure." He has, however, certainly no
reason to be dissatisfied with the product of
his toil. It is of solid value, and we venture
to affirm will enjoy permanent reputation. In
fact, it is a book which every person of literary
taste will gladly add to his works of reference.
To the students of philosophy it will be an
invaluable aid, as it furnishes to some extent
a manual of the science, while contributing to
fix its language, and to furnish a lucid expla-
nation of its terms, with a learned and labo-
rious commentary on their origin and on their
various significations